Rast to call time

After 12 tremendously successful years with Audi Sport, German driver René Rast has announced he will leave the four rings at the end of the 2022 DTM (German Touring Car Championship).

Rast’s time with the brand has seen him stamp his name on the DTM as well as successfully competing in Audi race cars in disciplines from Formula E to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Rast started with Audi in 2011 driving the R8 LMS GT3, quickly enjoying victory with wins in the 24-hour race at Spa and Daytona 24-hour race in 2012. In 2014 he scored a championship title in the ADAC GT Masters  and in 2015 he was also part of the Audi driver line-up at the Le Mans 24 Hours. But it was in 2016 that the German really struck gold when a phone call from Audi Sport last at night would change his fortunes forever.

The late night call on July 16, 2016 was to see if he could fill in for the injured Audi driver Adrien Tambay in Sunday’s DTM race. This would require him to drop everything and head straight to Zandvoort as the emergency replacement driver. Come race day on Sunday, Rast not only filled in for Tambay, but produced the fastest lap against the field of top-shelf DTM campaigners straight off the bat.

Such was his performance that when Mattias Ekström was absent from the season finale at Hockenheim a few months later, Rast was given his next chance in the DTM. 

He promptly scored his first points and made such a strong impression in his first ‘proper’ DTM outing that he was given a permanent seat with Audi for the 2017 season.

This was the start of a truly dominant performance that saw win the DTM championship in his very first season – a feat only achieved by six other drivers in the history of the series. Rast would add another two DTM championship titles in the coming years and only narrowly miss a third in 2018 where just four points separated first and second place.

Over the course of four years René won 24 races with the Audi RS 5 DTM and clinched 20 pole positions. He set the fastest lap on 14 occasions and collected 1,113 points – all in just 77 starts. 

At the end of Audi’s factory DTM commitment, Rast switched from the RS 5 DTM to an Audi e-tron race car, driving for the Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler team in Formula E. Here too he was quick to enjoy podium finishes in the all-electric series, before returning to the new DTM format to compete in the R8 LMS GT3 evo II.

At the halfway point of the 2022 DTM season, Rast sits in third position in the driver standings, and in true Rast style, is focused on doing all in his power to finish this, his last season with Audi, with another championship title to his name.

“What René Rast has achieved for Audi Sport, particularly in the DTM, is unique,” says Oliver Hoffmann, Board Member for Technical Development at Audi. 

“René Rast has a firm place in the history of Audi Sport and he will always remain a friend of the Audi family. We wish him only the best for his future.” 

For Rast the decision has not been an easy one, but as in racing, life is about seizing opportunities as they arise.

“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,” says Rast of his time with Audi. 

“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. That’s why I have to say goodbye to the Audi fans with a heavy heart after the end of the 2022 season.”