Goetz Moves to Winward as Mercedes-AMG Sets Lineups

Reigning DTM champion Maximilian Goetz will aim to defend his title with a different team after being confirmed at Mercedes-AMG Team Winward for the 2022 season.

Mercedes-AMG on Tuesday announced its roster of seven drivers for the upcoming DTM campaign, with Goetz moving across from Haupt Racing Team to Winward Racing.

Luca Stolz and Arjun Maini will drive the Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos after Maini represented GetSpeed Performance last year and Stolz made a one-off appearance at the Nürburgring with Toksport WRT.

Goetz, who sealed the 2021 title in a dramatic and controversial Norisring finale, will be Lucas Auer’s teammate in the Winward camp in a move that Mercedes-AMG says was made “for strategic reasons”.

Auer finished fifth in last year’s standings driving for Winward in a lineup that also included fellow recent Mercedes-AMG factory driver signing Philip Ellis.

Ellis is not a member of the Mercedes-AMG DTM roster for the coming season. The same applies to Vincent Abril, who was previously at HRT and announced his departure from the brand in December, and Daniel Juncadella who raced for GruppeM Racing.

Maro Engel will make his DTM return in one of two GruppeM cars, while Mercedes-AMG Junior driver Mikael Grenier takes the other seat for his championship debut.

Engel is poised for his sixth DTM campaign and his first under the current GT3 regulations. The German driver’s last full season came in 2017 when he secured his maiden race win at Moscow Raceway.

The only single-car Mercedes-AMG operation this year comes from Muecke Motorsport, which is running Maximilian Buhk for a second consecutive term.

Gary Paffett was originally due to pilot the Muecke car in 2021 but the team opted to slot Buhk into the full-time ride after Paffett was unable to contest some of the rounds.

Buhk will continue to drive with the Space Drive steer-by-wire technology developed by Schaeffler Paravan.

Mercedes-AMG is aiming to defend the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles this year with a continued seven-car stable of cars run by customer teams.

GetSpeed Performance is no longer racing in the DTM, with the German outfit set to focus its GT3 programs on International GT Open and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS.

GruppeM Racing’s expansion to two cars keeps the Mercedes-AMG lineup at seven entries.

“With the manufacturers’ and drivers’ titles, we have celebrated a strong comeback in DTM last season,” commented Christoph Sagemueller, head of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport.

“All in all, we were very happy with the achievements of all the teams and drivers.

“In the upcoming season, we want to be successful again with the Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Programme in this series with its long tradition.

“For our customer sports segment and the Mercedes-AMG GT3, DTM again provides a large and well-known stage to expand our brand presence this year.

“The four teams with their total of seven Mercedes-AMG GT3 and their promising driver line-up will again be doing everything to represent the AMG brand in the best possible way.”