Emil Frey Racing was founded in 2011 in Safenwil, Switzerland, and belongs to the Emil Frey Group, by its own account the largest car dealer in Europe with almost 700 dealerships. Team principal Lorenz Frey-Hilti sat behind the wheel himself in the early years and, together with FIA Silver-rated driver Fredy Barth, drove the development of the team’s first race car, a bespoke Jaguar XK-based GT3, which made its debut in the 2012 Blancpain Endurance Series.
What sets the team apart from many others is its willingness to switch manufacturers every few years. After its in-house Jaguar project, Emil Frey Racing became a Lexus factory team in 2015, racing the RC F GT3 at venues including the Nürburgring Nordschleife. In 2019 came the move to Lamborghini, which paid off immediately: with the Huracan GT3 Evo the team won both the team and drivers’ titles in the International GT Open Championship in its very first season.
In 2023, Emil Frey Racing made its next manufacturer switch, this time to Ferrari, after the Emil Frey Group secured a contract as a Ferrari dealer in Munich. With the new Ferrari 296 GT3, the team made its DTM debut that same year, becoming the only Ferrari customer team in the field of the German touring car series, a striking contrast to the established Audi, BMW and Mercedes teams.
The team brought instant star power to its first DTM season: alongside Thierry Vermeulen, son of Max Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen, it signed former Formula One driver Jack Aitken, who had raced for Williams in Bahrain in 2020. This combination of Swiss dealership know-how and an international driver line-up still defines Emil Frey Racing’s presence today.
For the 2026 season, Emil Frey Racing has scaled its effort back to two Ferrari 296 GT3 cars. Thierry Vermeulen remains with the team, while Italian driver Matteo Cairoli takes over from Jack Aitken, who is now focusing on his prototype programme with Cadillac. The goal remains to establish itself as a consistent force in the DTM’s densely packed GT3 field.