Starting this season, the DTM field will have a new car in front of it. The German series has entered into a partnership with Seat's sports brand Cupra and will in future slow down the field with a 450 hp Formentor VZ5 safety car. A DTM veteran provides extra power.
Next year, the safety car concept in Formula 1 will celebrate its 30th birthday. With the start of the 1993 season, the premier class officially introduced the safety element after initial tests and thus became a model for many other series in Europe and around the world. In the recent past, what is probably the best-known service vehicle in racing has also become a popular marketing platform. Among other things, Mercedes and Aston Martin share the service as car outfitters in F1.
With Seat's sports offshoot Cupra, the DTM has now presented its new partner shortly before the start of the new season. In addition to two safety cars, the brand, which was founded in 2018, has two race control cars, a medical car and a leading car. The Formentor VZ5 with 450 hp five-cylinder turbo engine is used, of which there is a limited number of 7000 vehicles throughout Europe. The championship, led by Gerhard Berger, deliberately chose a brand-neutral partnership.
Next step for the motorsport brand
Under the hood, however, the six Formentor VZ5s still have a DTM connection to offer. The Allgäu tuner Abt Sportsline GmbH, which is represented with three Audi R8 in the series, also lent a hand: In the sharpened form , the sports SUV has 331 kW (450 hp) and could with a top speed of 270 km/h annoy the GT3 racers, at least at the top. The maximum torque has also increased by 50 Nm to 530 Nm. For 100 km /h, the over-Cupra needs 3.9 seconds. More about the Abt-Formentor can be found in the picture gallery!
The Cupra sub-brand is itself active in motorsport parallel to series production and competes in TCR touring car series through customers. Two electric championships are also contested with the FIA ETCR and the Extreme E off-road series. "In addition to securing on the track, there will be regular activation of the official cars for our fans and spectators, on site and also via our digital channels," says Benedikt Böhme, Managing Director of the DTM organization ITR, looking forward to the partnership.
The six Cupra Formentor VZ5 will be in action at all 16 DTM races and all 14 DTM Trophy races. The second season of the GT3 era starts from April 29th to May 1st in Portimão in Portugal.
