Finn Wiebelhaus, still only 20 years old, started his first DTM season strong. In the opening round at the Red Bull Ring he scored 15 points and finished just 0.085 seconds off pole position in his second qualifying session. The German 2025 ADAC GT Masters and Road to DTM champion drives for Ford Haupt Racing Team in the Ford Mustang GT3 as a development driver, a team he has been with since stepping up from Formula cars to GT racing three years ago as they prepare for their next big challenge: the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa‑Francorchamps.

Keeping the Mustang Tamed After a Strong DTM Start

Having made the step from ADAC GT Masters to DTM, he knows just how tough the competition is at this level.

“It’s for sure the toughest series, I feel like, you can do in GT3 sprint racing. It’s just the best GT3 drivers in the world together racing, and it’s super close, super tough racing. A couple of hundredths decide whether you go on pole or drop down to P6.”

That makes the start to his season even more impressive, considering the young driver grabbed second place in his Ford Mustang GT3 in only his second DTM qualifying session, finishing just a few milliseconds behind the experienced Kelvin van der Linde in his BMW M4 GT3.

He went on to score two points in that qualifying session and collected a total of 13 points across both races, finishing 11th in the first race and 8th in the second.

“It was a great start. I think we didn’t expect to be that fast at the Red Bull Ring, especially on Sunday morning,” he says to GT REPORT. But he knows this performance is not something that will repeat itself on every track. “It’s hard to tell if we can keep the momentum up because it’s different challenges from race weekend to race weekend. We try our best like we did at the Red Bull Ring and see where we end up.”

The ADAC GT Masters and Road to DTM champion knows what he needs to get the best out of himself.

“It’s crucial for me to be in the right environment and to be around people I have full trust in. This is very important for the first DTM season because there will be ups and downs.”

One of the people he gets help from is former DTM champion Manuel Reuter, who supports young drivers at Haupt Racing Team.

“From him I learned a lot about how you approach the weekends and how you handle everything beside the track. Also the way you should be an athlete, because motorsport is quite tough physically, and some people really don’t understand how tough it is sometimes with hot temperatures, or when the car is not really in the right window and you’re fighting it. It’s tough, and because of that you also get the mental stress. He’s preparing me well for that. Although he is now mainly focusing on the GT Masters guys, who need to be prepared for the step up to hopefully DTM, he’s still sometimes passing by.”

Because the 1996 champion, driving the iconic Opel Calibra V6 4×4, raced in a very different era compared to today. Finn gets support from his teammate Arjun Maini, who has been with the team since 2022. He helps him when it comes to understanding the car, working on setups, and progressing through data.

“I was always one step down, so when he did DTM I was doing two years of GT Masters; so I was always listening to his debriefs and trying to learn a bit from him. Now it’s nice to have him on site as an experienced DTM racer.”

By having people around him who now feel like family, because he has been with the team since making the jump from F4 to GT racing in 2023, he feels that support more than ever.

“I feel comfortable coming to the race weekends and I’m not nervous or anything to be here, so that’s really nice.”

From Mercedes to Ford: A New Working and Development Philosophy

Speaking about the moment when the former Italian and French F4 driver made the step to GT racing, he first raced for Haupt Racing Team in the Mercedes‑AMG GT3 before they made the switch to Ford last year.

“In the beginning it was not a secret that we had to get the package right with Ford and HRT. I think we struggled a bit at the start of last season, but in the end we won the ADAC GT Masters championship. Because of that I can truly say that we got the package into a working window where it was fast. We can be proud of it! Now that the Evo package has come out, we try our best to understand what we can achieve with it.”

“The Mercedes is more a corner car, whereas the Ford is more built for American racetracks, so we sometimes struggle on smaller circuits. But we will get there; with the Evo package it’s already getting better. Here at Zandvoort, because it’s a small circuit, you still have good fast sections. For sure we are not as fast as a Porsche, for example, in the short chicane, but we have a good balance in the high‑speed sections.”

In our interview with Arjun Maini at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, he told GT REPORT that the aero gain is definitely something you can feel with the Evo package. The 20‑year‑old driver elaborates on that.

“We have the dive plate at the front, which for sure helps our high‑speed balance. That’s probably one of the biggest changes we have, and then a bit of kinematics, so we can run slightly different damping.”

The Mustang, with its 5.4‑litre V8 engine, has become one of the most popular cars among fans.

“It’s the best‑sounding car by far, no need to argue about that, so I think most of the fans really love the Mustang. Also on the public roads, when I drive my Mustang, people are always so happy to see it and I only get good reactions. So it’s been a pleasure so far to drive the Ford, and the fans are mega.”

Besides the car itself, more things have changed for him and Haupt Racing Team. It also meant a different kind of support structure from both the team and the manufacturer. Finn himself was named Ford Development Driver, but this wasn’t something that would automatically happen.

“In January I’ve been, for the first time, to the U.S. to do some assignments for the development team, to make sure I’m fit enough and performing well in the simulator. They had a couple of drivers in the U.S. to test who was doing a good job and who would be in the new team for 2026. I’m super happy that I made it into the team again, and I think it’s a great support system that Ford is putting on the table. It’s been nice with them.”

Going deeper into how the support system works, the number 64 DTM Ford Mustang driver explains:

“We are the only team running the Ford, so we have plenty of support on track. And now, this year especially, we have some people coming over from America from the development team to look after the other young drivers who are racing with Ford. It’s a good system, and we always have a mentor on site who can help us and support us throughout the season, which is nice.”

From Football Fields to Rivalries on the Way to DTM

For Finn, it never started with racing at first.

“I played football like everybody did for a couple of years in high school, and then at some point I dropped out of it because I didn’t have any interest anymore.”

The passion for racing began by watching Germany’s four‑time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel.

“My father was watching F1 back in the days when he was quite good. It made me fall in love with the sport.”

Having dropped out of the football team and with racing on his mind, the 2022 ADAC Kart Masters champion knew what he wanted.

“I was really pushing my dad to let me go to a rental karting track, and then I did a couple of laps there and I was not doing too bad, I guess. We decided to go to a place where we actually bought my first kart, which was on a ten‑year‑old chassis. It was not working really well, but it was enough to drive, so that’s where I started in 2020.”

After karting, he moved to formula cars in 2023.

“I moved up to single‑seaters for one year and then I decided to go into GT cars because formula sport is nowadays quite expensive and super tough to get into.”

In his formula days he raced in Italian and French F4, competing against Tom Kalender, another young driver he now faces in both DTM and GT World Challenge Europe.

“They were quite close battles. We were also racing against each other in GT Masters 2024 and now again this year. For sure he’s my rival for the DTM rookie championship.”

Having been behind the wheel since 2020, winning several championships and now racing in DTM six years later, he finds it difficult to describe what that says about him as a driver. Yet he still offers an honest reflection:

“I would say I’m quite known for being focused, that’s really important. And for sure you need to be consistent, otherwise you don’t win a championship. You can be fast for one weekend, but normally the key is to collect good points over the whole season. And yeah, I think if you win a title you’re normally quite okay, so I would consider myself not too slow.”

But he remains humble about himself.

“It’s always hard to tell. I don’t know what I should say about myself. I don’t want to sound arrogant at all.”

The DTM-rookie has his targets set for this season in the high-level racing serie.

“it would be nice to be DTM rookie champion but for sure it’s a long season ahead. Collecting good points and some top 10 results would be mega.”

In the end there is only one thing on his mind to achieve there.

“DTM champion, that’s the main goal!”

Spa Redemption: Showing Night Pace in an Underestimated Endurance Challenge

Besides DTM, as mentioned earlier, Finn competes in the GT World Challenge Powered by AWS in the Silver Endurance Cup and will drive the iconic Spa 24 Hours in the number 65 Ford Mustang GT3 for Haupt Racing Team again, just like he did last year.

“Last year we retired ten minutes before the end because of a technical failure. We were running P3 in Silver class and would have been P2 because the car in front of us also retired on the last lap, so it was tough. I still have that mission to be on the podium.”

But he knows how tough it’s going to be, it’s something a lot of people underestimate, according to the Ford Mustang driver.

“It can be really tough, especially the 24‑hour races. You have to be focused all the time, because if you make even a slight mistake you end up in the wall. That’s mentally super tough, and also physically, because you’re exhausted — temperatures in the car can rise to 50 or 60 degrees and we have all the fireproof stuff. You have to brake harder, the steering is heavy, so it can be really exhausting. I think this is often underestimated.”

He shares the car with Maxime Oosten, Eduardo Coseteng and Max Reis. With four drivers sharing the car each one ends up driving around six hours, which is a challenge on its own.

“That’s tough, especially if you only have three hours of sleep and you have to go back into the car.”

Despite the difficulty, the Haupt Racing Team driver is looking forward to it; especially the night stints.

“I like a good challenge, it’s been nice. In the 24‑hour races you’re normally faster in the night, so that’s also funny. It makes it fun to race and it’s a special atmosphere. That’s why I like racing at night, but for sure it’s mentally a bit more exhausting because you have to be more concentrated and at some point you’re getting tired. It can be tough.”