Photo: DTM.de

Alesi to leave DTM next year

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Jean Alesi will not continue in the DTM next year. The former Formula One driver joined the German series in 2002 and has been driving for Mercedes since then. The reason for the Frenchman to leave is reported to be his frustration over being forced to drive a year old C-Class. Instead Alesi will return to F1.

“The DTM is a very special series,” Alesi told Autosprint magazine. “The cars are the same for everybody, let’s be clear, but then you get to practice and you can’t set the car up. You know how to make it more competitive, but the bosses tell you ‘No, the car is this and you can’t change it: you must simply drive it.’

“So, if once in a while we race in the wet, then I can really do what I’m capable of. I don’t want to be presumptuous, but let’s be honest, I’m not just anyone once I get inside the car. I’m like a son for Norbert Haug, and with my race engineer Hans Peter I have a great relationship, but I don’t get along with those who manage the technology. The truth? In my Persson team I race with a one-year-old Mercedes. I don’t think that’s a nice thing. I feel neglected.

“In fact, I’m completely certain I’m being neglected. Do you know how much I’ve tested in five years? Three days. Three days in five years. Mercedes goes testing, a lot, but with the other drivers. I must be content with just getting in the car – an old one, I repeat – only on race weekends and without being able to work on it, without being able to adapt it to my characteristics on a certain track.

“I want to avoid kicking up a stink and to make useless confusion, so I’ll calmly carry out my responsibilities, also because I don’t want to spit over the hand that has fed me for five years. From this point of view Mercedes has behaved very well, but it’s time to change. At the end of this year I’m out. I’m leaving the DTM.”

But Alesi won’t leave racing for good. He reports that he will be back next year in a top team, but not necessarily driving. Alesi told racingcournant.nl that his aim is to be teamboss for the new McLaren-supported Formula One team Direxiv.