Manor's Pascal Wehrlein, who made the step up to Formula 1 from DTM for this season, says he misses the "really cool" fights up and down the field which were a common feature of the touring car series, something he isn't getting in F1 as a backmarker.
The German driver became DTM's youngest ever champion in 2015, winning the title at just 20 years of age. Backed by Mercedes, he was promoted to F1 with engine-customer Manor alongside Indonesia's Rio Haryanto.
During a visit to the season-opening DTM round in Hockenheim, Wehrlein said he missed the close battles.
"The fights in the DTM are really cool, proper wheel-to-wheel action with contacts; you can't do that in Formula 1," he said.
"The scraps [in the DTM] were lots of good fun, really great."
Wehrlein also offered some advice to Esteban Ocon, who took Wehrlein's seat at the Mercedes DTM team and is also splitting his time between the series and a F1 test role with Renault.
"This year, he's in a similar situation to the one I found myself in when I joined the DTM," explained Wehrlein.
"You first have to get used to series and to the car, but there are no major problems in making the switch.
"We can all drive a racing car quickly, [but] what makes the difference in the DTM is finding the last tenth of a second, that's tricky. You also need experience with set-up.
"As regards to drivers, the DTM is in no way inferior to Formula 1. The top drivers in both are extremely fast and very hard to beat. Every one of them is a specialist in his field."
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