The five-day test, which is closed to the public and media, runs from the 24-28 October, and is aimed at testing new common components to be used in next year's championship.

Newly-crowned champion Marco Wittmann is present at the test for BMW along with RMG teammate Timo Glock, while Mercedes has called up Lucas Auer and Felix Rosenqvist.

Mattias Ekstrom, fresh from winning the World Rallycross title at Estering, meanwhile is in action for Audi alongside an unnamed second driver.

The manufacturers were keen to stress that the cars being tested will not represent the final product of next year's car, although Audi has confirmed it will try out next year's standard chassis.

"We are going to test the new common chassis for the first time as well as new common aero parts," said Audi's Head of DTM Dieter Gass. "We certainly want to try all these, albeit with a 2016 body.

"The new car will be launched only next year and rather close to the season opener."

BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt added: "[The cars used in Oschersleben] will certainly be a hybrid. From the outside, it's pretty much the old car.

"However, we will try to work on it in order to achieve 2017 downforce levels. We will have new common parts that we need to test. This is the main focus of the test."

Mercedes, however, has chosen to test with the current chassis as used in the season finale at Hockenheim earlier this month.

"We will use the same chassis as in Hockenheim," confirmed Mercedes Head of DTM Ullrich Fritz. "In Oschersleben we certainly won't use the final 2017 product.

"There will not be much we can take over to the new car, especially on the aero side the 2017 car will be brand new."