The Leaders of the Pack

After the demise of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft in the late nineties, a void was left at the top level of German racing. In 2000, the formation of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters aimed to fill that void.

Between 1984 and 1996 the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (German Touring Car Championship), and the International Touring Car Championship provided top level racing at some of Germany’s best circuits, but between 1997 and 1999 the lack of such a series led to the reformation of the DTM in 2000, this time as the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.

Since it’s launch the DTM has featured 108 championship races which have provided the spectators with 20 different race winners, as well as 5 different series champions.

Here is the TouringCarTimes break down of the most successful drivers throughout the first decade of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters: the new DTM.

Without doubt, the most successful driver in the DTM is fan favourite Bernd Schneider. The German dominated the series in the early days, taking the championship title in both 2000 and 2001. He finished runner up in 2002, before reclaiming the trophy in 2003.

Always driving for Mercedes-Benz, Schneider accumulated 19 race wins in the DTM, claiming at least one victory in every season until his retirement at the end of 2008.

To date, no other driver has matched Schneider’s record of six victories in a season. This feat was, however, achieved during the 2000 season, where each round consisted of two races.

Despite a barren spell in terms of titles spanning 2004 and 2005, Schneider claimed his fourth title in 2006.

Frenchman Laurent Aiello was the man to break Schneider’s run, by claiming the title in 2002. In doing so, the former British Touring Car Champion also provided Audi with their first title in the new DTM.

Schneider’s barren spell also marked a barren spell for German drivers as a whole.

In both 2004 and 2005, the top three championship places were occupied by non-German drivers, proving that the DTM was clearly a sought after series for drivers of any nationality.

The victor in 2004 was Sweden’s Mattias Ekström, who in turn became the only driver from outside of Germany to claim the DTM title for a second time when he succeeded again in 2007.

Splitting Ekström’s double title haul, was Briton Gary Paffett. The Londoner claimed five victories in a season which saw him claim the title from Ekström in second place.

The final two seasons of the decade were about one man, Timo Scheider. Having never before recorded a race victory in the DTM, Scheider claimed his maiden win at Oschersleben in 2008, before going on to seal the title in the same year.

In 2009 he became the first person since Bernd Schneider to record back to-back titles.

The DTM has seen 20 different race winners, heralding from no fewer than nine different countries, but to date, the only non-European driver to record victories in the DTM is Canada’s Bruno Spengler.

The following chart provides a breakdown of how the race victories have been distributed between the 20 victorious drivers in the DTM.

In the battle of the nations, Germany is a clear and outright winner with 42 victories compared to 22 of the nearest rival, Great Britain.

The following chart shows how the various nations have fared in their victory quest in the DTM.

Germany also holds the advantage in terms of championship wins, with 6 compared to 2 for Sweden, with one apiece for both France and Great Britain.

Germany does, however, come out second best if all the other nations in the DTM are collectively pitted against them.

Non-German nations boast a victory tally of 66 from twelve different drivers, compared to the 42 for Germany from a pool of eight different drivers.

Nevertheless, even with a victory deficit of 24, the German drivers can still boast more championship titles, with six, compared to the collective four for other nations.

Note, that the statistics in this article intentionally omit the invitational race at Shanghai in 2004, which was won by Gary Paffett.