Audi driver Mattias Ekstrom ends DTM career

Audi's most successful DTM campaigner to date is leaving this racing series. In 2018, Ekstrom will concentrate on the factory-backed commitment of his team, EKS, in the World Rallycross Championship. The new member of Audi's DTM driver squad is Dutchman Robin Frijns.

"This was one of the most difficult decisions I've ever had to make," says Ekstrom.

Mattias Ekstrom began his DTM career in 2001 at the age of 22 in the Audi customer team of ABT Sportsline. In 2004, he raced for the first time as a factory driver and instantly clinched his first DTM title.

In 2007, title number two followed and last season he just barely missed another overall victory. Always at his side: Audi Sport, ABT Sportsline and partner Red Bull in whose Hangar-7 at the Salzburg airport Ekstrom now announced his decision as well.

Alongside the DTM, Ekstrom has been competing in the World Rallycross Championship with his own team, EKS, since 2014. As early as in his third year, he secured the world championship title and, as in the DTM, finished last season as runner-up champion. Ekstrom describes his most recent years as a major dual effort, which the 39-year old no longer wants to shoulder.

Ekstrom leaves a gap in the DTM squad, which makes it possible for 26-year old Robin Frijns to be promoted to the ranks of an Audi factory driver. The Dutchman has been active in Audi Sport customer racing since 2015 and comes from single-seater racing. In a junior driver evaluation in Spain, he gathered initial experience at the wheel of an Audi DTM race car in 2013.