In the 2005 DTM season, Mika Hakkinen , two-time world champion in the F1 class, made his debut as a member of the factory team, Christian Albers, made his debut as part of the HWA (Mercedes). Also in the factory team Mercedes made his debut Formula 3 Euroseries champion Jamie Green . Machines of the previous specifications - 2000-2003. - were banned, and at the start there were only cars of the last 2 years - 2004 and 2005. Opel reduced its presence from 6 to 4 cars, and Audi - increased to 8, like Mercedes, while Joest Racing received 4 old Abt cars, along with Christian Abt, who was replaced in the main team by Alan McNish , a former Toyota pilot in F1 and current Audi driver in long races. In addition, Joest Racing crossed Frank Stippler and Pierre Kaffer, Dindo Capello retained his place, and Emanuele Pirro again went to ALMS . At the end of the previous season, Opel announced his departure, and therefore the new cars were only a modification of the old ones. They expected the debut of MG Rover, for which Zytek even built a car, but Rover's bankruptcy left no chance. In order to increase the competitiveness of old cars, a system of weighted handicaps was introduced, as in the old DTM - all the cars of the brand that took the highest position received additional ballast.
It was supposed that the 11-stage calendar would also include city races in Moscow and Avignon, but they were replaced by races in Brno and Lauzitsring, after it became clear that the organizers could not prepare the route.
The season itself was saturated with a tense struggle between two brands and their representatives - Gary Puffett , who played for Mercedes, and the current champion Matthias Extrem , who played for Audi. They walked up to the penultimate stage in Istanbul, where Audi experienced serious technical problems in the rain and Puffet broke away from his pursuer by 9 points. At the last stage in Hockenheim, Extrem could not do anything, and did not even make the last mandatory pit stop, for which he was disqualified by the results of the race.
In 2005, for the first time, destructive tendencies appeared that developed in the next two years and caused serious damage to the prestige of the series. Seeking to become the champion by all means, the racer in their car brand, Norbert Haug and Wolfgang Ulrich did not disdain team tactics, ordering pilots in old cars to restrain the contender of the rivals and skipping his own.
