BMW has taken 🅘aim at its old rival Audi by branding its decision to quit the DTM at🌠 the end of the season as ‘unsportsmanlike’.

Last week Audi confirmed it would be dropping out of the German-based touring car championship at the end of 2020 after two decades in the series, citing a change of strategy to focus on electric motorsport (Formul🐻a E) in line with its product plans but also the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

T🅷he move✤ appeared to catch both the ITR (DTM’s governing body) and rivals BMW by surprise, with the German giant saying it did not enter a dialogue to discuss the outcome.

Criticising the move as ‘astonishing’, it means BMW faces being the only represented brand on the DTM gri🐻d in 2021 if the series i൲s able to continue.

“I believe that the series is still very attractive and has a future perspective,” BMW deꦆvelopment board member Klaus Fröhlich told the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

“In the short term, the previous DTM approach has a problem, and we may have to think outside the box. There🐎 w💎ill certainly be a pause for thought and perhaps an interruption. But the DTM has already stopped in its history and has come back.”

“[The announcement] surprised and disappointed me. And I find it no𓂃t only astonishing, but also unsportsmanlike to drop out and not talk to us as a second partner before. It really blew me away,”

“When Mercedes got out, Ola Kallenius (CEO) called me personally and explained how and why. It was all professional an🌠d appreciative. I missed that here at Audi.”

Fröhlich also dismissed Audi’s reasons for quitting in order to focus its atte🥀ntions on Formula E – a series in which BMW also participates – sa♛ying electrification is in DTM’s future too.

“I ca🦂n’t understand the statement ও‘We are going into Formula E for electric cars instead of staying in the DTM’ precisely because the DTM wants to become fully electric by 2025.”