Thomas Preining

Thomas Preining, born on 21 July 1998 in Linz, is the son of motorcycle world championship racer Andreas Preining. After early karting success and the 2014 Junior Karting European Championship title, he made his single-seater debut in 2015, only for a collapsed sponsorship deal to end his Formula 4 season early. Porsche’s junior programme put him back on track: in 2017 he was selected as the new Porsche Junior from over 100 applicants and in 2018 won the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland with ten wins from 14 races, as well as the outright win at the 24 Hours of Dubai.

In 2019 he became a Porsche factory driver, racing in ADAC GT Masters and, with Gulf Racing, in the FIA World Endurance Championship, finishing fourth with his co-drivers at the 1000 Miles of Sebring, the 6 Hours of Fuji and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2022 Preining moved with Timo Bernhard’s team into the newly GT3-based DTM and scored the series’ first-ever win for Porsche at the Norisring, followed by a second win at the Red Bull Ring that same year.

In 2023 the driver from Linz joined the newly arrived Porsche customer team Manthey EMA and, with three race wins and five further podiums, became the first Porsche champion and first Austrian titleholder in DTM history, while also winning the teams’ title with Manthey EMA and the manufacturers’ title for Porsche. In 2024 a win at Lausitzring secured him fifth overall, and in 2025 he stood on the podium five times, missing fourth place by just ten points.

For the 2026 season Preining enters his fourth consecutive year with Manthey EMA, gaining a new, equally DTM-experienced teammate in Ricardo Feller. Alongside the DTM, the Porsche factory driver also contests selected IMSA endurance races in the US with Manthey, including the 24 Hours of Daytona.