The 2025 DTM season kicks off at the end of this month, with the first race on April 26.
While competition in the series will be tough as always, Porsche and its customer team Manthey Racing have already enjoyed a particularly promising first step in pre-season testing, so carry good momentum into the campaign.
Looking back: A 2024 season recap
The two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs on the grid, both fielded by Manthey EMA, held their own against rival GT3 machines last year - though the lofty heights of 2023, when factory driver Thomas Preining became Porsche's first-ever DTM champion, were out of reach.
But Preining and Manthey did take their title defense far into the season, aided by an early win at the Lausitzring, while his team-mate Ayhancan Güven overcame an unfortunate start to the campaign to return to the podium in the final round of the season.
Though fifth in the final standings wasn't what Preining had hoped for, he was proud to preserve a streak of points-scoring races in the DTM that now stands at a remarkable 32 races - i.e. two full seasons of never ending up out of the points-scoring top 15.
The calendar and the changes
The 2025 DTM campaign will feature something that you almost never see in motorsport - total calendar continuity.
The series will visit the same eight tracks as 2024 - six in Germany, one in the Netherlands (Zandvoort) and one in Austria (Red Bull Ring) - and will do it in the same order.
There are only some minor changes in the exact dates, which account for the fact that the 2025 season starts one day earlier than 2024's but finishes two weeks later (October 20 versus October 5 last year).
2025 calendar
| Race | Date |
|---|---|
| Oschersleben | April 26-27 |
| Lausitzring | May 24-25 |
| Zandvoort | June 7-8 |
| Norisring | July 5-6 |
| Nürburgring | August 9-10 |
| Sachsenring | August 23-24 |
| Red Bull Ring | September 13-14 |
| Hockenheim | October 4-5 |
The biggest change is elsewhere - in the weekend format. Whereas before the DTM had a single mandatory pitstop in both races of a given round, now the Sunday race will mandate two pitstops.
There is also a new provision - similar to what already exists in Formula E - for races to be extended by one or two laps in case of a safety car period.
And on the technical side, the series has introduced new sustainable fuel (with Coryton replacing Shell as supplier) and a new tyre from Pirelli.
The P Zero DHG tyre, which has "natural rubber components" accounting for 17 percent of its weight, is intended to "allow a wider operating range and a faster warm-up".
Tyres, of course, are a major component of performance in every motorsport series, especially in those that - like the DTM - do not permit tyre-warmers.
Who’s who: The Porsche roster
Manthey Racing, founded nearly 30 years ago by Olaf Manthey, has long represented Porsche in various international and domestic GT competitions.
Its DTM success in 2023 is part of a large tapestry that also includes wins in Porsche cars in the World Endurance Championship and the iconic 24 Hours of Nurburgring race among others, and it is well-known for fielding the 'Grello' Porsche - using striking yellow-and-green liveries.
These will be adorning the cars of the aforementioned GT ace returnees - 26-year-old Austrian driver Preining, a Porsche factory driver, and 27-year-old Turkish driver Güven, a former Porsche junior.
But they will have a third co-star this year. 20-year-old Dutch racer Morris Schuring, a graduate of the Porsche Carrera Cup racing ladder like Preining and Güven, was one of the Le Mans 24 Hours class winners in LMGT3 last year in a Manthey EMA-fielded Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Schuring's Porsche 911 GT3 R for this season is entered under Manthey Junior Team, but he is a fully-fledged team-mate for Preining and Güven, is working with the same race engineer as he did in the WEC last year, and is familiar with every track on the DTM schedule bar the Norisring.
Encouraging start
DTM has already held its single pre-season test day, spanning two multi-hour sessions at Oschersleben - the same track that will open the season later this month.
And the headline times were emphatic. Preining was the only driver in the test to get in the 1m21s laptime range, and Güven made it a Manthey 1-2 in the overall test times, three tenths behind his team-mate.
Preining's best time had come in the first session, but his best effort in the second session would've been good enough to top the test, too. And Schuring ended the day an encouraging eighth.
The rivals
The 2025 DTM full-season entry list features 22 other entries beyond the three Porsche 911 GT3 R, which will battle it out against eight other manufacturers.
A strong grid of both top-of-the-line GT3 aces and multi-discipline standouts will present a stern challenge, with Preining one of four DTM champions on the grid - the others being Marco Wittmann, Rene Rast and defending champion Mirko Bortolotti.
