What makes the champion tick
The psychological tricks for the big 2024 mission
DTM hero Thomas Preining is subordinating everything to winning the title again and is even sacrificing the number one spot for his goals. A special hashtag is intended to motivate the whole team even more.
Immediately after his great triumph in Hockenheim, the starting signal for the 2024 season was given for Austria's first DTM champion Thomas Preining. The Linz-based driver prepared his Porsche works team Manthey Racing for the challenges ahead and even created his own hashtag with the motto "Mission title defense". Because: "If we don't continue to develop, we have no chance. You're only champion for a few months, then you start from scratch again," says Preining, who wants to motivate every single team member, from mechanics to data analysts, to achieve the big goal.
"Better for team spirit"
In order not to jeopardize this, the 25-year-old from Linz even reached deep into his psychological bag of tricks: Traditionally, the overall winner of the DTM is entitled to the number one on his race car, which all winners have also taken with pride in recent years. But Preining is different. He insisted on driving with the number 91 in 2024 too! Reason: "It's much better for the team spirit to attack again with the 91 than to defend the sporting success with the number 1. And in 2024, no one will be interested in what you achieved in 2023," Preining is convinced, although this topic had been a topic of conversation: "For some of the team, the appeal was already great. Not everyone is allowed to drive the 1, it's an honor that you have to earn. But that was important to me and that's why I'm sticking with the 91," confirms Tom, who will be taking part in the final tests at the Hockenheimring from Monday. With the advantage of not having to use a brand new car like in 2023: "Experience and data obviously help us. It's up to us to be successful. I don't care who drives with us to the top."
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