DTM: R-Motorsport Aston Martin presents full 2019 driver line-up.
Text: Rick Kiewiet
Images: Rick Kiewiet and R-Motorsport
It's been quiet for quite a while around the new R-Motorsport/HWA/Aston Martin DTM entry for 2019, but a lot became clear in the past couple of days. Over the week more and more drivers were announced and yesterday a first impression of the brand new Aston Martin Vantage DTM was presented in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Early this week, Paul Di Resta was the first driver to be confirmed by the team. The 32 year-old Scot, active in DTM since 2007, is set to lead the driver line-up as the most experienced and well-known driver of the team. The ex-F1 driver and former DTM-champion (2010) starts his 10th DTM season in 2019, having driven for Mercedes in his other 9 seasons.
Second driver announced and making his debut in DTM in 2019, was fellow Brit Jake Dennis. The 33 year-old GT-veteran already has a history with R-Motorsport and Aston Martin, competing in the Blancpain GT series and ADAC GT in previous years.
Next up is Austrian youngster Ferdinand Habsburg. The 21 year-old (far) descendant of Austrian emperor Charles I (official full-name is Ferdinand Zvonimir Maria Balthus Keith Michael Otto Antal Bahnam Leonhard Habsburg-Lothringen) competed in the F3 European Championship in 2017 and 2018 and made his endurance debut early 2019 in the Rolex 24. Habsburg managed to impress the Aston Martin crew during the Rookie-tests at the end of 2018, where he drove the 2018 Mercedes C63 DTM.
Last driver to complete the 4-man line-up is all-rounder and DTM-regular Daniel Juncadella. The Spaniard (1991) makes the move from the departing Mercedes team. Besides DTM Juncadella also gathered victories in British F3, F3 Euroseries, Blancpain GT and won the annual F3 race in Macau and competed in British GT, the Intercontinental GT Challenge, the FIA GT World Cup, the 24hrs of Spa and the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
At last, R-Motorsport also gave a first glimpse of the new car by presenting a kind of silhouette of how the car will look. Not much can be said from the impression below, but it is clear that we'll probably will see the distinctive Aston Martin front-end we're so familiar with. Take a look and let us know what you think!
