The 2026 DTM season fires up at the Red Bull Ring from 24 to 26 April with a 21-car field, eight manufacturers, three former champions on the grid and - for the first time - a bespoke Pirelli tyre built only for the series. Reigning champion Ayhancan Guven is not on the entry list after last year's last-lap Hockenheim duel with Marco Wittmann, leaving the 2026 title wide open.
Marco Wittmann, who very nearly stole last year's finale on track, returns to Schubert Motorsport with South African Kelvin van der Linde as his BMW teammate. Van der Linde is a DTM returnee chasing older brother Sheldon's title pedigree. "I'm still chasing him every day, and now with the same colours and the same colour race car. Hopefully the goal is to chase the title for BMW now," he said during a team-building session with Wittmann.
Mercedes-AMG took the 2025 manufacturers' crown via a consistent Lucas Auer campaign that fell just short in the final race. Auer sat down in his home mountains above Solden ahead of the opener and reflected on the season that was. "I've learned one thing. If you make big claims before the season starts, you're just setting yourself up for disappointment in the DTM. So keep a low profile and then celebrate properly when the time comes," he said. The Austrian heads into his 11th DTM year with 11 wins to his name, all but one for Mercedes, and a championship target still unchecked.
Lamborghini arrives with a new machine. Mirko Bortolotti returns to GRT Grasser Racing Team and swaps the Huracan GT3 Evo2 for the new Temerario GT3, a twin-turbo V8 replacement that reshapes the car's aerodynamic and chassis package. "It's always a big challenge to have a new car generation. We are starting from having a different chassis to a different engine and a whole different aerodynamics which require obviously also a different driving style. Now we need to find out where are the sweet spots," new Lambo teammate Maximilian Paul said. Paul also highlighted easier mechanical access on the new car - a genuine advantage across the quick-turnaround DTM weekend format.
Porsche's campaign leans on 2023 champion Thomas Preining at Manthey EMA and a carefully managed Bastian Buus graduation at Lionspeed. The young Dane, the youngest-ever Porsche Supercup champion at 20 in 2023, is the pick of ex-Formula 1 racer and pundit Timo Glock. "On top of my list, there is Bastian Buus and Lionspeed Motorsport. I watched him a bit in the Porsche Supercup and all the other series he did. Very talented, very young, very motivated, very straightforward, and he has a very good team with him. So he's my kind of favourite," Glock said.
The Pirelli bespoke tyre is the season's technical headline. Pirelli motorsport chief Mario Isola explained the manufacturing shift: "As agreed with the ADAC and the manufacturers last year, we decided to bring a dedicated product to the series that will be supplied only to the teams that are entering in DTM. So you don't find it in other races on the world." The tyre is manufactured in Breuberg, Germany, carries unique sidewall graphics and an RFID chip, and is built specifically for the one-driver sprint-racing format of DTM.
HRT Ford Racing arrives with the Ford Mustang GT3 Evo and a new line-up of Finn Wiebelhaus, the ADAC GT Masters champion stepping up, and sixth-season regular Arjun Maini. Over at ABT Sportsline, two new drivers replace the 2025 pairing. Ricardo Feller takes on the reigning champion's car at Manthey EMA. "It feels very special because it's the championship-winning car of last year, and that puts a little bit of extra pressure on my shoulders for sure - because if you don't win the championship, you just make it worse than what the car did last year," the Swiss driver said.
Eight manufacturers, 21 drivers, a new rubber compound and a champion-less grid. The DTM's reset button has been pressed. The hunt for who wins the first race of 2026 begins at Spielberg this weekend.
