Audi DTM wants Villeneuve and Montoya
Used to be there were known routes for washed-out F1 drivers to go. Couldn't make it in the big leagues, you could always go to Le Mans-style endurance sportscar racing or to touring cars, for example. But as the story we've been following has unfolded, the latest refugees from the top-level series have been spinning a different web, painting their unprecedented moves to NASCAR as a sideways one, not downwards. That doesn't mean they're without their options, though, as Audi has made clear.
Ingolstadt would be happy to welcome both Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve into their German touring car team. DTM has had its fair share of former F1 drivers, and after losing Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Audi is keen to fill his seat with other big names.
Touring cars are Europe's version of stock-car racing, and though maybe not as big as NASCAR is in the US, Germany's DTM series draws a big crowd and races on familiar road-course tracks. Montoya may be on a more solid track into NASCAR than Villeneuve, but neither of their futures in the series are secured, so a move to DTM for either is still far from out of the question.
Related posts:
- Update: Villeneuve's NASCAR deal
- Anyone got $18 million for Jacques?
- Villeneuve and Montoya close in on closed wheels
- Not coming for you, Ricky Bobby: NASCAR sans Villeneuve in 07
- Villeneuve headed for the Busch leagues
- Reports: Villeneuve signed NASCAR deal with Roush
- Mais, oui! NASCAR developing a French connection?
[Source: German Car Blog]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
epp_b 10:44PM (12/25/2006)
Take it Villeneuve! Please!! Save yourself from redneckness!
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dougjp 11:25PM (12/25/2006)
It would be a great move for Villeneuve. Where did Frentzen go? I missed that one.
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Ian 3:51PM (12/26/2006)
There is absolutely no way in which JPM would return in 2007 to Europe to race in DTM. He could have got another, even a McLaren drive in F1 and is being paid $5mm while he transitions with Gannasi into Nascar. Hence his earnings could spiral northwards if reasonably succesful in NA.
Villey, I dunno. If his route straight to Nascar doesn't work out in 2007 why not take the reputed $8mm from Audi?
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Galley 11:56AM (12/26/2006)
I couldn't have said it better myself, epp_b.
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Rocket Punch 1:44PM (12/26/2006)
Come on people, why would they want to leave NASCAR? In DTM they will probably be the heaviest and oldest driver. However in Nascar, they will be the youngest and lightest. See the advantages here?
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