Winkelhock, who famously led the 2007 European Grand Prix for Spyker on his one and solely F1 begin, is poised to interchange Abt Sportsline driver Sophia Floersch on the Nurburgring on August 20-22.
Floersch is contesting the Le Mans 24 Hours with the Richard Mille LMP2 group on the identical weekend and is therefore unavailable to meet her traditional DTM duties with the factory-supported Abt group.
“I will not be competing on the Nürburgring however can be driving at Le Mans just because Le Mans is without doubt one of the greatest occasions and we had mentioned this internally initially of the 12 months,” stated Floersch, who will share an Oreca 07 with Tatiana Calderon and Beitske Visser within the French endurance basic.
“Fortuitously, Abt and Schaeffler have allowed me to do that.”
Winkelhock first joined the DTM in 2004 with the Persson Mercedes group on a one-year deal, earlier than switching to the Audi fold on his return to the class in 2007.
Though he by no means secured a podium throughout his 5 seasons within the DTM, he got here shut at various events, ending in fourth place 3 times throughout his profession.
#2 Audi Sport Crew Automobile Assortment Audi R8 LMS GT3: Markus Winkelhock
Picture by: Alexander Trienitz
After his DTM stint got here to an finish after 2010, he carved out a profitable profession in sportscar racing, successful the GT1 World Championship in 2011, the Intercontinental GT Problem title in 2017 and the Professional-Am crown of the Blancpain GT Dash Cup in 2018.
He’s additionally a three-time winner of the Nurburgring 24 Hours, having received the favored German enduro in 2012, ‘14 and ‘17.
Furthermore, the German was the primary driver to check a House Drive-equipped automobile in racing circumstances in a GTC spherical on the Nurburgring in 2019, and has since been concerned within the growth of the steer-by-wire system presently used on Floersch’s Audi R8 LMS.
Aside from Floersch, GetSpeed Mercedes driver Arjun Maini was additionally anticipated to skip the clashing Nurburgring DTM spherical, however his plans to return to Le Mans had been scuppered earlier this week attributable to journey restrictions affecting his teammate Narain Karthikeyan and different personnel on the Racing Crew India operation.