Four podium finishes, but no victory yet: Emil Frey Ferrari driver Thierry Vermeulen is chasing his debut success in the 2026 DTM season and is convinced “that it is possible”
Thierry Vermeulen will start his fourth DTM season in 2026. The 23-year-old Dutchman, who, as in previous years, will be driving a Ferrari 296 GT3 from Emil Frey Racing, has finished on the podium four times but has yet to win. That is set to change this year.
“The first goal is to win a race. That is very important to me,“ emphasized Vermeulen in an interview with the Dutch edition of Motorsport.com, ”I want to show that it is possible.“
”We had a few chances last year, but for various reasons it didn’t work out,” said the Ferrari driver, recalling the previous season. “Beyond that, I just want to be consistent. Personally, I believe that we are fast enough and have everything we need to be at the front throughout the year.”
Thierry Vermeulen is making “significant progress”
And the signs are good: “If I look back over the last few years, I’ve improved a lot in the rankings,” recalls Vermeulen, who finished 16th overall in his debut season in 2023, followed by a 15th place in his second year.
In the previous season, the Ferrari driver finished tenth, which shows an improvement in the overall standings. “But also in terms of overall performance,” emphasizes the Dutchman confidently. “In the first year, I first had to settle in. We knew that the DTM is highly competitive.”
“But due to the changes in the GT Masters and the takeover of the DTM by the ADAC, it was the right decision to make my DTM debut back then. In the second and third year, you could see that not only the team but also I myself had made significant progress.”
Vermeulen admits himself: “I still have to improve”
Now the onus is on Vermeulen, after team-mate Jack Aitken was able to fight for the DTM crown for a long time last year. “Last season, the performance peaks were very high,” recalls the son of Raymond Vermeulen, the manager of four-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen.
“On the top weekends, we were simply the strongest throughout the weekend. If you look at the Norisring or the Red Bull Ring, we were simply very competitive there. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to win a race yet for various reasons.”
Why is that? “I believe that I still need to improve in certain areas to be able to win races in a truly dominant manner,” says Vermeulen, who, unlike Verstappen, has not switched to the Mercedes-AMG GT3. “And I think that we as a team can also do certain things better in order to achieve the results.”
Ferrari driver has “worked hard in the winter”
That’s why the team has not sat back so far. “We worked hard last winter, including with some new crew members in the team,” reveals the Emil Frey driver. “I myself also thought a lot about certain races and why some weekends didn’t go well.”
“We had some very good top weekends, but if you look at why we didn’t end up in the top eight of the overall standings, it was mainly due to the weaker weekends,” the Dutchman looks back.
“In the DTM, it is crucial to avoid such weekends,” emphasizes Vermeulen, who is very confident about his fourth DTM year. “We have worked hard over the winter and hope that we can show this in the new season.”