How reigning DTM champion Mirko Bortolotti’s Abt switch is going

They were fierce title rivals last year, but Mirko Bortolotti has brought the coveted number one to the Abt DTM team for 2025, following title success last year.

Switching from longtime partner Audi to Lamborghini cars this season, Abt has been impressed by its new driver’s input so far.

“When he was with us for the first time, it was thoroughly positive for all of us – he spent an incredible amount of time,” sporting director Martin Tomczyk, himself a DTM champion in 2011, told Autosport sister publication Motorsport-Total. “What he does, he does 100%. He is incredibly demanding with himself. It starts with the preparation for a test, during the test and also in the follow-up. He really is extremely conscientious.”

Furthermore, Bortolotti doesn’t need to be pushed, “because he has extremely high standards himself”, Tomczyk added.

“It starts with the ideas he comes up with during the test,” the German explained. “He knows exactly how to assess the various test points.” The incoming driver is “exceptional in his follow-up and preparation with regard to feedback, and also in his preparation with the engineers”.

According to Tomczyk, that’s why the Italian racer has been a title contender ever since he joined the DTM full-time in 2022.

“I think he’s been one of the drivers who have had the lowest error rate in the DTM since I’ve known him,” Tomczyk claimed. “I can’t confirm it with figures, but it just shows that he really works very meticulously.”

This claim is partly corroborated by Bortolotti’s qualifying record, with 10 top-three results out of 16 in 2024.

Bortolotti himself “very impressed” by Abt

Meanwhile, how is Bortolotti’s Abt debut going from the 35-year-old’s own perspective, after two years at SSR Performance?

The Vienna-based driver tells us it he is “completely positive” after “good first weeks working together”, having much more experience of the Lamborghini than his team, which did run the Huracan on the Nordschleife for two years.

“Right from the start, the guys gave me the feeling that they really are veterans who know the car inside out. So I’m very impressed with that,” Bortolotti said.

“I try to make my experience available to the team as much as I can. The team really responds very positively,” he added, although he stops short of viewing himself as the squad’s leader. “Abt has a lot of experience as a team, and you don’t have to bring a lot to the table. But, of course, there are a few things about the car that I can take with me. And so we help each other and push each other forward.”

What is the biggest difference from his former team, SSR Performance? “You can’t really say after one day of testing,” Bortolotti nuanced. What is definitely new, however, is that the former Red Bull junior is now back in that family, with the Austrian energy drink company sponsoring the Abt outfit.