🇦🇹 Thomas Preining

Thomas Preining is an established professional racing driver with a Racer Rating of 5,679, placing him among the sharp end of full-time sportscar and touring-car competitors. He holds FIA Platinum status, the grading for professional-level sportscar drivers, and is the 2023 DTM champion. His career spans twelve seasons from 2013 to the present, centred on two distinct areas: touring cars in the DTM, where he has won nine races and claimed twenty-one podiums in fifty-seven starts for Manthey; and endurance and GT racing across the WEC, IMSA WeatherTech, GT World Challenge Europe, ADAC GT Masters, and the Nürburgring 24 Hours, where his record is far more modest at four wins and eleven podiums across fifty-four starts. Preining finished an average of P8.3 across all starts, reflecting his positioning as a mid-to-front-pack runner rather than a consistent race victor.[1]

His head-to-head record against frequent rivals shows a mixed picture typical of a driver operating at his level. Against Ricardo Feller and Luca Engstler, both professional competitors, he holds a decisive edge, finishing ahead in fifty-seven and fifty-one races respectively. Against Maro Engel, a significantly stronger driver rated among the elite professional band and the 2024 GT World Challenge Europe champion, Preining's record is negative at 31 ahead and 39 behind across seventy shared races, placing him clearly the junior in that pairing. Against Marco Wittmann, a fellow established professional and former Formula 3 European champion, the record runs closer at 34 ahead and 23 behind. His appearances against drivers of the calibre of Charles Weerts, a three-time GT World Challenge Europe champion, and Kyle Kirkwood, a multiple formula-racing champion, have been limited and do not form a consistent pattern.[2]

Preining's strength has consolidated in the DTM, where his nine wins and championship in 2023 represent the high point of his career to date. His endurance-racing record, by contrast, reflects the difficulty of translating touring-car success to a different discipline; across multiple sportscar series he has recorded just four wins in fifty-four entries. He remains active in 2026, racing for Manthey in both the DTM and IMSA WeatherTech, and has scored early success in the new DTM season, but recent commentary suggests some frustration with his current competitive position in the touring-car championship.