Factory Porsche driver Thomas Preining has shed light on why his relationship with Maro Engel has been icy for several years.
The topic came up on the Over the Limit podcast hosted by Dries Vanthoor and his brother Laurens.
Teasing Preining, Vanthoor joked: “Apparently you’re very good friends with Maro Bengel,” a German pun about the Mercedes driver’s surname.
Preining grinned before speaking frankly about Engel: “Obviously, I’m not the only one having a difficult relationship with him,” he said. “Funnily enough, I've known him for a long time. Because when I was a Porsche Junior, we had the same sponsor, so we met a few times.”
The sponsor in question was the energy drink company Silberpfeil, which in 2017 backed Engel’s Class 1-spec Mercedes in the DTM, and whose CEO Robert Stasny was also Preining’s manager.
At that time, Preining said the relationship with Engel was quite good and he served as a role model.
“Back then, I was looking up to him,” he said. “Obviously, he was a professional.
“Also, the way he's doing all of his sponsor work and presenting himself also for AMG was on a very highly professional level.”
But things changed when the two raced against each other in the ADAC GT Masters in 2021. Preining was competing in his second full season in the series with team-mate Christian Engelhart, driving for Timo Bernhard’s team, while Engel and Luca Stolz were fighting for the title with Toksport-WRT Mercedes
“In one race, he just basically drove through me at the start,” Preining recalled.
“I didn't even say anything because the car was fully broken and he continued. And so we didn't speak.
“Then after the race, he went on TV and said it's my fault. And all of the commentators went crazy about it and it was a whole thing.”
Preining is likely referring to a collision at the Nurburgring season finale where Engel hit him from behind, sending him into the WRT Audi driven by Dries Vanthoor. Engel received a drivethrough penalty for the incident, costing him and Stolz the title.
The 27-year-old said that since that moment, there has been no verbal communication between the pair.
“I didn't speak to him anymore since then. That's like four years ago,” he said. “He still has hard feelings because every time we see each other on track, he's hitting me, especially in DTM.
“I’m all for hard racing, but when we drive next to each other on the straight, he really struggles to keep the steering wheel in one position.”
Engel’s response
When contacted by Motorsport.com’s sister title Motorsport-Total.com about Preining’s comments, Engel said: “Yes, it’s true, I tried to help Thomas Preining a bit at the beginning of his career. His statements don’t surprise me.”
Pressed further as to why Preining’s comments didn’t surprise him, Engel chose not to elaborate further.
For Preining, the ongoing tension makes no difference to how he approaches his racing.
“In the end, there's always people that you like, people that you don't like, especially in racing," he said. "There's people who are easy to race against and people who try certain things. But in the end, you have to beat them all. So it makes no difference for me.”
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