• Thomas Preining celebrates a victory at home in the first race of the new season, while Ricardo Feller secured ninth place in his series debut with Manthey
• Manthey scores important points on Sunday, with Ricardo Feller finishing twelfth and Thomas Preining thirteenth

Spielberg. Having traveled to the Red Bull Ring as the reigning champions, Manthey celebrated a successful start to the new 2026 DTM season. In front of his home crowd, Thomas Preining made a strong statement in the first race: Starting from third on the grid, the Austrian secured victory in the first of a total of sixteen races this season - marking the seventh joint DTM success for Preining and Manthey. Meanwhile, teammate Ricardo Feller (Switzerland), who had started the first race from seventh on the grid, kicked off his first season with the team in the sprint series with a top-ten finish (ninth place). The following Sunday, the two Porsche drivers placed their Porsche on starting positions fourteen (Preining) and sixteen (Feller). In the race, Feller crossed the finish line in 12th place, while Preining finished thirteenth. With the points earned from the first two races of the season, Manthey sits in third place in the team standings (39 points) after the first two rounds and trails the leading team by ten points. In the drivers’ championship, Thomas Preining is in fourth place with 29 points, while Ricardo Feller heads into the next race weekend in thirteenth place with eleven points.

“A great start to the new season. We won the last two races of 2025, and to kick things off with another victory right away is, of course, fantastic. I’m very proud of the entire team and this strong performance on Saturday. The second race day was more difficult for us. We weren’t able to reach our full potential in qualifying, but we made the best of it in the race,” explains Nicolas Raeder, Managing Director of the Manthey Racing GmbH. “We simply didn’t get everything right in qualifying and therefore didn’t secure better starting positions. We’re now analyzing this thoroughly and reviewing what we need to do better next time.  The race results we achieved are still important, though, because the season is long and every championship point counts. Saturday’s result is, of course, very good. Fast pit stops and a good strategy played a decisive role, and this victory belongs to the whole team. Thomas drove very strongly, and it’s great that our fourth season together has gotten off to such a successful start. At the same time, it was our first DTM race weekend with Ricardo, marked by a steep learning curve. Ricardo is a very good driver who fits in perfectly with our team. Even if the results don’t yet fully reflect our capabilities, I’m sure that together we’ll make great strides forward. I’m really looking forward to the upcoming races,” adds Patrick Arkenau, Director Racing.
 
For the second race weekend of the sprint season, the team will travel to Zandvoort (Netherlands) from May 22 to 24. Before that, the calendar features two season highlights: the FIA WEC race at Spa-Francorchamps (May 9, 2026) and the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring (May 16 - 17, 2026).

Quotes on the DTM race weekend at the Red Bull Ring:

Ricardo Feller, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90: "A mixed first weekend in the 2026 DTM season. Unfortunately, I received a penalty lap in the first race. That shouldn’t and won’t happen again. But my comeback in the race was very strong, so I was ultimately satisfied with the result. I was really looking forward to Sunday. Unfortunately, qualifying didn’t go as expected. When we start from so far back, it’s not easy for us to overtake, especially on a track like the Red Bull Ring. That’s why the result wasn’t what we’d hoped for. But at the end of the day, it’s just great to work with Manthey. I’m very proud to be part of the team, and I believe we have a good season ahead of us."

Thomas Preining, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91: "Looking back on the weekend, the joy of Saturday outweighs everything else. I was able to win my home race, and that’s just something very special. I’ll always cherish this memory, and I’m very happy that I was able to experience it together with my team. The crew did such a great job in the pit lane again. Without their strong performance, I wouldn’t be able to achieve such results on the track, and I’m very grateful for that. Unfortunately, the starting positions made things very difficult on Sunday, and the result is naturally unsatisfactory. But the fact that we were still able to score three points is important, and now I’m already looking forward to Zandvoort."