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Mercedes unveiled its six-strong driver roster for the 2023 DTM season at the end of February, headlined by Lucas Auer, Luca Stolz and Maro Engel. But fellow works driver Gotz was curiously absent from the announcement, despite having clinched the 2021 title on Mercedes’ return to the DTM.
The 37-year-old is instead expected to compete in other GT3 categories and endurance races in the Mercedes-AMG GT3, although his exact programme is yet to be revealed.
The decision to drop Gotz from the line-up follows a reduction in Mercedes’ budget for the DTM, and wider changes in how it provides factory support to the teams.
After a year in which it was represented by an impressive eight cars, Mercedes has downscaled its involvement to just six entries in 2023, spread equally across Winward, HRT and newcomer Landgraf.
Only one car in each team is directly supported by the factory, clubbing what it calls a ‘performance driver’ with a junior racer.
Winward previously had both Auer and Gotz in its three-car line-up in 2022, but it was left with s …