GOOD FIRST OUTING FOR THE DTM'S P ZERO TYRES AT THE RED BULL RING
On a weekend characterised by bright sunshine, mild temperatures, close racing and full grandstands, the P Zero tyres developed exclusively for the DTM's GT3 cars made their debut in the best possible way: earning praise from drivers and teams alike, who appreciated their performance characteristics and versatility. From Pirelli's perspective, that sums up the first of eight seasonal rounds of the 2026 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, which concluded today at the Red Bull Ring in Austria and was marked by absolute dominance of the German brands.
Both races kept the Red Bull Ring crowd on the edge of their seats. Saturday's race was won by Thomas Preining's Porsche from the Manthey team, having qualified third in a very tight qualifying session that saw lap times better than the 2023 track record and 11 drivers within less than a second. Behind the Manthey driver came Luca Auer in the Landgraf team's Mercedes-AMG, and Maro Engel in the Ravenol team's Mercedes-AMG.
Sunday's race was won by Engel, who started fifth on the grid, followed by Marco Wittmann in the Schubert team's BMW, who started as far back as ninth, and Auer.
"We are very satisfied with the performance of the new P Zero tyres for the DTM," said Matteo Braga, Circuit Activity Manager at Pirelli. "It was not a given that already at the first race the drivers would be able to get the best out of the tyres, exploiting the performance optimised for this race format. We saw many different tyre strategies, which was one of the objectives set for us by the teams and the promoter during product development. Furthermore, the faster warm-up minimised the impact of pit stops, allowing drivers to defend their position more easily after the stop. There will certainly still be a great deal for everyone to learn: first and foremost on our side, as we gathered interesting data over the weekend, but also on the drivers' side, who will need to optimise the management of the mix between new and used tyres over the course of each event and throughout the seasonal carry-over."
Spectators also enjoyed the challenges in the other categories of which Pirelli is a partner: GT Masters, GT4 Germany and the FIA Formula Regional championship, which kicked off its season and its first event with the new generation of cars fitted with 15-inch Pirelli P Zero tyres – also, like those for the DTM, developed bespoke and exclusively for the championship.