Martin Tomczyk: “The DTM has become too political in recent times”

The seventh round of the 2016 DTM season awoke with the news of the retirement of 2011 champion Martin Tomczyk from the series at the end of the year.

The German driver from Team Schnitzer started his DTM career at Audi Sport back in 2001, becoming champion with the Ingolstadt manufacturer in 2011, just before making a switch to then newcomers BMW Motorsport.

The decision came as a surprise to many, especially as Tomczyk is one of the main names in the DTM and his father, Hermann Tomczyk, is the Honorary President of the DMSB, the German ASN. “It was quite a thinking process”, Tomczyk said to TouringCarTimes. “16 years is quite a long time and, I’ve seen the development of the DTM over this period. When you are a racing driver you want to achieve something by performance, but I saw the DTM in the end as very technical and political.”

The Team Schnitzer driver has seven victories and eight pole positions to his name, but his performance took a slump since switching to BMW, only visiting the podium twice in the last five seasons. For Tomczyk, the time had come to make the call: “I saw there were things, sporting wise, I couldn’t fulfil, so it’s my time to say goodbye to the DTM.”

Going back in time, The BMW driver regards winning the title as the highlight of his DTM career: “The title was extraordinary and you always remember the season very well. But also the first podium and the first victory are important moments. Moving to BMW was special because we built the structure together, so there were a lot of good moments. Overall, it has been a great time, but it’s time for me to go now.”

Tomczyk will remain committed to the BMW Group: “After my decision, I sat with Jens Marquardt and our work for the future goes in the direction of international motorsports, but we will release the details when we are ready.”

The German driver refused to be drawn into speculation about the possibility of working with BMW on a LMP1 programme.