Emil Frey Racing fights to the very last lap at DTM season finale in Hockenheim

Fast Facts – The Press Bulletin
A final weekend of high drama at the DTM season finale in Hockenheim: Emil Frey Racing delivered fighting performances in both races, yet the hoped-for result remained out of reach. The bitterest moment came in the very last lap of the first race, when Matteo Cairoli was stranded at the side of the track with a tyre failure and all championship dreams were extinguished in an instant. In the second race, the team brought both cars home in sixth and twelfth place. In the final standings, Matteo Cairoli closed out his debut DTM season as a rookie in a strong fifth place, while the team finished fourth in the Teams’ Championship, narrowly missing out on the Top-3.

Press Release
Emil Frey Racing was unable to deliver the result it had hoped for at the DTM season finale in Hockenheim, yet the bigger picture tells a different story: for the second consecutive year, the team claimed three race victories in a single DTM season and remained in contention for the championship right to the final weekend. That Matteo Cairoli achieved all of this in his very first DTM season makes it all the more remarkable: the Italian demonstrated from the outset that he belongs among the fastest drivers in the field, and proved with three victories and his sights set on the title just what potential lies within him and the Swiss team.

Race 1 – Saturday, 10th October 2026
Thierry Vermeulen secured a strong fourth place on the grid in Saturday qualifying with the #69 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, while teammate Matteo Cairoli lined up from position 13 with the #14 Ferrari.

The start appeared promising for both drivers. Thierry Vermeulen got away well and moved up to third place. After the Spitzkehre hairpin, however, he was pushed wide by Ricardo Feller in the #90 Porsche on the acceleration out of the corner, resulting in a spin. From a promising third position, the Dutchman dropped to the back of the field. Matteo Cairoli completed the opening lap in 14th position.

A heavy crash by Luca Engstler in the #130 Lamborghini in front of the Osttribüne grandstand brought out the Safety Car before the race was eventually halted by a red flag. With just under 50 minutes remaining, the race was restarted after a brief interruption and the Emil Frey Racing drivers rejoined from positions 14 (#14) and 20 (#69). Both immediately launched impressive recovery drives, and the pit crew also delivered with stop times of 6.0 and 5.9 seconds. After the mandatory stops, Matteo Cairoli sat in eighth and Thierry Vermeulen in thirteenth. The Dutchman fought his way up to tenth by the chequered flag, while Matteo Cairoli continued to make ground and was on course for ninth shortly before the end.

Then, in the very last lap, the hardest blow: contact with the #36 Ford of Arjun Maini had damaged the left front tyre of the #14 Ferrari. Matteo Cairoli battled on with a slow puncture for several laps before having to bring the car to a halt at the side of the circuit in the final lap, ending all championship hopes in an instant. Thierry Vermeulen brought the #69 Ferrari home in twelfth to salvage vital points for the team in the Teams’ Championship.

Race 2 – Sunday, 11th October 2026
In cool conditions of just eleven degrees Celsius, the DTM field headed into the final qualifying session of the 2026 season on Sunday morning. Matteo Cairoli secured fifth on the grid, with Thierry Vermeulen right behind him in sixth – both Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evos well within striking distance of the front.

Despite a dry track, the race was declared a wet race. The start did not go to plan: Thierry Vermeulen braked too late at the Spitzkehre, making contact with the #48 Mercedes, which in turn touched Cairoli and cost him several positions. Thierry Vermeulen received a penalty and rejoined behind his teammate after serving his penalty lap – Matteo Cairoli in eighth, Thierry Vermeulen in ninth.

When the pitstop window opened after ten minutes, Thierry Vermeulen was the first Emil Frey Racing driver to pit, leaving the box after 6.5 seconds on fresh slicks. Matteo Cairoli followed shortly after with a 6.8-second stop. The pit work did not quite reach the team’s usual high standard on this occasion; after the stops Matteo Cairoli sat in ninth and Thierry Vermeulen in eleventh, the latter fighting back to claim one further position.

In the closing laps Matteo Cairoli advanced to sixth place, while Thierry Vermeulen crossed the line in twelfth. It was not the conclusion the team had hoped for, but the lessons of this season will lay the foundation for another title challenge in 2027.

TEAM QUOTES – Emil Frey Racing

Lorenz Frey-Hilti, Team Principal
“The atmosphere here in Hockenheim was incredible – we had almost 300 guests, including many of our sponsors, and so many Swiss fans in the grandstands. That makes it all the more painful that we were unable to close out the season the way we had hoped. The pace was certainly there, but we could not convert it into the result we were aiming for this weekend. Nevertheless, we can look back on a season in which we showed strong results with the new Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, and we will do everything in our power to come back even stronger next year. Congratulations to Porsche and Thomas Preining – they did an outstanding job and thoroughly deserved the title.”

Jürg Flach, Technical Director
“Once again the weekend did not go our way, despite our performance being promising throughout. On Saturday we were taken out of the race by our rivals, which made it even harder to challenge for a podium position in the championship standings. The grid positions and performance for today’s race were encouraging, but unnecessary contact at the start pushed us back and removed our last chances of improving our result. I want to sincerely thank the entire team for their tireless commitment.”

DRIVER QUOTES – Emil Frey Racing

Matteo Cairoli (Italy)
“My first DTM season was a positive one overall. We could certainly have achieved more, but finishing in the top five in the Drivers’ Championship and winning three races is a pretty good result, especially with a new car that none of us knew yet. Today the race could have gone better after losing a number of positions on the opening lap. In the end I am satisfied, and I want to thank the team, who never stopped fighting.”

Thierry Vermeulen (Netherlands)
“A tough weekend. I felt we had a strong car throughout, yet we leave Hockenheim with very few points. The car felt fantastic in both qualifying sessions and I am proud of the performance we showed. In the first race we were unfortunately taken out through no fault of our own and had to restart from the back, yet we still managed to fight back to twelfth. In the second qualifying the car was a joy to drive and I believe we had the potential to be on the front row. In the second race, however, I made a big mistake on the opening lap that was entirely my own fault, and I want to apologise to my team for that. I want to thank every mechanic and everyone involved for their relentless dedication – we gave everything we had and I am proud of what we have achieved together this season. Now it is time to rest, reset, and look ahead.”

ABOUT EMIL FREY RACING

Emil Frey Racing is a storied Swiss motorsport team based in Safenwil. Founded in the 1960s on the foundations of the Emil Frey Group, the team can look back on decades of motorsport experience, ranging from single-seater and rally racing to long-distance GT series. Today, Emil Frey Racing competes internationally, currently in both the DTM and the GT World Challenge with the Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.