Start of the DTM season: two Porsche customer teams with three 911 GT3 R cars on the grid

In the 2023 DTM season, the Porsche customer team Manthey won the manufacturers’, teams’, and drivers’ championships. Last year as well, the team from Meuspath in the Eifel region celebrated titles in the drivers’, teams’, and rookies’ championships with the Porsche 911 GT3 R. “Regardless of these recent successes, we’re starting from scratch again this year,” emphasizes Maximilian Müller, GT Race Support at Porsche Motorsport. “With the optimized version of the Porsche 911 GT3 R we’re facing competition that has undoubtedly grown even stronger.”

For the new season, DTM partner Pirelli is also introducing a new standard tyre developed specifically for the series, which is designed, among other things, to reach its optimal temperature window more quickly.

At Manthey, Austrian factory driver Thomas Preining – a former Porsche Junior and 2023 DTM champion – is getting a new teammate. Swiss Ricardo Feller will take over the No. 90 car from last year’s DTM champion, Ayhancan Güven of Turkey. “With Ricardo and Thomas, we’re heading into the new sprint season with a strong duo that’s very experienced in the series,” Nicolas Raeder, Managing Director of Manthey GmbH, looks ahead. “Everyone is highly motivated and looking forward to the season opener. Qualifying will then give us our first real indication of where we stand.”

In 2025, Feller won the Sunday race in Spielberg in the Land-Motorsport Audi R8. In its second DTM season, the team from Niederdreisbach in the Westerwald is fielding a Porsche 911 GT3 R for the first time. This car will be driven by the 2023 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup champion, Bastian Buus. Although the 22-year-old Dane is making his DTM debut, the former Porsche Junior is not considered a rookie. The DTM reserves this category for series newcomers with a driver status no higher than “Gold” – however, the FIA, the governing body of motorsport, has placed Buus in the highest possible category, “Platinum", based on his previous successes. 

“Bastian is a perfect match for us and continues our team tradition of always enjoying working with young, talented drivers,” praises Team Principal Christian Land. “His experience with the 911 GT3 R over the past two years will help us get to know the new race car. I’m optimistic that in reasonable time we’ll achieve good results in the new season.”

The DTM’s sporting format remains unchanged

The race duration for all 16 rounds of the season remains 55 minutes plus one lap. Should the safety car be deployed, the race distance may be extended by up to two ‘joker’ laps. Whilst the Saturday races include a mandatory pit stop between the 20th and the 40th minute of the race, on Sundays drivers must pull into their teams’ pits twice for tyre changes. The first performance pit stop window opens between the 10th and the 25th minute, and the second from the 35th to the 45th minute. Pre-heating the tyres remains prohibited.

In 2026, the ADAC will once again be organising five classifications for the DTM: Drivers, Rookies, Teams, Manufacturers and the “Pit Stop Challenge”. Points for positions one to 15 in a race will be awarded according to the tried-and-tested system: 25-20-16-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. The two highest-placed cars from a single make score points for the manufacturers’ championship. The top three in qualifying receive additional points for the drivers’ championship (3-2-1). The same applies to the three fastest mandatory pit stops per race, which are decisive for the teams’ “Pit Stop Challenge”

The DTM: a global success story

As the successor series to the original DTM/ITC (1984 to 1996), the DTM relaunched in 2000 and retained the suffix “Deutsche Tourenwagen-Masters” until 2005. Since the 2021 season, the championship has been open to racing cars complying with the FIA GT3 regulations. This makes the DTM an ideal platform for Porsche, one of the world’s leading race car manufacturer in customer motorsport. In December 2022, the ADAC acquired the DTM brand rights. Last season, the number of on-site visitors rose by 9.4 per cent compared to the previous year, reaching 516,500 across the eight race weekends.

DTM live via streaming and TV

In Germany, DTM fans can watch all sessions on the Joyn streaming platform and all races live on the free-to-air channel ProSieben. Joyn also broadcasts Fan TV, produced at the race track, all day on Saturdays and Sundays. The DTM’s own YouTube-Kanal streams all qualifying sessions and races, as well as the free practice sessions on Fridays, live in German and English.

Drivers’ comments on the upcoming 2026 DTM season

Thomas Preining (Porsche 911 GT3 R #91): “The fact that my home race is the very first event on the calendar is a real highlight for me. Last week, we successfully completed an extensive testing programme here and gained a lot of valuable insights into our new 911 GT3 R and the new DTM tyres. We were also able to do a few laps in the rain. This meant we had the best possible preparation for the first race weekend.”

Ricardo Feller (Porsche 911 GT3 R #90): “I’m looking forward to my first DTM race at the wheel of the 911 GT3 R. We had a productive day of testing at the Red Bull Ring last week and feel well prepared for the season. The team has made me feel very welcome, and I get on really fine with everyone. The routines over the race weekends will certainly bring us even closer together. I believe we have a good year ahead of us.”

Bastian Buus (Porsche 911 GT3 R #29): “The competition level in the DTM is very high. Every detail counts when it comes to success. I therefore need to do my homework and stay fully focused. It helps that I’m already very familiar with the 911 GT3 R from the past two seasons. I haven’t set myself any specific goals for my first DTM season – apart from the fact that, as a racing driver, I always want to win every race I enter.”