Lucas Auer has carried his strong early-season momentum from the Red Bull Ring into a packed GT campaign, with confidence high as he targets both success in all championships and a major result at the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring.
A weekend with a double podium marked a great start to his DTM season, particularly on home soil. Auer drove to P2 in race 1, followed up by a P3 in race 2. It immediately puts him in P2 in the standings, which is a firm foothold for more later in the season. “It was a mega start,” Auer tells GT REPORT. “I’m very, very happy with it.”
The Austrian GT3 veteran became vicechampion in 2025 and 2022. Kicking off with these results makes it tempting to start dreaming of the possibilities already, but Auer is level-headed as always and takes it race by race. “The DTM is so difficult to predict, because you never have just one guy who dominates,” he continues.
“It’s impossible. The field is too close. If a team does a better job, or a driver, you have a different story every year. Every season starts from zero again. Together with my Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf I had a great start, but this was just one track. We have a new tyre this season as well. We learned a lot during the DTM break and were well prepared. Now we need to see, how things develop.”
He doesn’t want to get ahead of himself until he’s a couple of weekends into the season: “I think we’ll only really know by mid-season whether we can stay in the title fight. We need to see on different tracks. How we started at the Red Bull Ring was amazing!”
Sharing the car and battling against teammates the weekend after
Like last year, Auer is spending a lot of time in other championships as well. He’s combining DTM with GT World Challenge Europe Sprint and Endurance, competing for Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER alongside Luca Stolz and Maro Engel. The first race for both the Sprint and Endurance Cup were completed with podiums.
“First of all, it’s an honor to drive all these great races and championships,” Auer says. “At the same time, the timetables can be tough, but I’m already doing it for a couple of years, so I know how to prepare myself and how to recover well. I’m driving in the greatest races in GT and I’m feeling fit and ready for all the future events.”
The multiple race winner likes how he hops from a sprint weekend into an endurance weekend. Auer easily shifts between the two different racing mentalities that are needed for both disciplines. “It’s pretty cool in GT3 to have those possibilities. You share the car one weekend and then the next you’re alone in the car.”
“In terms of mindset, it’s a bit different because sprint races with one hour are intense, and aggressive – with the starts, pitstops and outlaps, you sometimes have to risk a lot in order to achieve something. Endurance obviously has a different philosophy, you share the car, so the car needs to suit all different drivers.”
Funnily enough it also means he’s sharing the car in one championship with drivers he’s battling against in another championship. He laughs: “This is actually interesting, because in DTM it’s intense with Jules [Gounon] and Maro [Engel]. Then with Maro I share the car in GT World Challenge. On the Nordschleife, I am on the same car with Jules.”
“Sometimes it can be quite interesting if you have a crash the weekend before, and then you need to share the car,” he says. “If you keep it professional and take it weekend by weekend. It’s funny and interesting at the same time if you have a moment sometime and then you need to work together afterwards,” he chuckles again.
“On the other hand it’s cool to have tough competition and especially in endurance, you want to have the best teammates. Then, whatever happens, you work together and you enjoy the different disciplines.”
Gearing up for the N24
Auer returns to the Nordschleife for the 24-hour race and will drive for Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, alongside Max Verstappen, Jules Gounon and Dani Juncadella. He knows all the drivers very well, including the four-time Formula 1 World Champion, who he competed against in Formula 3 in 2014.
“From my points of view we have a really great line-up for the 24-hour race, with a similar mindset and philosophy. I think that’s important. I’m really looking forward to share the car with my three teammates,” Auer previews. “At the end, we want to have fun and want to be succesful. From this perspective, we’re all similar. At the same time we keep it professional.”
The Austrian was supposed to be in the car during NLS1, which unfortunately got cancelled due to the weather. Getting driving time during the N24 Qualifiers was therefore important for him: “Especially to get into traffic management again, but I think we’re very well prepared.”
For Auer, it’s always special to return to The Green Hell. “Also to drive there again for the first time [of the year], because it’s such a tough track. You really need some laps to build confidence. You can be fast, but to really be confident, you need some laps. Lap by lap, you step up.”
“That’s why those preparation races are so important, because at the 24-hour race, there’s no time left to learn. You need to be prepared.”
Second 24-hour race of the year
The 2026 N24 will be Auer’s second 24-hour race of the year. Four months ago, he completed and won the 24 hours of Daytona race with Indy Dontje, Philip Ellis, and Russell Ward. Asked jokingly if Dontje learned him any Dutch to communicate with Verstappen, he immediately gives us a Dutch curseword.
“Indy is the king of Daytona,” Auer laughs. “He has more watches than anyone else! He’s a really cool guy. I enjoy working with him. He brings a lot of fun and he’s a very good driver.” Comparing the 24 hours of Daytona to the N24 is probably a bit far-fetched, but there are small similarities in the operations.
“It’s always important to have great communication and work together well. Those races are of course so different. In Daytona you really need to keep the car [on track], but you have twenty hours of very calm racing. You can more or less recover from mistakes. The last four hours are like a sprintrace.”
“The Nordschleife is very different. There’s no safety car, no pass around. You need to keep yourself in the position for the win from the very first hour. It’s not easy to do so, because the level is so high. In terms of the race it’s very, very different.”
41 GT3 cars on the Nordschleife
After the official entry list of the 2026 N24 was shared, everyone started counting down to May 13, the day that marks the start of the weekend with the Adenauer Racing Day. People from all over the world will come to the Eifel to see the cars and their heroes up close. The grid is stacked, with 41 GT3 cars.
“Always with those big 24-hour races, every manufacturer will have their top teams, top line-ups there,” Auer says. “You will get a lot of competition. It’s better to focus on yourself and just get the maximum out of your package. You have a lot of different conditions. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 is a very great all-rounder. We are ready and feel confident.”
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