The 22-year old Austrian joined the DTM series in 2019 with R-Motorsport and impressed as he pushed the Aston Martin Vantage DTM car to its limits race after race. This season, he’ll return to the 20-race, 10-event series that takes place across seven countries but this time in the championship-winning Audi and believes this could be his best season yet.
“Last year was incredible. I’ll always be proud of what we achieved as a team and I’m pleased with how I performed and improved as a driver. At the end of the season, I was desperate to come back and continue what I had started, and I couldn’t be doing it in a better car than the Audi RS 5 DTM or with a better team than WRT Team Audi Sport.”
Habsburg – who continues to be supported by AVL Racing, the global motorsport group of AVL, the world’s largest privately-owned company for development, simulation and testing technology of racing powertrains – will race alongside WRT team-mates Ed Jones and Fabio Scherer in the same car that Rene Rast raced to championship glory in 2019.
“The pressure will be on. There is nothing to hide behind. If I don’t get good results it will be down to me. But, that’s the kind of pressure I like. I have some fantastic Audi team-mates to benchmark myself against and I’m ready to rise to the challenge.”
The DTM is the world’s leading touring car championship and is home to some of the most respected and highly-regarded racers. WRT Team Audi Sport joined the series in 2019, following ten years of success in GT and touring car series and events, and team principal
Vincent Vosse was pleased to add Habsburg to this year’s line-up after spotting his talent at Macau 2017.
“It was in Macau in 2017 when I first noticed Ferdinand,” he said. “That day, he performed a superb race, fighting for victory until the last corner. I was impressed and we had contacts in the recent past. He is a talented, fast and bright driver and I like very much his approach to racing. I am sure he will be a valuable addition to the team, also because he has a full year of experience in the DTM. Together with Ed and Fabio, he forms a trio of young guns that match perfectly the ambitions of WRT Team Audi Sport.”
Habsburg will test the Audi RS 5 DTM at the official DTM test at Hockenheim on 16-19 March and will line up on the grid for the first round of the DTM series at Zolder on 25/26 April.
