PIRELLI’S EXCLUSIVE DTM TYRES DEBUT – A CROWNING FINISH AT HOCKENHEIMRING
Thomas Preining (Manthey) is crowned champion as Lucas Auer (Mercedes AMG Team Landgraf) and Maro Engel (Mercedes-AMG Team Winward) win the season’s final two races.
Across eight race weekends, the new P Zero tyre for DTM proved to be the right product to boost competitiveness in the popular racing series.
Thomas Preining (Manthey) was crowned 2026 DTM champion at Hockenheim, where Lucas Auer (Mercedes AMG Team Landgraf) and Maro Engel (Mercedes-AMG Team Winward) claimed victory in the final two races of the season. The Hockenheim weekend also brought the debut season of the P Zero developed exclusively for the DTM to a close. Across eight race weekends and a wide range of circuits and conditions, the tyre confirmed its principal development targets: rapid warm-up, a high level of grip and predictable performance throughout each stint. These characteristics gave drivers the opportunity to influence performance through tyre management while opening up different strategic options for the teams. It also became apparent that performance was evenly distributed across all brands, meaning that each one was able to deliver its best performance under all conditions.
“Our aim was to develop a tyre that reflected the character of the DTM and made tyre management a genuine part of the competition,” said Matteo Braga, Circuit Activity Manager at Pirelli. “The combination of rapid warm-up, performance and controlled degradation gave drivers room to make a difference and teams the opportunity to explore different race strategies.”
Thomas Preining (Manthey) assesses the impact of the new Pirelli tyres as follows: “I think, all in all, the new tyres have brought about improvements on most circuits compared to the past, not only in terms of pace but also in terms of the excitement of the races.”
“In the DTM, we have created a level playing field with exclusive Pirelli tyres, whilst at the same time giving tyre management greater sporting significance. Thanks to the technologies deployed by Pirelli, we have also been able to convey this crucial aspect of the races to the spectators,” says ADAC Head of Motorsport Thomas Voss. “The debut season has shown that the tyres combine rapid warm-up times and a high level of grip with manageable wear. This opens up additional strategic options for drivers and teams and contributes to exciting, hard-to-predict races.”
The DTM tyre is produced at Pirelli’s Technology Hub in Breuberg, Hesse. The experience and data collected throughout the 2026 season will now provide the foundation for Pirelli’s continuing work in the DTM.
Furthermore, as a long-standing tyre partner, Pirelli continued to support the ADAC GT Masters in the 2026 season as well, once again providing the teams with a reliable foundation for their performance.