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Comtoyou Plotting Expansion; DTM Under Consideration

Comtoyou Racing set to add additional championship to ongoing GTWC Europe program this year…

Photo: JEP/SRO

Reigning CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa winner Comtoyou Racing is plotting an expansion of its Aston Martin GT3 activities, with an entry into DTM amongst the options under consideration.

Team manager Francois Verbist told Sportscar365 that a debut in the German sprint series is on the table, which would take Aston Martin back to the championship for the first time since 2019.

The brand has been absent from DTM ever since it pulled the plug on its HWA-developed, R Motorsport-operated Class One program after a single season.

Aston Martin factory driver Nicki Thiim, who was part of Comtoyou’s winning lineup in the 24H Spa, raced an SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 in DTM last year, notably taking a race win at the Norisring.

For the second season with Aston Martin, Comtoyou is set to continue its effort in GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, remaining in Endurance Cup and Sprint Cup, albeit with a slightly downscaled effort.

“It’s clear that we will reduce the number of cars,” said Verbist.

“We will go from four to three in Endurance [and] from four to two in Sprint. Maybe there will be a third one in Sprint, but we want to be more focused in races.

“It doesn’t mean that we will do less, because it allows us to do an extra program on top of GT World Challenge, which we like to do.

“Of course, year two is challenging,  but for us it’s more about putting everything we learned in year one to make it better in year two.

“So the pressure is on making sure that everyone in the team and drivers understand that.”

When asked about where expansion efforts would be focused, Verbist noted that DTM is one of the key possibilities that is under evaluation, as it also allows the team to return to its ‘sprint racing DNA.’

Prior to making the step up to GT3 competition with Audi in 2023, the team spent several years competing in TCR racing with the Ingolstadt brand.

The team notably won the WTCR round at Macau with Frederic Vervisch, amongst other accolades.

“At the moment, we are looking at really two aspects, to be fair,” said Verbist.

“There is already teams busy in WEC and ELMS, so we’d like to kind of respect that as well.

“And it’s challenging, but I mean for us we have a contract ongoing and for the next three years at least for GT World Challenge because we believe it is the place to be, but we’re looking definitely at GT Open or DTM.

“It’s for sure a bit sponsorship and customer-related but we like to do something different as well for the team, because in the past in the sprint series we are really good in pitstops.

“We have the guys actually practicing a lot for the pitstop challenges and that’s kind of  challenge we have to also fulfil as a team.

“DTM is one of the championships where you can show the team is performing and you can compare to each other.

“Don’t forget that we are coming from WTCR, so the team has a sprint series in the DNA. I would say that’s a good compromise, but let’s see. In the end I don’t say it’s fully fixed.”

Verbist indicated that the team will have “important meetings” in the coming days to decide on exact shape of the program.

“There’s still discussion ongoing about it,” he said.

“Now it’s all about making it work until March. Let’s call it like that. But I’m quite confident. I wish to go there with two cars.”

Davey Euwema is Sportscar365's European Editor. Based in The Netherlands, Euwema covers the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, among other series.

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