Mattias Ekström and Jamie Green on duty for Audi in Monteblanco

Audi Sport is present this week at the Spanish track of Monteblanco for the three-day test that starts the 2016 ontrack pre-season. The Ingolstadt manufacturer will have Mattias Ekström and Jamie Green, their 2015 top drivers, behind the wheel.

Two units of the RS 5 DTM have been deployed to Spain, one for each driver. Unlike Mercedes AMG and BMW Motorsport, Audi has preferred to concentrate the driving duties. Dieter Gass, Head of DTM for Audi, said: “The test at Monteblanco offers the only opportunity to check the effectiveness of the ideas our engineers worked out in winter before we pass them onto our teams. To achieve optimum test results, we prefer to use only one driver per car.”

The development freeze means that there aren’t big changes on the Audi RS 5 DTM, with the technical work focussed on setup and fine tuning details.

The start of the on track pre-season testing is also the first opportunity for Jamie Green to be behind the wheel since his victory in the season finale in Hockenheim last October. Mattias Ekström was, however, present at the young driver tests in Jerez back in December.

Audi Sport will tackle the 2016 DTM season with the same line driver line up for the third year in succession, with just team swap between Nico Müller and Adrien Tambay.

All eight Audi Sport drivers will be present and on duty at the official ITR tests in Hockenheim from 4-8 of April.