Markus Winkelhock

Born in the Stuttgart district of Bad Cannstatt, Marcus, the son of Manfred Winkelhock, who was active in Formula 1 and Group C and was killed in an accident in 1985, celebrated his debut in motorsport in 1998 with a second place in Formula König. He then entered the German Formula 3 Championship via Formula Renault in 2001 and finished fifth in the final standings after three race wins in his first season.

In August 2002, he took the first victory for the new Mercedes-Benz Formula 3 M 271 engine at the Nürburgring, won two more races with the Dallara-Mercedes in the following season and finished fourth in the final championship standings. In 2004, Winkelhock joined Team Persson Motorsport in the German Touring Car Masters, where he drove an AMG-Mercedes CLK-DTM from the previous year.

After the excursion into touring car racing ended fruitlessly, the Stuttgart native turned back to formula racing, this time in the World Series by Renault, which he finished in third place overall. He then set his sights on Formula 1 with a test driver contract at Team Midland and got a Grand Prix entry at the Nürburgring.

After this episode, which remained without prospects, Winkelhock returned to the DTM in 2008 and became involved in the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2011. Here, he won the drivers' title in 2012 in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, the greatest success of his career. After switching to Audi, the Stuttgart driver achieved numerous further victories and podium finishes with the R8 in GT racing series such as the Blancpain GT and Endurance Series or the ADAC GT Masters in the following years.