Munich. The sixth BMW driver for the 2020 DTM season has been
confirmed as Jonathan Aberdein (RSA), who caught the eye in 2019
with some impressive performances for customer team WRT, will drive
a BMW M4 DTM in the future. As such, the six BMW works driver squad
for the coming DTM season is now complete. Marco Wittmann (GER),
Philipp Eng (AUT), Timo Glock (GER), Sheldon van der Linde (RSA),
and newcomer Lucas Auer (AUT) had already been confirmed previously.
Aberdein, who turns 22 on 14th February, contested all 18 races for
the WRT team in last season’s DTM. He impressed with a total of eight
top-ten results, including two fourth places, on his way to finishing
tenth in the Drivers’ Championship. Before switching to the DTM,
Aberdein raced in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship. His biggest
success came in 2017, when he won the title in the Formula 4 UAE series.
“I am delighted that we have been able to give our last free DTM
works seat to such a promising and extremely talented young racing
driver as Jonathan Aberdein,” said BMW Group Motorsport Director Jens
Marquardt. “He demonstrated his potential emphatically in last
season’s DTM, when he repeatedly challenged his fellow works drivers
and often beat them. I am confident that he will be a great addition
to our strong driver line-up. Generally speaking, with our two
newcomers Jonathan Aberdein and Lucas Auer joining our four
established drivers, we have assembled an outstanding team.”
“BMW has given me an incredible opportunity to become a BMW works
driver in 2020 and I’m very thankful for that”, said Aberdein. “I’m
ecstatic to be participating in another season of DTM, I will be
looking to build on my strong rookie year in 2019. I look forward to
taking on this challenge with BMW.”
The first races of the 2020 DTM season will take place on 25th and
26th April at Zolder, Belgium.