WTCC absence makes the heart grow fonder for D’Aste

Charismatic Italian Stefano D’Aste is returning to the FIA World Touring Car Championship in 2015 – and says he’s “really happy” to be back.

D’Aste was absent from last year’s WTCC due to another commitment but has signed a deal with ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport to race a Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 for the German squad.

“I’m really very happy and excited,” said the 40-year-old. “In the last year I missed a lot the WTCC and all the people that work around this awesome championship. I visited Münnich Motorsport at Paul Ricard last year and I hurt because I couldn’t [race]. Last year my target was to develop the new car of the Lotus Cup and take care about the best start of the championship. We are on a good way now and I am able to be behind the wheel again. Big thanks to the team manager Dominik Greiner and team owner René Münnich, who gave me the chance to achieve that in the WTCC.”

Münnich added: “We are very happy to have a driver like Stefano in our team, who already won races in the WTCC. I am very excited to see his performance. Currently, Stefano confirmed the first eight WTCC weekends with us. But there will be overlaps with his own racing project at the last four WTCC runs. We will give our best to find a solution for that together with him.”

ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport will add a second Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 to its line-up later in the season.