Kelvin van der Linde has insisted he needs to affix a producer that has a Hypercar and GT3 programme so he can proceed within the DTM when his Abt contract is up, with a Lamborghini LMDh check a chance.
The DTM championship contender’s future has been the topic of a lot hypothesis in 2024, along with his two-year contract with Abt Sportsline expiring after this weekend’s remaining spherical at Hockenheim, the place he will likely be battling Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti for his maiden title.
Van der Linde has spent a lot of his skilled profession racing for Audi, however break up with the German marque in 2023 following its choice to terminate its under-development Hypercar programme.
Since then he has develop into ‘model impartial’, remaining with Abt Audi within the DTM whereas including a brand new programme within the World Endurance Championship’s LMGT3 class with ASP Lexus.
Nonetheless, he continues to harbour aspirations of racing in top-level prototype equipment, a purpose he first set out when Audi introduced plans to return to the WEC with an LMDh automotive. This might most actually require him to land a manufacturing facility cope with a producer.
When requested about his future, van der Linde informed Motorsport.com’s sister title Motorsport-Whole.com: “Nothing has been signed, and there are at present a number of gives.
“My want was all the time to go to a producer that has a Hypercar and a GT3 program as a result of I wish to proceed to be lively within the DTM.
“You may take into consideration which producers there are which have each packages: BMW, Cadillac, Lamborghini, and I do not assume any others.”
Abt is ending a long-term affiliation with Audi to affix forces with Lamborghini in 2025, which might open up new alternatives for van der Linde.
#63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63: Matteo Cairoli, Andrea Caldarelli, Romain Grosjean
Photograph by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Photographs
Motorsport.com has discovered that the 28-year-old might get a chance to pattern the Lamborghini SC63 LMDh in subsequent month’s Bahrain WEC rookie check, which might mark his first prototype look since a pair of outings in an LMP2 automotive within the 2021 Asian Le Mans Collection.
It’s unlikely this can end in him becoming a member of the staff in WEC subsequent 12 months, however it will at the least imply {that a} Hypercar programme could be on the desk for the long run.
This might additionally permit him to stay within the DTM with Abt, the staff he has been racing with because the sequence switched to GT3 guidelines in 2021.
Aside from Lamborghini, it’s understood that van der Linde has two extra choices. A kind of is BMW, whose manufacturing facility roster already consists of his youthful brother Sheldon.
Kelvin van der Linde shares a supervisor with three-time DTM champion Rene Rast, who was additionally a long-time manufacturing facility Audi driver previous to his transfer to BMW in 2023.
When requested concerning the BMW rumor, Rast grinned and mentioned: “Kelvin at BMW? No concept. We’ll have to speak to [our manager] Dennis [Rostek] about what he is as much as.”
Nonetheless, Motorsport.com understands that the probability of van der Linde shifting to BMW is low in the mean time.
Equally, whereas Cadillac could have an expanded two-car programme with Jota subsequent 12 months, the prospect of sister marque Corvette becoming a member of the DTM is implausible.
Toyota might even have been an choice as van der Linde races for Lexus within the LMGT3 division, however the Japanese marque has no vacant spots on its Hypercar line-up for 2025.
That leaves Lamborghini as his finest guess for a manufacturing facility programme in 2025.
