Reigning GT Masters champion Tom Kalender will become the youngest-ever DTM driver when he lines up on the grid for the 2025 season opener at Oschersleben.
The 16-year-old has been signed by Mercedes to represent the returning Landgraf team in the DTM after he broke the age record in GT Masters last year, when he won the overall title with Finnish racer Elias Seppanen.
He will be just 17 years and 30 days old at the start of the season, surpassing the record held for almost a decade by current Porsche Formula E star Pascal Wehrlein.
Kalender will be joined by Nurburgring and Macau GT winner Engel, who previously raced for Landgraf in 2023 and has been a regular fixture of Mercedes’ DTM line-up in the series’ GT3 era.
Landgraf was part of Mercedes’ DTM roster in 2023 but is more famous for its success in GT Masters, a series also run by German automobile association ADAC. Its 2024 triumph with Kalender and Seppanen marked its third straight title in the championship.
Meanwhile, two-time Spa 24 Hours winner Jules Gounon will join Winward Racing to partner incumbent Lucas Auer.
Lucas Auer, Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD Mercedes-AMG GT3
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Having already made his DTM debut at last year’s Hockenheim finale as a stand-in for the sick Luca Stolz, 30-year-old Gounon will contest the full 2025 season in a Mercedes AMG GT3 entered by Winward.
The French driver will dovetail his newly announced DTM commitments with a drive in the Hypercar class of the World Endurance Championship, where he will compete for the factory Alpine team alongside Frederic Makowiecki and Mick Schumacher.
In DTM, he will team up with nine-time race winner Auer, who will be embarking on his 10th season in the category and ninth with Mercedes.
Gounon and Kalender replace Luca Stolz and Arjun Maini in Mercedes’ four-car line-up. Stolz was initially a contender for Mercedes’ debut in the LMGT3 class of the World Endurance Championship with Iron Lynx, but is now likely to race in the GT World Challenge Europe.
Meanwhile, Maini has left Mercedes’ stable altogether to join forces with Ford and could find a berth in HRT’s expected two-car entry with the Mustang GT3.
Hubert Haupt’s HRT team had been a Mercedes customer since inception but has switched its allegiance to Ford, which is ramping up its GT3 programme in Europe.
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