Mercedes Motorsport press release
Mercedes-Benz is expanding its successful young driver programme in the 2012 season with a junior team for the German Touring Car Masters (DTM).
Roberto Merhi (Spain, 20, Junge Sterne Mercedes AMG C-Coupé, Persson Motorsport), Christian Vietoris (Germany, 23, Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Coupé, HWA) and Robert Wickens (Canada, 22, stern Mercedes AMG C-Coupé, Mücke Motorsport) will be contesting the world’s most popular touring car series behind the wheel of a DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé as members of the Mercedes-Benz Junior Team.
Serving as role model and mentor to the Junior Team will be Michael Schumacher; the veteran MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula 1 driver will bring all his experience to bear from seven world championship titles and 91 Grand Prix victories.
Christian Vietoris enters his second DTM season in 2012. The 23-year-old finished his rookie season on four points, his best race result being fifth place in the race at Oschersleben. Roberto Merhi and Robert Wickens are both about to make their DTM debut this season.
Roberto Merhi has been a member of the Mercedes-Benz young drivers programme since 2008, winning the 2011 Formula 3 Euro Series title in a Dallara-Mercedes as well as the first-ever FIA Formula 3 International Trophy. As a reward for this success, he was invited to test drive the new DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé at the end of the 2011 season.
Robert Wickens won the 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 World Series championship, posting five victories along the way. Later that same year, he gained his first experience of Formula One in a series of test drives for Marussia Virgin Racing and Lotus Renault GP. In 2009, he finished second in the Formula 2 standings, repeating this result in the GP3 Series the following year.
Robert Wickens: “The DTM is a fantastic series – you’re competing against top-notch drivers. I’m proud that Mercedes-Benz are giving me the chance to show what I am capable of in this environment in the Junior Team. My main aim will be to finish every race and to deliver decent performances.”
Norbert Haug, Vice-President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: “We have a tradition of nurturing promising young drivers and talent-spotting the stars of tomorrow that goes back almost as far as the earliest Mercedes-built racing cars. In 2012, we are sending three highly gifted twenty-somethings into the fray as our DTM Junior Team. All three of them are keen to seize this wonderful opportunity. And they have excellent role models in Michael Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Karl Wendlinger, the successful trio who made up the Mercedes Junior Team in the late eighties and early nineties, and who have still not finished making motor racing history."
Mercedes-Benz is expanding its successful young driver programme in the 2012 season with a junior team for the German Touring Car Masters (DTM).
Roberto Merhi (Spain, 20, Junge Sterne Mercedes AMG C-Coupé, Persson Motorsport), Christian Vietoris (Germany, 23, Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Coupé, HWA) and Robert Wickens (Canada, 22, stern Mercedes AMG C-Coupé, Mücke Motorsport) will be contesting the world’s most popular touring car series behind the wheel of a DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé as members of the Mercedes-Benz Junior Team.
Serving as role model and mentor to the Junior Team will be Michael Schumacher; the veteran MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula 1 driver will bring all his experience to bear from seven world championship titles and 91 Grand Prix victories.
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| Christian Vietoris, Robert Wickens and Roberto Merhi. (Photo: Mercedes AMG) |
Christian Vietoris enters his second DTM season in 2012. The 23-year-old finished his rookie season on four points, his best race result being fifth place in the race at Oschersleben. Roberto Merhi and Robert Wickens are both about to make their DTM debut this season.
Roberto Merhi has been a member of the Mercedes-Benz young drivers programme since 2008, winning the 2011 Formula 3 Euro Series title in a Dallara-Mercedes as well as the first-ever FIA Formula 3 International Trophy. As a reward for this success, he was invited to test drive the new DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé at the end of the 2011 season.
Robert Wickens won the 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 World Series championship, posting five victories along the way. Later that same year, he gained his first experience of Formula One in a series of test drives for Marussia Virgin Racing and Lotus Renault GP. In 2009, he finished second in the Formula 2 standings, repeating this result in the GP3 Series the following year.
Robert Wickens: “The DTM is a fantastic series – you’re competing against top-notch drivers. I’m proud that Mercedes-Benz are giving me the chance to show what I am capable of in this environment in the Junior Team. My main aim will be to finish every race and to deliver decent performances.”
Norbert Haug, Vice-President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: “We have a tradition of nurturing promising young drivers and talent-spotting the stars of tomorrow that goes back almost as far as the earliest Mercedes-built racing cars. In 2012, we are sending three highly gifted twenty-somethings into the fray as our DTM Junior Team. All three of them are keen to seize this wonderful opportunity. And they have excellent role models in Michael Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Karl Wendlinger, the successful trio who made up the Mercedes Junior Team in the late eighties and early nineties, and who have still not finished making motor racing history."