DTM: Ocon gets ART Mercedes seat

GP3 champion and Renault Formula 1 reserve Esteban Ocon will continue his association with ART Grand Prix for his step up to the DTM with Mercedes.

Ocon won the GP3 title with the French squad last year, and has been placed with its DTM arm for his rookie season in the series, alongside veteran Gary Paffett.

ART boss Frederic Vasseur is also Renault F1's new racing director.

"I'm pleased to be back as part of the ART Grand Prix team," said Ocon, whose DTM deal was announced last week. I won the GP3 title with ART last year, so it's fantastic to be working with them again and hopefully continuing our successful adventure together."

Four of Mercedes' existing DTM drivers will also change teams this year.

Lucas Auer spent his rookie campaign with ART, but will move to Mucke Motorsport, alongside Christian Vietoris, who raced with HWA in 2015.

Mucke's 2015 drivers move in the opposite direction to Vietoris, with Daniel Juncadella and Maximilian Gotz moving to the factory squad, alongside incumbents Paul di Resta and Robert Wickens, while champion Pascal Wehrlein has moved to Formula 1 with Manor.

"We decided to rearrange the allocation of drivers for the upcoming season to provide new impetus," Mercedes DTM chief Ulrich Fritz said. "I'm convinced that a change of environment gives people extra motivation.

"In particular, the exchange of ideas and of new approaches to dealing with challenges is to everyone's benefit. We made sure that, in arranging the team, we combined DTM experience with youthful thirst for action.

"The best example of that is certainly the pairing of Gary with Esteban, but the same goes for the combinations of Paul and Max and of Christian and Lucas."

2016 DTM LINE-UP

AUDI
Team Abt: Mattias Ekstrom, Edoardo Mortara, Miguel Molina, Nico Muller
Team Phoenix: Mike Rockenfeller, Timo Scheider
Team Rosberg: Jamie Green, Adrien Tambay

BMW
Team RMG: Marco Wittmann, Timo Glock
Team MTEK: Bruno Spengler, Augusto Farfus
Team RBM: Tom Blomqvist, Maxime Martin
Team Schnitzer: Antonio Felix da Costa, Martin Tomczyk

MERCEDES
HWA: Paul di Resta, Robert Wickens, Daniel Juncadella, Maximilian Gotz
ART Grand Prix: Gary Paffett, Esteban Ocon
Mucke Motorsport: Christian Vietoris, Lucas Auer

Originally on Autosport.com