Five expectations for the 2016 DTM season

We are not far away from the start of the 2016 DTM season and it looks set to be one of the best seasons in the sport's history. So then here are five of my expectations ahead of the new DTM season.

Nico Mueller will win a race: 2015 was a disappointing year for Nico Mueller, despite being quick in practice and qualifying sessions, the Swiss was rarely able to match this come race day. Fifth place was the best result that Mueller achieved all year and he only managed to finish in the points six times across the course of the season. While a lot of Mueller's problems weren't his fault the season was still quite disappointing. There's no denying that Mueller is an incredible driver, he's won the Nurburgring 24 hours and finished second in the Spa 24 hours, he clearly has the pace to win and Team Abt, who are running his car, are an absolutely fantastic team, if Mueller can avoid the problems that held him back last year, there'll be no reason he can't win a race.

Adrien Tambay will have a much better year: 2015 couldn't of gone much worse for the Frenchman, just two finishes in the points saw Tambay finish lowest of the drivers that completed the full season. Again we know that Tambay has the ability to be competitive, he's finished on the podium before, but a lack of consistency has often held him back. Much like Nico Mueller, if Tambay can eliminate the problems he had last year and improve his consistency it's likely that he can have a much better year.

BMW Drivers to return to form: While BMW were able to win the manufacturers' championship last season their drivers were not as quick as people expected them to be. For the first time since BMW rejoined the DTM in 2012, there wasn't a single BMW in the top four of the drivers' standings in 2015. After Marco Wittmann dominated the championship in 2014, many people expected BMW to be able to continue this pace in to 2015. However this didn't happen and only three BMWs managed to finish in the top ten in the drivers' standings and only four races were won by BMW compared to ten for the Audi drivers and six for the Mercedes. BMW will want a much better season and they've already looked fairly good in the pre season tests, expect them to be back on form.

Mercedes will struggle with the new car: By contrast to BMW, we can expect that Mercedes will not have a very good year. A brand new car is unlikely to be competitive compared to the more developed BMWs and Audis and while the car has been reasonable in testing, it'll more than likely take a while to get fully up to speed and by that point it'll be too late for Mercedes to close the gap back to their rivals. It's not impossible that the car could get podiums or maybe even a win but it's very unlikely that they'll repeat the success of last year.

A new champion: There's a lot of former champions on the grid, seven to be precise, but there's also a lot of very competitive drivers that have a good chance of taking the championship title. Jamie Green came incredibly close last year, only missing out on the title by nineteen points despite finishing outside of the points in nine races, he's a very talented driver and if he can get a little more consistent he will be a very strong championship challenger. Edoardo Mortara is in a similar situation, a strong but inconsistent 2015 saw him finish fourth in the standings only twenty since behind the champion. Like Green, Mortara has a solid chance of becoming champion and throw Timo Glock and Maxime Martin into the mix and you have a very exciting season and a lot of potential for a new champion. Whatever happens, 2016 is going to be good.

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