Luca Engstler, born on 8 March 2000 in Wildpoldsried, is the son of former touring car driver Franz Engstler and grew up in his father’s workshop in nearby Kempten. After years in karting, he raced for his father’s team in the German Formula 4 championship in 2015 and 2016 before moving into touring cars in 2017, competing in various TCR series across Germany, Asia and the Middle East until 2021. That year he capped the phase by winning the WTCR Junior title and the ADAC TCR Germany championship.
In 2022 he gained his first GT3 experience as an Audi factory driver for Rutronik Racing, before entering the DTM in 2023 with his own Liqui Moly-backed team. For the 2024 season Engstler joined the Austrian Grasser Racing Team as a Lamborghini Young Driver and, starting from fourth on the grid, won the second race of the season at Oschersleben for his first DTM victory. A second win followed later that year.
Engstler reached the high point of his career so far in 2025 with outright victory at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps: together with Mirko Bortolotti and Jordan Pepper, he secured Lamborghini’s first-ever overall win at the world’s biggest GT3 race in the Huracán GT3 EVO2.
For the 2026 season the 26-year-old returns to Abt Sportsline, the team from his own neighbourhood, past whose workshop he drove every day on his way to school as a child. Alongside the DTM he also races for Rutronik Racing in the GT World Challenge Europe, and has run the family’s own Team Engstler in the ADAC GT Masters for the past two years. He sees the first year with Abt mainly as a learning phase, with the goal of consistently scoring points even on difficult weekends.
Luca Engstler in the News