Air Kraft: DTM preview

Merc will be competing with the C-Class Coupe, Audi will bring the A5 and BMW will return to the DTM with the M3, in a season with a new set of rules designed to create more exciting and more affordable racing. It should be the perfect recipe for touring cars, in a series where there could be as many as six British drivers competing in a championship most people in the UK have never heard of.

The 2012 regs have changed to keep costs some 40 per cent lower. So DTM organisers standardised over 50 parts - stuff like the carbon chassis, the Hewland paddle-shift gearbox, the dampers and the steering rack - which means that all three manufacturers will effectively just pick these bits up off the shelf. It also means new-boy BMW shouldn't be too far behind championship stalwarts Audi and Merc, because it won't have to spend as long developing the complicated bits. Mind you, the engine is still unique, and that won't be an easy job.