Porsche kicks off 2026 season with fastest time at Red Bull Ring test. Porsche, Aston Martin and BMW make it three manufacturers in the top five. Ginetta and Mercedes-AMG also impress at the Red Bull Ring. Teams already looking ahead to season opener from 24th to 25th April.
ADAC GT4 Germany is ready for the 2026 season. The ADAC sports car series was at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on Thursday for the official pre-season test. The teams had over eight hours of track time to prepare their GT4 race cars perfectly for the coming season, which begins at the same venue from 24th to 26th April as part of the DTM race weekend. The Porsche, Aston Martin and BMW teams fared particularly well, and all ended the day in the top five. Tickets for the DTM and ADAC GT4 Germany start at € 49 and are available online at dtm.com. Admission is free for under 16s when accompanied by an adult.
Unsettled weather, with cooler temperatures earlier on, followed by rain, and then sunshine in the afternoon, provided the teams with ideal conditions, in which to try various set-up variants. The fastest laps came in the second session. Debutant Jack James (19/GBR), at the wheel of a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 for Razoon – more than Racing, set the fastest time of the day, completing the 4.326 kilometres in 1:37.402 minutes.
“It is obviously nice to start the season with the fastest time. That is a positive sign ahead of my first year in ADAC GT4 Germany. That was my first time at the Red Bull Ring, and my first time in the Porsche,” the Brit explained. “The fastest lap came during a qualifying simulation on new Pirelli tyres in the afternoon. We made good use of the test day and tried out a number of things with the set-up. It worked very well.”
Second place at the test, 0.163 seconds slower than James, went to fellow Porsche drivers Oskar Dix (20/GBR) and Egor Litvinenko (21, both Wimmer Werk Motorsport). Third fastest were Jan Philipp Springob (25/Olpe) and Philipp Gogollok (20/Bad Homburg, both COSY Racing by ESM), who missed out on top spot by 0.249 seconds in their Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4. “The changing conditions mean it is difficult to judge how good you are really looking, with regard to the race weekend,” said Springob. “However, the second session was particularly effective for us as a team. We ran various programmes and are thus heading home happy. Last year, I had a pole position at the Red Bull Ring. I would have nothing against that happening again this year.”
Fourth went to Denny Berndt (21/Berlin) and Lachlan Robinson (22/AUS, both AVIA W&S Motorsport), who were 0.378 seconds off top stop in another Porsche. Rounding out the top five was the BMW M4 GT4 Evo of Lukas Stiefelhagen (18/NED) and Leon Bauchmüller (18/Kurchlinteln, both ME Motorsport).
Alexzander Kristiansson (26/SWE) and Erik Bertilsson (25/SWE, both KRT Racing), who share a Ginetta G65 GT4 Evo, were making their ADAC GT4 Germany debut. “The series is class. We have been very well received,” said Kristiansson, who is both driver and team manager. “The test day went really well for us. We were able to work on the set-up for dry conditions and rain. Everything looks very promising. Our Ginetta is very well suited to the Red Bull Ring. As such, we are optimistic ahead of the race weekend.” The Ginetta duo ended the test in eleventh place. The fastest Mercedes-AMG GT4 was that of Marius Schmid (18/Tengen) and Alex Connor (22/GBR, both BWT Mücke Motorsport) in eighth place.
Making his first appearance in ADAC GT4 Germany was America Tim Horrell (35, AVIA W&S Motorsport), who uses levers and buttons on the steering wheel to drive his Porsche, as he is paralysed from the waist down. “It is very nice to line up in ADAC GT4 Germany. This allows me to test myself against the best GT4 drivers in Europe,” said Horrell, who shares the cockpit with last year’s runner-up Hendrik Still (38/Kempenich). “We were right on the pace in the test. The unsettled conditions meant it was hard to find good grip at times. However, on the whole we were able to gather some good data for the race weekend. We are ready.”
The top five at the test day at the Red Bull Ring 1. James - Razoon - more than Racing - Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 - 1:37.402 min. 2. Dix/Litvinenko - Wimmer Werk Motorsport - Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 – 1:37.565 min. 3. Springob/Gogollok - COSY Racing by ESM - Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo - 1:37.651 min. 4. Berndt/Robinson - AVIA W&S Motorsport - Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 - 1:37.780 min. 5. Stiefelhagen/Bauchmüller - ME Motorsport - BMW M4 GT4 Evo - 1:37.782 min.
