DTM: Paul Di Resta and Jake Dennis to Drive for Aston Martin

[Paul Jeffrey]

The new R-Motorsport Aston Martin team have signed Paul Di Resta and Jake Dennis for the 2019 DTM season.

Initially planning to enter a limited number of races in 2019, following the announcement of the deal to secure former champion Paul Di Resta and young up and coming driver Jake Dennis for this season, R-Motorsport have now confirmed they will be lining up on the grid for the season opening at Hockenheim this May, with a full season entry for four cars gearing up and expected to hit the track shortly.

“I am looking forward to the new DTM season and the challenge to compete with the Aston Martin Vantage DTM car for my new team R-Motorsport,” said di Resta.
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Di Resta moves from long time manufacturer Mercedes AMG, having raced with the three-pointed-star during all of his nine seasons in the German category. Having taken the championship in 2010, before switching to an unsuccessful spell in Formula One with Force India, the signing of such an experienced and talented driver as Di Resta is nothing short of a major coup for the team and Aston Martin, and marks a significant signal of intent from the small outfit for the season ahead.

“It will certainly be not easy to challenge our competition of experienced teams of big premium manufacturers with our comparatively small outfit. However my impression of our team’s professionalism and ambition is very positive and I’ll go into the preparation of the championship season with a good feeling.

“I can’t wait to drive the Aston Martin Vantage DTM car at the first test on the race track and contribute my part to the development of the new car.”
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Di Resta is set to be partnered by 23-year-old GT driver and sometime Red Bull tester Jake Dennis, the highly rated youngster making the switch to DTM for this season in a bid to carve out a professional motorsport career following sporadic outings in Blancpain GT for R-Motorsport, and the German ADAC GT Masters category.

“Jake is very talented,” added R-Motorsport’s boss Florian Kamelger. “He has already shown that previously in his GT3 races for R-Motorsport.

“He achieved consistently good results last year and is now a regular member of our team. I know what he can do, so I think he will quickly make his mark in the DTM.”
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With intentions to enter four cars for the year ahead, it will be interesting to see who R-Motorsport can bring to the ambitious operation before the season start - especially considering a number of talented DTM racers are potentially available following the withdrawal of Mercedes Benz for the 2019 season.

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[erba72]

That is good news !

 

[Steve Worrell]

Have there been any pics released of the new Aston DTM?

 

[T04STY]

Have there been any pics released of the new Aston DTM?

Not yet.

 

[T04STY]

We need Nicki in one of them as well!!!

 

[samprince053]

We need Nicki in one of them as well!!!

He said he wont be doing it, there are 2 cars for the pros and the other 2 are for pay drivers for £2m each

 

[Richard Dastardly]

We need Nicki in one of them as well!!!

I'm glad we can finally stop people asking Nicki if he's going to drive ( this year! )... this is not AMR, it's HWA with private backers & a license to look vaguely like an Aston ( so in other words, a Mercedes ). Nicki's a works driver, no works involvement, no race.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Jake Dennis can do. Been pretty speedy recently.

 

[T04STY]

Oh okay, sad to hear. Really looked forward to see him in DTM.

And yeah, I know they are no real works cars but I still saw him being able to perform, He did the same in ELMS and GT3. R-racing and the blue GT3 Aston weren't factory cars was well.

 

[MrLonguinha]

Back too Alfa Romeo and Opel...

 

[Richard Dastardly]

Oh okay, sad to hear. Really looked forward to see him in DTM.

And yeah, I know they are no real works cars but I still saw him being able to perform, He did the same in ELMS and GT3. R-racing and the blue GT3 Aston weren't factory cars was well.

Would have to win the championship first time out to equal his dad, I doubt that's on for a "new" team...

GT works drivers get rented out to customer teams, can see that for most manufacturers. R-MS is an AMR customer in Blancpain, so Nicki and Maxime ended up there ( as well as significant numbers of pit crew & engineers, I think ). AMR drivers are doing WEC, Blancpain, BritishGT, ADAC GT, Nurburgring 24hr, ( and maybe someone's doing VLN, I forget ) that's already a busy year! Same for Mercedes/Audi/Lambo works drivers ( less WEC and more IMSA ), and probably Porsche if people start buying their new car too.

What will be interesting is if Aston go back into LMP - that'd likely be designed by Red Bull, but if they run the LMP program too ( AMR's track record with prototypes is not stellar ) where are the drivers going to come from.

Incidentally with continually misleading statements like the thread title - implying it's a factory effort - it's no wonder people end up disappointed.

 

[Isaac Chavira]

I'd like to see Opel and Ford come back. I'd love to see a 2019 Mustang GT350 or call it DT350 on the grid.

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[CC]

I'd like to see Opel and Ford come back. I'd love to see a 2019 Mustang GT350 or call it DT350 on the grid.

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Oh man that is the best looking stang I ever saw jesus.

 

[ATSSHD]

Excited to see Jack here. Good luck this year!

 

[DrRob]

I think they did the sensible thing: Hire one old fox and a young gun and pair them. Paul knows the DTM and HWA and Jake evolved since joining R-Motorsport. He did some killer stints this Bathurst 12h.
Excited to see how this pans out but in the back of my head I still think that we will see an evolved Merc DTM with an Aston shell. And this is probably not far from the truth. Upside is that they will be competitive from the start.

 

[DrRob]

I'd like to see Opel and Ford come back. I'd love to see a 2019 Mustang GT350 or call it DT350 on the grid.

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Unfortunately the Fords were highly unsuccessful back then and felt more like a grid filler than competitor. But I agree that back then the field of cars and teams was more diverse, less professional, less streamlined and therefore more likeable.
That GT350 render looks absolutely fab. I like to see such a car in some motor race series, but not in DTM, where the cars are silhouette cars anyway. Not much room for marque-typical sights and sounds. And I always loathed 4 cylinder Mustangs to be honest. It HAS to have a V8. Period. Just this morning a 4 cylinder Mustang was storming past me with probably 160-180 kph on the Autobahn on full chat with a loud exhaust. At least it looked like a Mustang....

 

[Andrew C. Clegg]

Jake Dennis was racing karts at Shenington when I was the Photographer there. Always wondered how he was doing. His Father was quick as well.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

That Mustang looks a wee bit short wheelbase for a DTM or more likely GT500 car - well styled though.

 

[Jacco van der Zaag]

The car will be revealed next Wednesday, 20 February at the St.Gallen party.

Good to see Paul with his experience and Jake with his pace joining the team.

 

[RufGTI]

The two other cars seem to be given to Daniel Juncadella and Ferdinand Habsburg

 

[Mike_WasTaken]

Very excited to see the new DTM car and how both Jake and Paul perform this year in it.