By Dominick Rodrigues
Italy : Mercedes-AMG driver Arjun Maini is confident of giving a ‘surprise’ debut performance in the season ahead of the opening round of the revamped 2021 DTM series, scheduled to take place at the Monza race circuit in Italy between June 18-20.
The 23-year-old Bangalore-based racer, who is supported by JK Racing, recorded a series of firsts for Indians racing abroad, and — with his foray into DTM — is set to become the first Indian to compete fulltime in the series.
His debut DTM season with Mercedes-AMG backed GetSpeed racing team will mark a new challenge in Maini’s career, after his previous expeditions in the FIA Formula 2 championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 category.
Expressing delight at being back to racing full-time after the pandemic lockdowns, Maini said he had been wanting to race in DTM since 2015,andwas feeling ‘surreal’ about making his debut in the DTM series, while still in Formula 3.
Highlighting the importance of tire management at Monza, he said “I personally love Monza as a circuit as it’s always great for racing. However, the higher temperatures this weekend will result in tire degradation and since it won’t be a flat-out sprint race, tire management will be more important.”
Thanking his partners for their support in helping him tick another milestone off his bucket list, Maini highlighted longtime supporter J.K.Tyre since his Formula 4 days and also welcomed his latest partner Mumbai Falcons, who supported his vision of becoming the +first Indian+ to stand on a DTM podium.”
Thanking lso Mercedes-AMG and GetSpeed for giving him the opportunity to race one of these “beasts,” Maini described the Mercedes AMG GT3 race car as ‘enthralling’ to drive, and was looking forward to driving ‘once the lights turn green on race day.’
DTM is Germany’s premier racing series, with pre-covid track attendance figures topping over 60 thousand on race day. An added dynamic to look out for this year is the championship’s technical overhaul, which now sees the introduction of the powerful and exciting GT3 class of racing cars.
This means that while the series will continue featuring the German triumvirate of Mercedes, BMW, and Audi, this year’s championship will now also welcome Italian stallions Ferrari and Lamborghini along with British stalwarts McLaren.
