Winward Racing is the latest team to commit to the 2021 DTM campaign, with the team fielding a pair of cars for Lucas Auer and Philip Ellis.
The team, a partnership between Texas-based Winward Racing and HTP Motorsport, will enter the series under the Mercedes-AMG Team Winward banner, with factory support from Mercedes-AMG.
The team recently achieved great success in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship where Ellis, Russell Ward, Indy Dontje and Maro Engel took the GTD class victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
For Auer, it marks a return to Mercedes machinery in the DTM. He spent four consecutive seasons racing for Mercedes in the series between 2015 and 2018, before returning with BMW after a year on the sidelines in 2020.
After taking an upset win at the Lausitzring, Auer is one of only a select few drivers to win races in the series with multiple manufacturers.
Ellis, meanwhile, will be making his DTM debut but knows his way around the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo following his Daytona win in January.
“Even though we naturally have a lot of experience with GT3 race cars, the DTM is new territory for us and an enormous challenge. We will have to bring all our energy and expertise to bear in order to be successful in this tradition-steeped racing series,” team principal Christian Hohenadel says.
