What the ITR has been working on for years under Gerhard Berger is now being implemented by the ADAC: From the coming season there will be a kind of promotion pyramid from the junior series to the main DTM series. “We will financially support the GT4 winners to drive GT Masters,” promises ADAC sports president Gerd Ennser. “And financially support those who are successful in the GT Masters to get into the DTM.”
But how does the new promotion pyramid, which the ADAC calls “Road to DTM”, work and how do you want to ensure that the drivers actually find a cockpit in 2025? “Support means six-figure amounts, which make it easier to find teams to continue playing the sport,” Ennser goes into detail.
The aim is not only to promote young talent, but also to ensure that the ADAC GT Masters, which will be ailing in 2023, will be more popular. “It’s important that the drivers know: You can start at the bottom in GT4 and aim to drive the DTM at the end,” says Ennser.
ADAC funding: What does “six-figure amount” mean?
However, the wording “six-figure amount” raises questions because it leaves room for anything from 100,000 to one million euros. As we hear in the paddock, the ADAC would cover the driver’s registration fee, fuel and tires for an entire season, which equates to around 200,000 euros.
The budget is around 1.4 million euros per season for one vehicle. If you consider that even a main sponsor in the DTM usually pays less than 500,000 euros per year, a driver with such a dowry would have a good argument, but the season would not yet be fully financed.
Junior ranking as the key to promotion
And how do you ensure that only young hopefuls benefit from the funding? In contrast to the DTM Trophy, which was launched by the former DTM umbrella organization ITR in 2020 and discontinued at the end of 2022, the ADAC GT Masters is not purely a junior series and is also aimed at older amateur drivers who bring money with them.
“We will link the promotion from the ADAC GT Masters to the DTM – and similarly GT4 Germany to the ADAC GT Masters – closely to the junior ranking of the two respective series,” explains an ADAC spokesman when asked by Motorsport-Total.com how you want to ensure that the funding specifically benefits young talent.
The distinction makes sense, because in 2023 only drivers who are younger than 25 years old and have FIA bronze or silver status were allowed to take part in the junior classification of the ADAC GT Masters. Professionals who are classified in the gold category can be excluded; platinum drivers will no longer be allowed to take part in the ADAC GT Masters in 2024 anyway.
Despite two drivers per car: only one driver should get on
In the junior classification, however, there could be two winners with the right pairing, because two drivers share the car in the ADAC GT Masters. This is the case this season, for example, because the Landgraf drivers Salman Owega and Elias Seppänen, who won the title, both also meet the junior criteria.
Would both pilots then benefit from the funding? “The funding for the DTM as well as the ADAC GT Masters is intended for one driver,” the ADAC spokesman clarifies. “That’s why we’re currently working on a mode for the Road to DTM in which the best driver will receive the funding at the end.”