As part of the forthcoming Young Driver test at Spanish circuit Jerez de la Frontera between the 29th November and 2nd of December, Audi factory driver, Loïc Duval, will be getting behind the wheel of an RS5 DTM.
Duval, 34, has been with the Ingolstadt marque since 2012 in their Le Mans Prototype (LMP) programme. He won both the 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours and the FIA WEC Drivers’ championship with former DTM alumni, Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen.
Alongside the Frenchman will be three other drivers, who will get their first taste of DTM machinery. Dutch single-seater ace Nyck de Vries, along with South Africa’s Kelvin van der Linde and American sportscar driver, Dion von Moltke, will be put through their paces.
René Rast and Jamie Green have been assigned duties as reference drivers for the trio. Green will be working alongside two-time champion Mattias Ekström on the ongoing development of Audi’s 2017 DTM prototype.
As part of the test, BMW Motorsport will be fielding Britain’s Ricky Collard and Switzerland’s Louis Delétraz, who are part of the Munich brand’s Junior Driver program.
Mercedes-AMG DTM have called up FIA Formula 3 driver Maximilian Günther, who was runner-up in the 2016 drivers’ championship, along with Maro Engel, who raced in the championship between 2008 and 2011.
Engel has since concentrated on his sportcar career with the Stuttgart brand, and won the inaugural FIA GT World Cup at Macau in 2015, as well as winning the 2016 24 Hours of Nürburgring.