Veteran Driver René Rast to Leave Audi Sport
Active with Audi since 2011, ace shoe Rast says he “still has a few goals in motorsport that I want to achieve.”
Audi Sport driver René Rast has announced his intentions to leave the team at the end of the 2022 DTM season. That means his final appearances for the Four Rings will be October 8th and 9th for the finale at Hockenheim. Rast has been with Audi Sport since 2011, and has been a fantastic performer for the squad, notably winning three DTM championship titles in four years. Here’s what he had to say about the move:
“This decision was anything but easy for me,” says René Rast. “Audi has been my life over the past few years. We’ve worked fantastically together and celebrated many great successes. I’ll never forget these moments, nor the many great people who made my victories and championship titles possible.”
Along with his three DTM championships, those great successes include winning the title during his rookie season, a 2014 ADAC GT Masters championship, and multiple victories at 24-hour endurance events like the Nürburgring (2014), Daytona (2014, 2016), and Spa (2012). In 2015, he also drove a Audi R18 e-tron quattro to a top ten finish at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. In response, Oliver Hoffmann, Board Member for Technical Development at Audi, said “René Rast will always remain a friend”
Of course, while Rast and Audi Sport had plenty of good years, the German driver was often victim of bad timing during his tenure, as he touched upon in his statement:
The Class 1 era in the DTM was the absolute highlight for me. The Audi RS 5 DTM, with its four-cylinder turbo engine, was a fantastic race car. Unfortunately, this era came to an end far too quickly. In both the Le Mans prototypes and Formula E, I also had the misfortune of having just joined the team when the programs ended. That was a real shame. I’m enjoying the DTM with GT3 race cars much more than I could ever have imagined. But I still have a few goals in motorsport that I want to achieve.
At this point, the smart money says that Rast will head back to Formula E, where he campaigned for Audi between 2019 and 2021 seasons, to drive for the new McLaren team. Until then, however, he’ll be focused on trying to win another DTM championship, for which he’s very much still in the running. Watch the video below to hear Rast describe some of his accomplishments in his own words, and keep your fingers crossed for him going into the last eight races!
Photos: Audi