HOCKENHEIM, Germany — Thomas Preining has done it again. With his second title in four years, the Austrian has written another chapter in DTM history.
The Porsche factory driver is only the eighth driver in the series’ more than 40-year history to be crowned champion at least twice – and also the first Austrian to achieve this feat.
“We didn’t make any mistakes under pressure in the final stages of the season, and that was crucial for this success,” Preining said. “I’ve fought for the DTM title several times at Hockenheim, and that experience certainly helped me. I’m incredibly proud of this fantastic team performance.”
Preining loves hard wheel-to-wheel battles – and the DTM offers him the perfect stage for them.
“In the DTM, I can live out my passion on the track as a racing driver,” says the 28-year-old. “This is the kind of racing I enjoy most. That’s exactly why I loved this series even as a child. Of course, it always depends on what the race director allows. But I think that within a regulated framework, we drivers have quite a lot of freedom, and a bit of door-to-door contact is perfectly acceptable. That’s exactly what the DTM is all about.”
Born in Linz, Thomas Preining grew up in a motorsport-mad family: his father, Andreas, raced in the Motorcycle World Championship from 1989 to 1994 and also gained international fame through his sponsorship of former adult film star Dolly Buster. It was therefore no surprise that his son Thomas was also fascinated by motorsport from an early age.
“As a child, I watched Valentino Rossi very closely on television,” Preining recalls. “An exceptional athlete who was in his own world back then. I even had the chance to meet Rossi in person. He worked incredibly hard for everything he achieved in his career.”
At the age of seven, Preining sat in a kart for the first time in Mallorca – the beginning of a career that took him step by step to the top. Between 2009 and 2013, he won several national and international karting championships. But when a major sponsor withdrew in 2015, his promising career suddenly faced an uphill battle.
Even back then, Preining demonstrated the fighting spirit that led him to his second DTM title this year. Instead of racing on the world’s tracks, the youngster spent countless hours in the simulator. He made a fresh start in 2016 in the ADAC Formula 4 series. Two years later, Preining dominated the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany, maturing into a top driver and securing the championship with an impressive ten wins that season.
In 2021, he became a Porsche factory driver. At just 22 years old, Preining had achieved what he had always dreamed of as a young boy: professional motorsport. His path led him from the ADAC GT Masters to the DTM, where he celebrated his first victory at the Norisring in 2022 – simultaneously giving Porsche its first win in the series.
In 2023, he became the first Austrian DTM champion. Three years later, he impressively repeated this success.
His path to his second title, however, was anything but straightforward. The Linz native started his championship year with a furious home victory at the opening race at the Red Bull Ring in Styria, Austria.
In the following seven races, however, he consistently missed out on a top-five finish. This unusual situation for the ambitious driver led to frustration, which erupted at the Norisring when he loudly complained over the team radio.
But Preining responded to a mediocre first half of the season by finishing eighth in the standings. The pursuit of his second DTM championship trophy seemed to unleash new energy: Preining finished on the podium six times in a row – a feat previously unmatched in the GT3 era of the DTM. The Sachsenring weekend will be particularly memorable for Preining.
There, he transformed a 16-point deficit to championship leader Maro Engel into a 23-point lead with second and third-place finishes. Preining also showed nerves of steel at the showdown in Hockenheim and secured his second DTM title.
With his second masterpiece, Preining, in his Porsche 911 GT3 R with its world-famous Grello livery, has definitively become one of the defining faces of the DTM. A true racing driver through and through, he loves the thrill of the track. And one thing is certain, given Preining’s remarkable career: the final chapter of his success story is far from being written.
