By Jonathan Noble and Matt Beer Saturday, January 15th 2011, 15:18 GMT
Jamie Green believes he is ready to win the DTM title if he can get back into a current-spec Mercedes for the 2011 season.
The 28-year-old was demoted to an older car at the start of 2009, but has remained a front runner - winning the Norisring round for the past two years and finishing sixth in the 2010 standings for the Persson team.
He feels that the way he has responded to being pushed down the Mercedes pecking order has proved his quality, and hopes he has now done enough to earn another chance with the company's crack AMG squad.
"Being placed in an older-spec car could have been a downward spiral in my career, so to have won a race and performed well consistently is exactly the answer I wanted to give to the situation," said Green on the main stage at AUTOSPORT International today.
"I hope I get a latest-spec car to show what I am capable of - and challenge for and hopefully win the championship.
"Things are looking positive. I really hope I can get a later-spec car and I feel ready to win the championship.
"Winning the championship in DTM is difficult. I've been there for six years. I would have liked to win the championship and I don't want to stop in the DTM until I have won at least one championship. So hopefully I have a long and successful career ahead of me."
Green's best hope of getting back into a top-line Mercedes would be for reigning DTM champion Paul di Resta to switch to Formula 1 with Force India, leaving a gap at AMG. Force India has yet to announce its 2011 plans, but is understood to have a deal in place with di Resta.
This season will be the last for the DTM's current regulations, and the new era that will start in 2012 has already attracted BMW to join Mercedes and Audi.
Green is very confident that the series is set to reach new heights from next year.
"To be at the stage where other top brands want to come on board is very important and will hopefully secure the long-term future of DTM, which is great," he said.
"There will be at least three manufacturers, and it could be four or five, for 2012 and then hopefully it can escalate into a top-line series.
"All the teams will be out with their new spec cars in the middle of the year, so hopefully I will be involved in that development process. I would like to do that."
