Ford Returning to DTM Racing with the Mustang GT3 After a Decades-Long Hiatus

The new Ford Mustang’s international racing career is off to a good start. The coupe began racing in Australia’s Supercars Championship during the 2023 season, and starting in 2025 it will compete in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) series through a partnership with Ford and Haupt Racing Team.

Racing a Mustang will be a big change for Haupt: it’s been campaigning a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo for the past couple of seasons. And while its 2025 race car is based on the Mustang Dark Horse, much has changed in the transition from the showroom to the pit lane. The GT3-spec model is powered by a 5.4-liter V-8 that exhales through side-mounted pipes, for example, and it wears a full body kit that includes a splitter, wheel arch flares, and a wing. Inside, we spot a full roll cage and a racing seat for the driver.

Haupt Racing will enter two examples of the Mustang GT3 in the 2025 DTM season, but it’s also setting its sights on other racing series. One is the ADAC Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie, where the brand hopes to win the grueling Nürburgring 24 Hours. Another is the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe. The team will launch a customer racing program as well, and it will work with Ford to make improvements to the car.

The 2025 season of DTM will start on April 25 at a German track called Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. The full list of entrants hasn’t been published yet, but in 2024 it included 10 teams racing GT3-spec variants of the Audi R8, the BMW M4, the Porsche 911, and the Lamborghini Huracán, among others.

It’s been several decades since Ford last raced in DTM. From 1984 to 1989 it entered the Sierra XR4Ti (which was related to the Merkur model sold in the United States) and the mighty Sierra RS 500 Cosworth, and the team won the driver’s championship in 1988. Several private teams have raced Ford models since.