Scheider, the 2008 and 2009 DTM champion, has been excluded from the Russian event by the sports court of the German Motor Sports Association (DMSB) after the “push him out” affair at Spielberg.

Giovinazzi will take over Scheider’s car for the weekend. Matching his year of birth, 1993, Giovinazzi, who hails from Martina Franca in southern Italy, will be driving car number ’93.’

The Italian had left a strong impression in an Audi Sport DTM evaluation of young drivers at the end of the past season and confirmed it in DTM tests at the Lausitzring in June.

For the DTM’s Russian round this weekend, Giovinazzi had been scheduled as the driver of an Audi RS 5 DTM race taxi for the first time. Now his plans have changed quite a bit.