DTM » Schumacher extends DTM deal

Am I the only one who feels Ralf doesn't deserve a 2009 car? I always thought he achieved more than he should have and was lucky to stay in F1 as long as he did. This DTM deal seems to be more around his name than his skill and performance last year. Why not give one of the young guns a chance, someone who actually has the hunger.

Agreed. Drivers like Gary Paffett, Alex Margaritis, Daniel La Rosa all performed wonders with older cars over the last couple of years, so it is sad to see an available seat go to the 'name' rather than the 'talent'.

He might prove me wrong (he has won in F1 after all), but Schumacher doesn't deserve a top seat just yet IMHO...

It's fair enough if you ask me - he was generally slower than Paffett but quicker than Lauda and Stoddart last year and that's about where he should have been. He was the only rookie out of those four, and Paffett has a load of experience and has won the title.

The question is who will take the other 3 '09 cars? You'd think they'll retain Di Resta and Green, Paffett looks certain to be given a new car, so it's looking dodgy for Spengler, surely? Unless Di Resta switches to GP2 or something or, alternatively, Mercedes enter 5 new cars.

oh my god! a couple of weeks ago, he was going to retire. i wonder what changed his mind? he was a backmarker in a reasoably competitive car, and i dont expect him to be much better this year. merc seem to put a lot of emphasis on "names". is ralfy the token name, now that lauda has shown no skills?

We all know the best touring car series is Australian V8's... Or even NASCAR! (if you call them touring Cars)

Why they don't make the rules as such that there's no advantage to be gained from year to year with building expensive new cars?? Other catagories seem to manage this! They like having star names, ex F1 Drivers, young kids with loads of talent! Does this make it the best series in the world or the best paid!?!?

Phil, I'd be surprised if Paffett gets an '09 car - I think Spengler, Green and di Resta are pretty safe for this year, which is why I think it is a shame they seem to have chosen Schumacher over Paffett.

Maybe they will enter a 5th '09 car, although I'm not sure if that is in the rules.

Why did he change his mind? "Motorsport-Total.com estimates that Schumacher will earn approximately 3.5 million euro from Mercedes and other sponsorship deals in DTM 2009."

wow! i'd drive for a lot less than that!

Well if they've chosen Schumacher over Paffett that's a poor decision. But then again, if they've chosen to retain Spengler in a new car rather than dropping him and promoting Paffett that's a poor decision also. If you compare Spengler and Ralf to their teammates Ralf did better.

And to say that Ralf was in a reasonably competitive car is just plain wrong - at most tracks the old Audi was cosiderably faster than the old Merc, and the '08 cars were lightyears ahead of the '07 ones. Look at the distribution of points between the new cars and the old. There were 12 cars at each event that Ralf had no chance whatever of running with. How many points did Lauda and Stoddart get between them?

Phil, do you watch DTM?

I'm going to assume not. Why? Because of your comments on Bruno Spengler. Yes, he had a shocking year this year, but if you go and LOOK at the results most of his races had issues. Remember you ARE talking about Bruno Spengler who finished SECOND in the championship in his SECOND year of DTM and then went on to achieve the same thing, even through power steering problems and being awarded half points in the next year! Also, he finished 5th in the championship this year, out of 8 2008 cars. He's not as c*ap as you seem to think he is.

I think he's pretty safe to be honest.

I do however agree with your comment about having Ralf over Gary, if that is what happens!