Only seven drivers have won more than one DTM title – who was able to defend their overall victory and who had to wait the longest for their second success?
Bernd Schneider, Mattias Ekström, and Rene Rast: In the more than 40-year history of the DTM, only a few drivers – seven to be precise – have won more than one title. And only three of them have ever managed to successfully defend their title.
There’s no question about it: with a total of five titles, Bernd Schneider remains the undisputed number one in the series and still deserves his reputation as “Mister DTM.” The Mercedes driver celebrated his first overall victory in 1995 and added four more successes (2000, 2001, 2003, and 2006) in the era of the “new” DTM. He even managed to defend his title once, when Schneider repeated his success from the previous year in 2001. This is a privilege that only two other DTM drivers can claim: Audi driver Timo Scheider triumphed in 2008 and 2009, while his brand colleague Rene Rast was crowned champion in 2019 and 2020.
DTM legend Klaus Ludwig holds a rare record
With a total of three overall victories, Rast shares second place in the all-time rankings with Klaus Ludwig, who also has three DTM titles to his name. Nevertheless, the Bonn native achieved something that no other driver in the long history of the DTM has ever achieved, and which even Rene Rast was unable to do in 2025: Ludwig won his titles with different brands.
Ludwig achieved his first DTM success in the 1988 season in a Ford Sierra Cosworth, while he triumphed with Mercedes in 1992 and 1994. All six other multiple champions were victorious with only one manufacturer.
