Salman Owega and Finn Wiebelhaus are the new ADAC GT Masters champions. Title with Haupt Racing Team in the first season for the Ford Mustang GT3. Owega becomes youngest two-time champion in the history of the ADAC GT Masters.

Salman Owega (20/Cologne) and Finn Wiebelhaus (19/Obertshausen) are the 2025 ADAC GT Masters champions. The Haupt Racing Team duo in the Ford Mustang GT3 wrapped up the title in Saturday’s race at the Hockenheimring, with one race still to come. Having won two races and picked up four podiums this season, their lead is now so great that they can no longer be denied the title. “It is absolutely unbelievable. At the start of the season, we never expected to be champions,” says Wiebelhaus. The 19-year-old also won the “Road to DTM”, for which he was rewarded with the entry fee for next year’s DTM season. For Owega, this is title number two, having previously won the championship in 2023. “I am delighted to be champion again. It has been a long and tough journey since we decided to contest this season with Ford and Finn. The car was unfamiliar to our team and, generally speaking, still pretty new. We can now say that we did everything right.”

The title was won by a team – in every sense of the word. A duo working in harmony both on and off the track. 19-year-old Wiebelhaus and his 20-year-old team-mate Owega exude unity. In every interview, in every situation away from the track, and at every official appointment. They drive like a team that wants to win and knows that that is only possible together in the ADAC GT Masters. “Some drivers are more concerned with themselves and making the most of a situation for themselves and their image,” says Owega. “We have a broader perspective and are not so egoistical that we just want to get the fastest lap time for ourselves. We always bear in mind that the other needs to have good enough tyres left to survive or overtake in their stint.” The two young drivers have demonstrated this level-headedness on multiple occasions over the course of the season. The focus was never on one individual result or the brief joy that comes with a success, but rather on the bigger picture. The title. Owega once put this into words superbly: “I am obviously pleased with good results, but I ultimately only look at the points scored, as that is what wins championships.”

Wiebelhaus and Owega know each other from last year, when they both raced for HRT but in different cars. The two quiet and considerate characters soon realised that they would like to start together in 2025. “Even back then, we already got on very well. Salman and I are the same age, and we have the same interests. He never gets angry and always has a relaxed air about him,” Wiebelhaus reveals. “We also do things together away from the track, and are both fast. You have to work together in a race, and we do that brilliantly.”

The new championship-winning duo also shares another important milestone. They were accepted on the Ford development programme for the 2025 season and can call themselves ‘Ford Performance GT3 Juniors’. As such, they were among those charged with shaping and developing the new Ford Mustang GT3 in its first season in the ADAC GT Masters. The fact that they were immediately able to compete at the front of the field, to claim the first victory for the Ford Mustang GT3 in the ADAC GT Masters and in Europe in general, and then to ultimately win the title, is a dream come true. “Together with the team, we have constantly improved the car. HRT has really done a great job in that regard,” says Wiebelhaus, full of praise for his team. “We are both pleased to represent the Ford brand as Juniors. That is obviously even better now that we have the title.”

A few years ago, these words would have sounded like a fairytale for Offenbach-born Wiebelhaus. He played football for Kickers Offenbach and a big career in motorsport was by no means just around the corner. However, as a Sebastian Vettel fan, he never missed a Formula 1 race and eventually decided to take a rented kart for a spin. His interest in motorsport grew, and courses and his own kart followed. Then came success in 2022: champion in the ADAC Kart Masters X30 Junior class and a call-up to the ADAC Formula Junior Team, which was new at the time. After a season in the French Formula 4 series, Wiebelhaus decided to switch to the ADAC GT Masters. “Personally, I find GT racing more fun and I also felt I had better prospects there,” says Wiebelhaus, who drove a Mercedes-AMG GT3 in 2024. “I learned a lot last season and made it into the Ford Junior squad. To now be crowned champion in only my second year makes me unbelievably happy.”

Team-mate Owega basically has motorsport in his DNA. His brother Jusuf used to race in the DTM. His father Ammar was a race doctor at the Nürburgring, alongside his day job, for over ten years. With that in mind, few eyebrows were raised when he took his place behind the wheel of a rented kart for the first time at the age of six. He remained true to his passion for karting for many years. In 2021, he moved straight into GT3 racing and one year later made his ADAC GT Masters debut – with none other than Christopher Haase, the series’ first champion, at his side. “I learned an incredible amount from him. He taught me so much and I am very grateful to him for that,” recalls the 20-year-old. The following season, he put what he had learned into practice alongside Elias Seppänen and was crowned champion for the first time – the youngest in the history of the series at the time. That record may have been broken twice since, but Owega has set a new benchmark with his second title. He is only the fifth two-time champion in the ADAC GT Masters and, at 20 years and 132 days, is the youngest to achieve that feat. “When we were named as Ford Performance GT3 Juniors, it was immediately clear to Finn and me that we would be happy with nothing less than winning the title, and we knew that we had the potential to do so. To have now achieved that goal is awesome.”

It remains to be seen what awaits the two champions in the future. After four years in the ADAC GT Masters and two titles, Owega is hungry for something new. “I really like the series, but I can’t remain at the same level for ever. I want to continue to develop and look to the future,” the driver from Cologne reveals. His team-mate Wiebelhaus is not ruling out a title defence, but nor has he committed his future to the series. “I learned an awful lot in the ADAC GT Masters in the past two years, but I would obviously like to race against the big boys at some point,” says the winner of the “Road to DTM”. “It would naturally be nice to be a Ford works driver in the future, to start and win a lot of races in a GT3 car or a hypercar, and to travel the world.”