It’s only April, but Thomas Preining (27) has done a lot of race weekends already. And with success: together with his teammates he got P5 in the 24h Daytona, he won the 12h of Sebring and added a podium on the Nordschleife to that during NLS5. A week later, his DTM season started great too, with a win in race 1.

After missing out on the DTM title last year, Preining is clearly back for more. “We had the opportunity to win the title in 2025,” he admits in an interview with GT REPORT. “Things didn’t really happen for us, though. For sure, there is a desire to win more. It would be great to get the job done,” he continues.

Preining won the DTM championship in 2023 and will give everything to add a second title to his very extensive and impressive CV. “All in all, of course, I have big plans for this season,” he smiles. “Of course, I hope it’s enough this time, but time will tell. I spent a lot of time in preparation and optimization over the winter to be as ready as possible and to maximize everything we can.”

Manthey Racing’s debut in IMSA

The preparation also included various endurance races at the start of the year. The Austrian Porsche works driver is clearly on a roll. “It was cool!” he says about Daytona. “I’ve done that race twice before, so I had a small taste of what it’s going to look like there and how things are. Generally speaking, it’s been a big challenge for the whole team.”

Preining refers to Manthey Racing’s debut season in IMSA. He praises the team for doing so well while taking the Grello on its first US journey. “In the end, the team exists of 99 percent Europeans, so it was not easy to get the systems up and running – and the standard is so high,” he explains.

“To make the operations work like we know them from here (Europe, ed.) took some time in the first couple of days, but when it counted in Daytona, it was all settled. Then obviously Sebring was great to get the first win of the team there. Generally, it’s a project that’s been really fun.”

He wouldn’t say the racing culture in the US is a lot different to the championships in Europe. He points at smaller things: “It’s simply about the way the team operates and the way things work in this championship or that championship. There you don’t even have a box – you’re in the paddock in a tent and then you have to go to the pit wall.”

“Even starting with the pitstops, the way the mechanics have to approach it and the things they have to do and in which order is a bit different. It’s small adjustments everybody needs to make, but in the end, I think we compromised in a really good way,” he compliments the team.

Preining shoots past ‘wall’ of Mercedes-AMG’s

In addition to his programme with Manthey Racing, Preining has also joined Lionspeed GP while they contest the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance in the Pro Cup for the first time, having only run Bronze entries in previous seasons. Preining completed the first round in Paul Ricard with Riccardo Feller and Bastian Buus.

“It was my first time with Lionspeed, so a lot of new faces, of course,” he says. “It was challenging, but in the end, when it mattered, we were fully in the game and had a great car. Unfortunately we had a DNF, but it’s motorsport, that can happen sometimes. Generally though, it’s definitely positive to start on such a high note.”

Preining’s overtake during the 6h of Paul Ricard caught the eye of many fans. He was behind a ‘wall’ of cars and overtook them all. When GT REPORT asks what happened behind them, Preining is quick to chime in: “I wasn’t behind them, I overtook them!” he laughs. 

“I didn’t see the [Jules] Gounon jump,” he grins, “It happened right as I went to the other side. It was a bit of a surprise, because I’ve never had this situation, that there are three or four wide ahead of me and it’s like a wall in front of you. The slipstream effect is multiplied by ten, and you get sucked past all of them so easily.”

“It’s like a slingshot. I was shocked that I was suddenly able to overtake, but yeah, it was fun!”

Eyes on the big N24 prize

Alongside his campaign in IMSA, DTM and GT World Challenge, Prening gears up for his seventh N24. After finishing in P2 in 2024 and 2025, he’s eager to claim the overall victory of the Eifel classic. He will line up with Kévin Estre and Ayhancan Güven on the Grello, the #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, to bring the largest trophy to Meuspath.

Preining is happy with the P3 and the preparation during the N24 Qualifiers. “It was really good to be back. It was almost a year since the last time I’ve been on track, which was during the 24-hour race. There’s always small things you can optimize, but in the end, we’ve been here for so many years. We know how to do it and set it up,” he concludes.