D'Aste will hope to be at the front of the independent contenders with Wiechers again this year - Photo Credit: fiawtcc.com
Stefano D'Aste will race for Wiechers-Sport in the World Touring Car Championship this season. The Italian driver has been with the German team intermittently since 2007.
That year he claimed the Yokohama Trophy independents' title, but made a return to the rival Proteam squad for 2008 that he had raced for during the two years previous. He would rejoin Wiechers for 2009, before heading back to Proteam again in 2010.
Left without a WTCC seat at the start of 2011, D'Aste raced in the GT4 European Cup with a Lotus, a brand for whom he is a dealer in Italy. The opportunity then arose for him to race for Wiechers, leading a race outright on his season debut in Porto. After skipping the Donington round due to GT4 commitments, he then raced in Spain and Germany, before making way again for his Donington replacement Colin Turkington for the Suzuka and Shanghai rounds.
“I’m very happy to be back in WTCC and to Wiechers-Sport,” said D'Aste. “I missed the championship a lot as racing with Lotus in the Gt4 was nice, but WTCC is another world. I know it will be tough and that I will need some races to be back on top. We will arrive at Monza without any testing and it won't be easy, but we have a good car, a great technical support and I trust the team.”
Wiechers team manager Dominik Greiner added: “We have worked hard to fix our 2012 programme in the WTCC. And I'm really happy that we managed to find a deal with Stefano once again. He has a lot of experience and we have been very successful together. I think we have a very strong package for the season.”
