DTM Champion Thomas Preining – a portrait of the fast Austrian

Thomas Preining has done it again: with his second title in four years, the Austrian has written yet another chapter in DTM history. In the series’ history spanning over 40 years, the Porsche works driver is only the eighth driver to be crowned champion at least twice – and at the same time the first Austrian to achieve this feat. “We didn’t make any mistakes under pressure in the final stages of the season; that was crucial to this success. I’ve battled for the DTM title at Hockenheim on several occasions before, and that experience certainly helped me. I’m incredibly proud of this fantastic team effort,” said the new champion after Sunday’s decisive race at Hockenheim.

Preining loves tough wheel-to-wheel battles – and the DTM offers him the perfect stage for them. “In the DTM, as a racing driver, I can live out my passion on the track,” explains the 28-year-old. “That’s the kind of racing I enjoy the most. That’s exactly why I’ve loved this series ever since I was 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 there can be a bit of contact when we’re door-to-door. That’s exactly what the DTM stands for.”

Born in Linz, Thomas Preining grew up in a family passionate about motorsport: his father, Andreas, competed in the Motorcycle World Championship from 1989 to 1994 and also gained international fame thanks to sponsorship from former adult film actress Dolly Buster. It was therefore hardly surprising that his son Thomas, too, was fascinated by motorsport from an early age. “As a child, I used to watch Valentino Rossi very closely on the telly,” recalls Preining. “An exceptional sportsman who was in a league of his own back then. I even had the chance to meet Rossi in person once. He’s worked incredibly hard for everything he’s achieved in his career.” At the age of seven, Preining sat in a kart for the first time in Mallorca – the start 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 main sponsor pulled out in 2015, the career that had begun so promisingly was suddenly on the brink of collapse.

Even back then, Preining demonstrated the fighting spirit that has also led him to his second DTM title this year. Instead of being on the world’s racetracks, the youngster spent countless hours in the simulator. He made a successful comeback in 2016 in ADAC Formula 4. Two years later, Preining dominated the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany, developed into a top driver and secured the championship with an impressive ten wins that season. In 2021, he was promoted to Porsche works driver. At just 22 years of age, Preining had achieved what he had always dreamt of as a young boy: a career in professional sport. Via the ADAC GT Masters, his path led him to the DTM, where he celebrated his first victory at the Norisring in 2022 – simultaneously securing Porsche’s maiden success in the series. In 2023, he became the first Austrian to be crowned DTM champion. Three years later, he has impressively repeated this success.

His path to his second title, however, was anything but straightforward. With a home victory at the season opener at the Red Bull Ring in Styria, Austria, the Linz-born driver got off to a flying start to his championship-winning year. In the seven races that followed, however, he consistently failed to finish in the top five. This was an unusual situation for the ambitious racing driver, and one that caused frustration. This came to a head at the Norisring, when he voiced a loud complaint over the pit-to-car radio. Yet Preining responded in the right way to a mediocre first half of the season, finishing it in eighth place in the standings. The chase for his second DTM championship trophy seemed to unleash new energy: Preining finished on the podium six times in a row. A feat that no one had previously achieved in the DTM’s GT3 era. Preining will have particularly fond memories of the Sachsenring weekend. There, with second and third-place finishes, he turned a 16-point deficit to championship leader Maro Engel into a 23-point lead. Preining also showed nerves of steel at the showdown in Hockenheim, securing his second DTM title.

With his second championship triumph, Preining – in his Porsche 911 GT3 R sporting the world-famous Grello design – has definitively become one of the defining faces of the DTM. A racing driver through and through who loves the thrill of the track. And one thing seems certain when looking at Preining’s remarkable career: the final chapter of his success story is far from being written.