Overall Champion, 2024 · GT World Challenge

Maro Engel

A Mercedes-AMG factory driver since 2008, and GT World Challenge Europe champion in 2024. He has won the Nürburgring 24 Hours twice, the Bathurst 12 Hour, and the Macau GT Cup four times.

Nationality
German
Born
27 August 1985 · Munich, Germany
Manufacturer
Mercedes-AMG factory driver since 2008
GT World Challenge
2024 overall and Sprint Cup champion
Nürburgring 24 Hours
2 wins (2016, 2026)
Nordschleife record
6:29.090 · Mercedes-AMG ONE, September 2024
Shop the Collection Watch highlights
2024 GT World Challenge Europe Champion
2001 — Present
4
Macau GT Cup Wins
3
GT World Challenge Titles
2
Nürburgring 24H Wins
2
Daytona 24H Class Wins

Who is Maro Engel?

Maro Engel (born 27 August 1985) is a German racing driver who has been a Mercedes-AMG factory driver since 2008. He won the GT World Challenge Europe title in 2024, the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2016 and 2026, the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2026 and the Macau GT Cup four times, and holds the Nordschleife lap record for road-legal production cars.

Full name
Maro René Engel
Nationality
German
Career
2001–present
Best known for
The 2024 GT World Challenge Europe title and two Nürburgring 24 Hours wins

By KozmozInspire Editorial Published Updated 9 sources

Rider Profile

Maro Engel: Full Biography

Maro Engel is a German racing driver and a Mercedes-AMG factory driver since 2008. He won the GT World Challenge Europe overall title and its Sprint Cup in 2024, the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup in 2018, the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2016 and 2026, the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2026, the Suzuka 10 Hours in 2018 and the Macau GT Cup four times.

Single-Seaters Born in Munich, he karted in Germany and France from 1996 and was fourth in the 2000 European Junior Karting Championship. Formula BMW followed, then Formula 3: he was fifth in the 2006 British Formula 3 International Series and runner-up in 2007 with Carlin, before Mercedes signed him.

Nürburgring Four DTM seasons with Mücke Motorsport from 2008 brought no podium, and a year of V8 Supercars in Australia followed in 2013. His GT career made the difference: Macau in 2014 and 2015, then overall victory in the 2016 Nürburgring 24 Hours, taken with a pass on the last lap by the closest margin in the race’s history.

Records In September 2024 he lapped the Nordschleife in 6:29.090 in a Mercedes-AMG ONE, a notarised production-car record more than six seconds inside the previous mark. He also holds the Bathurst 12 Hour pole record, and leads the DTM championship in 2026.

The Career

Three Chapters That Defined Maro Engel

Chapter 01

Munich to Mercedes

He was born in Munich and karted in Germany and France between 1996 and 1999, finishing fourth in the European Junior Karting Championship in 2000. Formula BMW came next — third in the Junior Cup in 2001, eighth in Formula BMW ADAC the following year — and then Formula 3, where a season with Opel Team KMS in the Euro Series was followed by two years in the British Formula 3 International Series with Carlin: fifth in 2006 with a win and eight podiums, and runner-up in 2007 with three wins. Mercedes signed him as a factory driver in 2008, and he spent four DTM seasons with Mücke Motorsport in year-old cars. They brought thirteen points in total and no podium finish, and he left the series at the end of 2011.

Maro Engel’s number 16 Mercedes-Benz C-Class DTM car on track during the 2011 season, his fourth and last with Mücke Motorsport. Mercedes-Benz C-Class DTM · Mücke Motorsport, 2011 Photo: Maro Engel, Mücke Motorsport, DTM (2011) by Oliver Pohlmann / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized) · licence
Chapter 02

Australia, Macau, the Nürburgring

A full V8 Supercars season with Erebus Motorsport followed in 2013, the year Mercedes first entered the Australian championship, along with a first appearance in the Macau GT Cup. He won Macau in 2014 and again in 2015, and in 2016 came the race that defines his record. Driving the new Mercedes-AMG GT3 for Team Black Falcon with Bernd Schneider, Adam Christodoulou and Manuel Metzger, he took pole for the Nürburgring 24 Hours in drying conditions with a lap of 8:14.563, ran double-start duty in a second car that finished fourth, and made the pass that won the race on the last lap — 5.6 seconds covering the first two cars, the closest finish in the event’s history. Two seasons of Formula E with Venturi ran alongside, and in 2018 he won the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and the Suzuka 10 Hours.

The Erebus Motorsport Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG V8 Supercar of Maro Engel at the 2013 V8 Supercars test day. Erebus Motorsport Mercedes E63 AMG · V8 Supercars, 2013 Photo: Erebus Motorsport Mercedes E63 AMG, V8 Supercars (2013) by Kytabu / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (resized) · licence
Chapter 03

Champion at Last

The 2024 season brought the championship. Sharing a Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG with Lucas Auer, he won three Sprint Cup races and took six podiums, beating Team WRT’s Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts to the Sprint Cup by 2.5 points and to the overall GT World Challenge Europe title by the same margin. He was third in the DTM that year without winning a race, from one pole, five second places and seven podiums, and won the Macau GT Cup for a fourth time. In September he lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 6:29.090 in a Mercedes-AMG ONE, a notarised record for road-legal production cars that beat the previous mark by more than six seconds, four years after setting one himself in a Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series. In 2026 he won the Bathurst 12 Hour with Mikaël Grenier and Maxime Martin, won the Nürburgring 24 Hours a second time with Martin, Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz, and leads the DTM championship.

Maro Engel’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 running at Oschersleben during the 2025 DTM season, in which he finished third for the second year running. Mercedes-AMG GT3 · DTM Oschersleben, 2025 Photo: Maro Engel, Mercedes-AMG GT3, DTM Oschersleben (2025) by Steffen Prößdorf / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized) · licence
Career Timeline

Maro Engel Career Timeline: 1985–Present

Born in Munich

Maro René Engel is born on 27 August in Munich.

Karting

Finishes fourth in the European Junior Karting Championship.

Formula BMW

Third in the Formula BMW Junior Cup with three wins.

British Formula 3

Runner-up in the British Formula 3 International Series with Carlin.

Mercedes-AMG

Signs as a factory driver and makes his DTM debut with Mücke Motorsport.

V8 Supercars

A full season in Australia with Erebus Motorsport in the Mercedes E63 AMG.

Macau

Wins the Macau GT Cup, and repeats the following year.

Nürburgring 24 Hours

Takes pole and wins overall with a pass on the last lap.

Formula E and DTM

A second Formula E season with Venturi, and a DTM race win for Mercedes.

Two Titles

Wins the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and the Suzuka 10 Hours.

Sprint Cup Runner-Up

Four wins in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, and second overall.

Champion

Wins the Sprint Cup and the overall GT World Challenge Europe title with Lucas Auer.

Nordschleife Record

Laps the Nordschleife in 6:29.090 in a Mercedes-AMG ONE.

Bathurst and the Ring

Wins the Bathurst 12 Hour and a second Nürburgring 24 Hours.

By the Numbers

Maro Engel GT World Challenge Europe Record, Season by Season

Maro Engel season-by-season record: team, wins, poles, podiums, points and final standing.
SeasonTeam Wins Poles Podiums Points Pos.
2018 Black Falcon · Endurance Cup 1 1 2 73 1
2019 Black Falcon · Sprint 1 1 5 92.5 2
2019 Black Falcon · Endurance Cup 0 1 2 51 3
2020 Haupt Racing Team · Sprint 1 1 3 60 6
2020 Haupt Racing Team · Endurance 0 0 1 40 7
2021 Team Toksport · Sprint 4 2 6 95 2
2021 BWT Haupt Racing · Endurance 0 0 1 25 12
2022 Team GetSpeed · Endurance 0 0 1 44 7
2023 Team Al Manar · Endurance 0 0 2 61 3
2024 Winward Racing · Sprint 3 1 8 107 1
2024 Team Mann-Filter · Endurance 1 0 2 48 6
2025 Team Mann-Filter · Endurance 1 1 2 72 2
2025 Winward Racing · Sprint 1 1 4 76.5 4
2026 Team Mann-Filter · Endurance 0 1 3 74 1*
2026 Winward Racing · Sprint 0 0 3 40 5*

Championship seasons are highlighted. GT World Challenge Europe is contested as two separate cups — a Sprint Cup and an Endurance Cup — with a combined overall standing on top, so each season appears here as one row per cup and the columns do not sum to any single career total. He won the Endurance Cup in 2018, when it was still called the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, and the Sprint Cup and the overall title in 2024; the 2019 sprint championship ran under the name Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe. The 2026 rows are marked with an asterisk because the season is in progress, and the 1st shown against the Endurance Cup is a current standing rather than a title. His DTM career, four Macau GT Cup wins, two Nürburgring 24 Hours victories, the 2026 Bathurst 12 Hour, the 2018 Suzuka 10 Hours, two seasons of Formula E and his IMSA, Intercontinental GT Challenge and ADAC GT Masters records are covered in the biography and timeline rather than here. Figures verified 6 September 2026.

Frequently Asked

Maro Engel: Frequently Asked Questions

What has Maro Engel won?

The GT World Challenge Europe overall title and Sprint Cup in 2024, the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup in 2018, the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2016 and 2026, the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2026, the Suzuka 10 Hours in 2018 and the Macau GT Cup four times, in 2014, 2015, 2022 and 2024.

What is Maro Engel’s Nürburgring lap record?

6:29.090, set on 23 September 2024 in a Mercedes-AMG ONE over the 20.832 km Nordschleife, in an official record attempt with the timing and the car’s condition verified by a notary. It beat the previous production-car mark by more than six seconds. He had set the record himself in 2020 in a Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series, at 6:48.047.

How did Maro Engel win the 2016 Nürburgring 24 Hours?

On the last lap. Driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3 for Team Black Falcon with Bernd Schneider, Adam Christodoulou and Manuel Metzger, he made the decisive pass to win by 5.6 seconds — the closest finish in the history of the race. He had also taken pole, with a lap of 8:14.563.

Who does Maro Engel drive for?

Mercedes-AMG. He has been a factory driver since 2008 and a brand ambassador since 2017, and races their GT3 cars for teams including Winward Racing, Mann-Filter, GetSpeed, GruppeM and Ravenol across the DTM, GT World Challenge, IMSA and the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

Did Maro Engel race in Formula E?

Yes, for the Venturi Formula E Team across the 2016–17 and 2017–18 seasons — 23 starts, two fastest laps and no wins, with a best championship finish of twelfth.

Did Maro Engel race in Australia?

Yes. He contested the 2013 International V8 Supercars Championship with Erebus Motorsport in the Mercedes E63 AMG, the year Mercedes first entered the series, and won the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2026.

How many times has Maro Engel won at Macau?

Four — in 2014, 2015, 2022 and 2024. The 2024 win came in the main race for Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing, from fourth on the grid, and he set the fastest lap of the race at 2:32.696.

What did Maro Engel do in the DTM?

He drove four seasons for Mücke Motorsport from 2008 without a podium, returned in 2017 and won a race, and has raced there again since 2022. He was third in the standings in 2024 and 2025 and leads the championship in 2026.

Who won the 2024 GT World Challenge Europe title?

Maro Engel and Lucas Auer, driving a Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG. They beat Team WRT’s Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts to both the Sprint Cup and the overall title by 2.5 points.

Shop His Gear

Maro Engel Collection

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References

Sources & Further Reading

Every statistic on this page is drawn from the following records.

  1. GT World Challenge Europe · SRO Motorsports (official)
  2. DTM official site · DTM (official)
  3. Mercedes-Benz Media · Mercedes-Benz (official)
  4. 2026 Bathurst 12 Hour · Wikipedia
  5. 2026 24 Hours of Nürburgring · Wikipedia
  6. 2024 FIA GT World Cup · Wikipedia
  7. List of Nürburgring Nordschleife lap times · Wikipedia
  8. Maro Engel · Wikipedia
  9. Maro Engel (Q67795) · Wikidata entity record

How this page is made

Rider profiles are compiled from official series records and cross-checked against independent statistical databases before publication.

Commercial disclosure. This page links to merchandise sold by KozmozInspire. Products are fan-made tributes inspired by motorsport history and are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or licensed from the rider, their estate, or any team.

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