Tuesday 3rd August 2010

Could Williams Be Heading to DTM with Opel?

German car maker could be returning to tin-tops with the help of Brit F1 team

---

Opel could be set to return to the German touring car championship (DTM) – and it could be doing so with the help of Williams.

Swiss motorsport mag, Motorsport Aktuell, has reported that Opel – which quit the DTM at the end of 2005 – is keen to return to the tin-top series but won’t make a decision for a couple of months.

Meanwhile, Williams chief exec Adam Parr has said that it has been in meetings with Opel, but won’t confirm anything. "Personally, I would love to do it,” he says. “I would be very interested."

If it returns, Opel would base its entry on the Insignia family car, which would go up against the Audi A4 and Mercedes C-class. BMW is also rumoured to be considering a return to the series – possibly in 2012 with an M3-based entry.

[nelly_h]

More manufacturers is generally good news in any series. I hope they do it and Williams are able to use it as a springboard into other commercial opportunities.

Do Williams currently have a finger in any pies other than F1?

[RobFerrari]

As someone who enjoys DTM I feel this can only be viewed as good news. Firstly on the front that it would be a new manufacturer, and if they were to join for 2012 DTM's season that year would be terrific with 4 manufacturers! And secondly the fact that Williams are getting involved then that should mean the Opel's are prepped and ready for top level competitive action within the series, something they lacked towards the end of their last stint in the series.

Great news if it happens, and if its combined with the BMW re-entry.

[cpufreak]

nelly_h said:

More manufacturers is generally good news in any series. I hope they do it and Williams are able to use it as a springboard into other commercial opportunities.

Do Williams currently have a finger in any pies other than F1?

Yes.
They built the flywheel system for Porsches GT3-R Hybrid

They're working with Jaguar Landrover with regard to KERS type systems

and some other things.

[Paul 8v]

As above, it's always nice to see a variety of cars in a series like that, hope Williams do well, it's been a long while since they were at the top.

[n3il123]

Williams are getting into hybrid power heavily Linky

[german tony]

RobFerrari said:

As someone who enjoys DTM I feel this can only be viewed as good news. Firstly on the front that it would be a new manufacturer, and if they were to join for 2012 DTM's season that year would be terrific with 4 manufacturers! And secondly the fact that Williams are getting involved then that should mean the Opel's are prepped and ready for top level competitive action within the series, something they lacked towards the end of their last stint in the series.

Great news if it happens, and if its combined with the BMW re-entry.

I think that Opel lacked the cash to be competitive at the end of their last stint in the DTM rather than talent.

That the talent has now gone elsewhere is redily apparent - why else get involved with Williams (or anybody else for that matter)?

[davepoth]

It's not especially uncommon for teams to be brought in to run racing campaigns. Look at Prodrive with Subaru for example.

[dlockhart]

Am I the only one which thinks that this is a good idea from the forumla one side - Williams need to strengthen their team especially the aero dept - since Adrian newey left they havent really been in with a strong shout at the title.

this scheme will allow them to shift some of their tallent sideways to dtm freeing up the structure of the f1 team and allowing a re-shaping to make them more competative.

[Marc W]

It's not the first time Williams will have run in a touring car series either, (assuming it goes ahead.) they ran the works Renault team in the BTCC in the late 90's.

[joz8968]

Marc W said:

It's not the first time Williams will have run in a touring car series either, (assuming it goes ahead.) they ran the works Renault team in the BTCC in the late 90's.

Indeed.

Did they also run the same liveried Clio Maxi works S1600 rally cars in c.1995? Or was that purely Renault's concern?

Edited by joz8968 on Tuesday 3rd August 15:49

[Marc W]

I'm pretty cerain it was just the touring cars. They started a separate company, Williams Touring car Engineering which ran from their old Didcot F1 base. Sadly once Renault pulled out they didn't look for/Find? an alternative and it was closed down. The only Clio they were involved in was the Clio Williams road car and as far as I know that was just the use of their name with no actual engineering input.

(They did develop the Metro 6R4 rally car for Austin Rover back in the 80's though.)

Edited by Marc W on Tuesday 3rd August 15:58

[joz8968]

Yeah, I thought that was the case, actually - cheers.

Marc W said:

...(They did develop the Metro 6R4 rally car for Austin Rover back in the 80's though.)

COMPUTERVISION

Edited by joz8968 on Tuesday 3rd August 16:42

[chevronb37]

Williams actually have a decent recent history in other formulae - their BMW V12 LMR was a LM24 winner as well. This would be fantastic news. In the ITC's final year, the Calibra was as quick as anything so Opel can succeed at this level. Fingers crossed, as 4 manufacturers would make an awesome spectacle in DTM.

[Aydogflipper]

I really do hope this happens.

[RobFerrari]

german tony said:

RobFerrari said:

As someone who enjoys DTM I feel this can only be viewed as good news. Firstly on the front that it would be a new manufacturer, and if they were to join for 2012 DTM's season that year would be terrific with 4 manufacturers! And secondly the fact that Williams are getting involved then that should mean the Opel's are prepped and ready for top level competitive action within the series, something they lacked towards the end of their last stint in the series.

Great news if it happens, and if its combined with the BMW re-entry.

I think that Opel lacked the cash to be competitive at the end of their last stint in the DTM rather than talent.

That the talent has now gone elsewhere is redily apparent - why else get involved with Williams (or anybody else for that matter)?

Very true Tony, well Williams isn't particularly short of talent but whether it translates into DTM only time will tell.

[vintageracer01]

This is great news to have more competitors in the DTM series.
Touring cars are so much more fun then F1 races.
There are so many more infights.

But an even better series is the Superstars V8 in Italy.
The V8-noise and the scream of the super chargers is just unbeatable.
In addition, they have less aerodynamic aids which makes the driving style even more spectacular.

Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMADX5HvcAA

Opel Insignias with supercharged V8s would be great there, too.

[german tony]

Williams had little or no experience with Le Mans yet they still managed to build a winning car for BMW.

[chevronb37]

vintageracer01 said:

This is great news to have more competitors in the DTM series.
Touring cars are so much more fun then F1 races.
There are so many more infights.

But an even better series is the Superstars V8 in Italy.
The V8-noise and the scream of the super chargers is just unbeatable.
In addition, they have less aerodynamic aids which makes the driving style even more spectacular.

Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMADX5HvcAA

Opel Insignias with supercharged V8s would be great there, too.

We saw Superstars at Magione last year - awesome spectacle which involved a fierce fighback from Morbidelli in the E92 M3 chasing down Pierluigi Martini in the 300C. I'll dig out some photos - it's the best touring car racing I've seen since mid-1990s BTCC.