The decision has been made: The Grasser team will line up again with two Lamborghini Temerario GT3 cars at the upcoming DTM weekend at the Nurburgring, after logistical problems meant they were unable to get Maximilian Paul’s crashed car ready in time for Oschersleben.
“We will be racing again with two cars at the Nurburgring,” confirms team principal Gottfried Grasser. “We bought a new chassis – that is the solution now. According to Lamborghini, the other car is not repairable.”
This brings the DTM grid back up to 21 cars. But who will sit in the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 with number 19 and thus be the teammate of Oschersleben winner Mirko Bortolotti? According to team principal Grasser, that has not yet been finally decided.
Which Lamborghini factory driver will get the nod?
“It will definitely be a Lamborghini factory driver,” says the Austrian. “Nothing more has been decided yet.” According to information from Motorsport-Total.com, the decision will be made by Lamborghini itself – and the number of candidates is limited anyway due to the manageable factory roster of the Italian Audi subsidiary.
Who are we talking about? Frenchman Franck Perera has DTM experience – and he also knows the Grasser team very well in addition to the Temerario GT3, as he also competes for the squad in the GT World Challenge Europe (GTWCE) endurance series.
The 42-year-old was already a DTM driver with SSR Performance in 2023 and celebrated his only victory at Oschersleben at the time. In 2024, after Christian Engelhart was sidelined during the season due to his knee injury, he returned as a replacement and celebrated another podium finish with second place at the Norisring.
Perera, however, is not exactly considered Mirko Bortolotti’s best friend, having already been his teammate at SSR.
Comeback chance for Engelhart or Niederhauser?
Engelhart, by the way, can also hope for the cockpit – and thus for a DTM comeback. The 39-year-old Bavarian celebrated a DTM victory in 2023 in the Toksport WRT Porsche and was on the podium later that same season in the Grasser Lamborghini at the season finale in Hockenheim.
However, Engelhart injured his knee during the winter break and vacated his Grasser cockpit during the 2024 season because he had to undergo surgery.
One promising candidate is Patric Niederhauser: The Swiss driver contested a DTM season in an Audi in 2023, although his Attempto team was not competitive. Just last weekend, the 34-year-old showed his class in the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 fielded by the Rutronik team in the GTWC Sprint Series at Magny-Cours, taking a strong third place together with teammate Luca Engstler.
And then there is Briton Sandy Mitchell, who last weekend, together with Andrea Caldarelli and the Pfaff team in the IMSA Sportscar Championship, scored the Lamborghini Temerario GT3’s first victory in the USA at Elkhart Lake. Apart from test drives with SSR, however, he does not know the DTM at all.
Beyond the Nurburgring weekend, it currently looks as though Grasser will in any case also need a substitute for the Sachsenring in September. Whether Paul may be fit again for the season finale in Hockenheim in October and make a comeback is currently uncertain.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Team
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
