BMW signed Wittmann as the marque's 7th DTM driver, in an expansion to four teams with eight drivers and cars for the 2013 DTM season. He is the 2014 and 2016 DTM champion.
Early career
Having competed in karting since the age of six, notably claiming the 2004 German Junior Karting Championship, Wittmann made his first outing in car racing in 2007, driving for Josef Kaufmann Racing in the Formula BMW ADAC series. In a strong debut season, the German won two races and finished fifth in the standings. He remained with the team for the 2008 season in the newly-formed Formula BMW Europe, where he scored 11 podiums including one victory, but was beaten to the title by teammate Esteban Gutiérrez.[1] Going into 2009, Wittmann progressed into Formula 3, joining Mücke Motorsport in the Formula 3 Euro Series.[2] After a year of struggle, his lone points finishes would come at the final round in Hockenheim, which helped him to finish 16th in the standings.
Wittmann switched to Signature in 2010, remaining in the Euro Series.[3][4] Following a double podium at the opening round, Wittmann won the first race at Hockenheim and put himself into the title hunt.[5] Though this ended up being his only win of the year, he finished the campaign second overall with a total of ten podiums across 18 races.[6] He also finished third in the Masters of Formula 3 event and took home fourth on his Macau Grand Prix debut.[7] In 2013, the German embarked on his third year in the Euro Series, remaining with Signature.[8][9] Podiums came often that year, as Wittmann scored 13 in 27 races and took five wins, including victories at the Pau Grand Prix and two triumphs at the Norisring.[10][11] Despite his successes, Wittmann was comprehensively beaten by the dominant combination of Roberto Merhi and the Prema Powerteam, once again finishing second overall.[12] During the same year he also finished second at the Masters of F3 and scored the pole position for the Macau Grand Prix, though he would only manage to finish third after falling down to fifth due to the slipstream his rivals received following a safety car restart.[13][14]
DTM career (2012-2020,2023-Present)
Wittmann conducted multiple DTM tests for BMW at the end of 2011, after which he was signed to be the marque's official test driver for the 2012 season.[15][16] In addition, he would compete in a number of endurance events in GT3 machinery, most notably at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring where he finished ninth. 2013 would become Wittmann's maiden year in the DTM, as he would be piloting a BMW M3 DTM for Team MTEK.[17][18] He made a strong impression initially, getting points in his first two starts before finishing second at the Red Bull Ring.[19] He later scored a pole at Zandvoort and finished the season eighth in points, highest of all rookies.[20]
Entering the 2014 season with Team RMG, Wittmann would start out strongly with a win at Hockenheim.[21][22] An off in the rain at Oschersleben was followed by a dominant victory at the Hungaroring which put him back into the championship lead.[23][24] After two further points finishes, Wittmann would take control of the title hunt by winning the races in Spielberg and the Nürburgring, before taking the title at the third-to-last event with a sixth place.[25][26][27] He capped off the year with a podium at Zandvoort and fifth place in Hockenheim, finishing 50 points ahead of runner-up Mattias Ekström.
Wittmann returned to Team RMG in 2015, once again partnering Maxime Martin.[28] The season, now containing two-race weekends, did not start well, as Wittmann only scored three points finishes in the first six races. He would return to the top step at Zandvoort, defending well against fellow BMW driver António Félix da Costa, but was only able to follow this up with a podium in Moscow and one at Oschersleben, eventually ending up sixth in the standings.[29][30] During the summer of 2015 meanwhile, Wittmann was able to test the Toro Rosso STR10Formula One car at the Red Bull Ring, garnering praise from race engineer Phil Charles for his technical feedback, cleanness, and long-run rhythm.[31]
After a mixed first round of 2016, the RMG driver managed to win from pole in Spielberg, before going on a points-scoring streak that lasted for nine races.[32][33][34] Wittmann took two huge steps towards a second DTM title by winning race two in Moscow and race one at the Nürburgring, taking both wins in a controlling manner.[35][36] The title fight would become tighter following a disqualification for a technical infringement in Hungary however, whereafter Wittmann led the standings by just 14 points to Edoardo Mortara.[37] On Saturday in Hockenheim Wittmann was able to extend the gap by finishing second to Mortara's third, and despite the Italian's victory on Sunday the BMW driver reclaimed the title by finishing fourth.[38][39]
Wittmann began his 2017 season with a luckless start, exemplified by a car-related retirement at the Hungaroring with two laps remaining.[40] He would return towards stronger results in the latter half of the campaign, scoring four podiums in the final five events, though he also garnered attention for his repeated critique of Audi's drivers and their driving etiquette over the team radio.[41] Wittmann ended the year by winning at the season finale, which put him fifth in the championship.[42] In 2018, the German was comprehensively beaten in the standings by Gary Paffett, René Rast, and Paul di Resta, coming home fourth overall after winning in Hungary and defending well against Mortara to take the spoils at the Norisring.[43][44][45]
Having taken part in the Formula E test after the Marrakesh ePrix with BMW i Andretti Autosport at the start of 2019, Wittmann returned to contest a sixth DTM season as part of Team RMG.[46][47] It started off positively, as Wittmann triumphed from pole at the Hockenheim season opener and qualified first again at Zolder.[48][49] He then won again at Misano before going on a small streak during the middle of the year, winning race one at Assen, finishing second in race two despite starting from the back of the grid before winning at Brands Hatch, briefly putting himself into the title fight with René Rast and Nico Müller.[50][51][52] Unfortunately for the German, he was only able to score two podiums in the remaining three events while Rast and Müller pulled away with multiple victories; thus, Wittmann ended the season third in points.[53][54] In 2020, the final season of the DTM "Class 1" era, Wittmann experienced his worst year of his DTM tenure so far, only finishing on the rostrum three times and placing ninth in the standings.[55] In the face of a dominant Audi team, Wittmann stated that he was happy to begin new projects following the 2020 season.[56]
GT career (2021—)
When the DTM moved to adopt the GT3 ruleset ahead of the 2021 campaign, Wittmann went on the move as well, leaving RMG to join Walkenhorst Motorsport.[57] Despite being the team's only driver, Wittmann found himself fourth in the standings after the first half of the season, finishing every race inside the top eight and winning at Zolder.[58][59] He then started from pole at the Red Bull Ring but narrowly lost victory to Liam Lawson, though he bounced back by taking a victory at Assen and inheriting third place on Sunday after a technical issue for Daniel Juncadella.[60][61][62] However, two non-scores at Hockenheim virtually eliminated the German from the title fight and he ended the year fourth overall. Meanwhile, Wittmann would also score his maiden podium at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, finishing second for Rowe Racing alongside Martin Tomczyk, Sheldon van der Linde, and Connor De Phillippi.[63]
Once again driving for Walkenhorst, Wittmann suffered a less fruitful 2022 season.[64] A number of retirements in the first half of the year set him back, and he had only scored one podium going into the final round at Hockenheim. There, Wittmann finished third on Saturday before battling past René Rast on Sunday, eventually taking a dominating win to take himself up to eighth place in the standings.[65][66]
2023 saw Wittmann's most diverse schedule yet. Not only would he be racing in the DTM at Project 1, but he would partner Nick Yelloly and Philipp Eng at ROWE Racing in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.[67][68] In addition, he became BMW's third driver for the three endurance events of the IMSA SportsCar Championship, driving the BMW M Hybrid V8 in the new GTP class alongside Eng and Augusto Farfus.[69] The year bore little fruit in the DTM, as Wittmann and the soon-to-be-bankrupt team failed to score a podium and finished 13th in the drivers' championship.[70][71] In the GTWC Endurance Cup meanwhile, the ROWE trio won the season opener at Monza and came out on top at the prestigious 24 Hours of Spa.[72] They fell behind the AKKodis ASP Team following a weak end to the campaign, taking home the runner-up spot overall.[73] Finally, the three IMSA endurance events did not yield much success, as the #24 BMW scored a best result of sixth at Daytona.
