Elias Seppänen has won the ADAC GT Masters and the Road to DTM title for the second time in 2024: why didn’t he make the leap into the DTM despite receiving funding?
A year ago, the ADAC launched the Road to DTM program in the ADAC GT Masters to enable talented young drivers to make the leap into the DTM. Finnish Landgraf Mercedes driver Elias Seppänen, who also became ADAC GT Masters champion for the second time in a row, has won the race for the Road to DTM title. However, the 21-year-old will not be competing in the DTM field.
“We have been in close contact over the past few months and have supported him with many contacts. He is really a great driver who has benefited from the Road to DTM program. However, I don’t know what he can contribute himself. He will probably not be able to drive without a dowry.”
The winner of the Road to DTM classification will be awarded a prize money of 98,000 or 120,000 euros per car in the DTM by the ADAC, depending on when he wins. However, the budget for a DTM season is around 1.5 million euros per car. Is the funding too little for DTM teams to go for the Road-to-DTM winner?
No chance without a place in a manufacturer’s driver line-up?
“I wouldn’t say that, and ultimately, it’s not always just about money to get into the phalanx of DTM drivers,” replies the ADAC Head of Motorsport. What exactly does he mean by that?
“It’s actually the DTM’s goal not to have any pay drivers – or at least not so many,” explains Voss. ‘Elias first has to get into this works driver phalanx. To do that, he needs an automobile manufacturer who says: ’You’re so good, I want you on my team – whatever the conditions. And it seems he hasn’t found one, despite his talent.”
Seppänen is part of the Mercedes-AMG driver line-up in 2025, but only in the e-sports sector. The driver, who is managed by Bernd Schneider and, as is rumored, brings no money with him, has not been considered for the squad for real racing.
“It would really hurt me for the boy”
“It would really break my heart for the guy,” says Voss about the now apparent scenario that Seppänen will not find a job with any manufacturer in 2025. “He really deserves it. He has done a great job in the GT Masters.” But Voss promises that Seppänen is “certainly not out of the picture – neither with us nor with the manufacturers”.
Nevertheless, it is well known that the motorsport budgets at many manufacturers are currently shrinking, which also affects the number of drivers in the line-ups. Mercedes-AMG also had a reduction compared to last year.
AMG on Seppänen’s fate: “Overall package is necessary”
How do they explain the fact that Seppänen is not driving in the DTM in 2025 despite Road-to-DTM funding? “Elias is part of the family, he does an excellent job for us as an ambassador and also as a performance driver in the virtual realm, and he has proven with his two GT Masters victories that he can be competitive on this platform,” says Stefan Wendl, who heads the customer sports division at Mercedes-AMG.
“But to get one of the four coveted driver spots on our cars in the DTM, you need the whole package,” he clarifies. What does he mean by that? ‘In addition to the personal performance, experience and successes you need to bring with you, the whole package in terms of partners and sponsors has to fit.’
No wonder, because without a benefactor in the background, it is difficult in motorsport these days: hardly any company pays more than 400,000 euros per year for a main sponsor appearance on a DTM car. Therefore, it is almost impossible for the teams to put together a DTM package for an entire season without factory support and a dowry from at least one driver.
While his ex-GT Masters team-mate Tom Kalender made the leap at the age of 17, becoming the youngest DTM driver of all time at Landgraf, Seppänen’s program for 2025 is still awaited. He last competed in the Asian Le Mans Series in February and it is rumored that there would have been a cockpit opportunity in the ADAC GT Masters as well. But what would a third title in the series have got the man from Helsinki?
