Thomas Preining reveals why he believed in the scales when Grello won its first DTM title in 2023 – and which ritual in the truck no one should see
Racing drivers are often superstitious. However, Porsche works driver Thomas Preining, who was confirmed by the “Grello” Manthey team for the 2026 DTM season on Tuesday, seems to be particularly superstitious. The 27-year-old Austrian reveals in the Over the Limit podcast with his fellow racing drivers Laurens and Dries Vanthoor that in 2023, during his DTM championship season, he believed that the scales would decide victory or defeat.
“There’s a rumor,” Laurens Vanthoor begins. “Apparently, you know how successful your weekend will be after you’ve stepped on the scales.” Preining doesn’t disagree and admits that he is “a little superstitious.” It started in 2023, his first DTM year with Manthey.
“I always weigh the same – either 72 or 73. And whenever I weighed 73, it was a really crappy weekend. And when I weighed 72, it was really good,” he realized at the time, recognizing a pattern.
Preining double success in title finale: “We’ve believed in it ever since.”
“That’s superstition 2.0,” Laurens Vanthoor teases his fellow Porsche works driver. But according to Preining, the 2023 season finale at Hockenheim, when the “Grello” driver prevailed in the title fight against Mirko Bortolotti, also confirmed the theory.
“Of course, it’s very difficult to control, but it’s true,” says Preining, referring to the theory about body weight. “At Hockenheim, when I won both races and the championship, I only weighed 71 kg. We’ve believed in it ever since.”
Preining on superstition: “I can be strange in that regard.”
But in 2024, when Preining and Manthey wanted to defend their DTM title, the magic suddenly seemed to have vanished. “It didn’t matter what my weight was. It didn’t help,“ says the Linz native, alluding to the difficult season in which he and his team managed only one victory and the Manthey team struggled with the ground clearance on the front axle specified by the Balance of Performance.
Laurens Vanthoor is surprised by his Porsche colleague’s superstition: ”I’ve never seen it that way before. I thought I was generally faster when I was lighter.“ However, he adds that there is a standard driver weight in the DTM, which is 85 kilograms including equipment and driver ballast, so the issue is not a significant factor anyway.
To which Preining replies: ”I can be strange in that way.”
But does the first Porsche race winner and champion in DTM history also have rituals that are supposed to bring him luck on race weekends? The 2023 DTM season, in which the now Ford works driver Dennis Olsen was his teammate, is likely to have been formative in this regard as well.
Preining’s ritual with Olsen that no one was supposed to see
“Dennis and I had a qualifying preparation,” Preining explains. “We listened to music and sang, but really loudly.” And apparently that wasn’t all. “The craziest and worst thing was that we danced while we were getting changed for qualifying. It was eight o’clock in the morning and we were getting ready to get into the car.”
“So we were naked together in the truck, singing, dancing, and listening to loud music. Imagine if someone had walked in.”
However, Preining says that this is his only ritual – and it wasn’t even his idea. “Dennis basically forced me to do it because he always has his speaker with him. And as you know, he likes it loud. We had a few songs that we always listened to to get us in the mood.”