NEWS

It’s been a decade since Patric Niederhauser was last associated with Lamborghini Squadra Corse. But despite pursuing – and achieving – success with other brands in the intervening years, the relationship first established from his days in Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe remained constant.

And so now it is a full circle moment for the talented Swiss racer, who claimed the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup title with new-for-2026 Lamborghini strategic partner Rutronik Racing by a single point last year in a dramatic season finale at Barcelona.

Ever since his early karting days – inspired by a visit to the Spanish Grand Prix with his father – Niederhauser has never been far from a racetrack. Having climbed as high as he could on the F1 career ladder, becoming a race winner in GP3 Series, he made the switch to GTs for the 2015 season.

It was a move that paid off handsomely. A race winner in the season-ending Lamborghini World Finals at Sebring preceded a place on the Lamborghini Young Driver Programme for the following season. Niederhauser then went on to become ADAC GT Masters champion with Audi in 2019, paving the way for the 34-year-old to emerge as one of the leading GT3 drivers in the world.

Now back in his original GT home in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Niederhauser has already played a pivotal role in the development of the new Lamborghini Temerario since its competitive debut at the start of 2026.

Patric, welcome to Lamborghini Squadra Corse, or should we say welcome back! How does it feel to be reunited with Lamborghini, this time as a factory driver?

It feels amazing to be back with Lamborghini, and I am really honoured to be part of the company again. Even though I raced with other brands for some years, we never lost the contact, and we met each other a lot at the tracks. When I started back in Super Trofeo in 2015, my dream was to become a factory driver and I have actually worked so much with Lamborghini over those two years both on and off track that it really felt like a family, and I built up a good relationship. It was my first contact with a manufacturer and, unfortunately, at the end of 2016, we parted ways but eventually we found each other again, and it feels like coming home. Even when I visited Sant’Agata Bolognese during the off-season, there were still people who I knew from 10 years ago in the factory, so it feels great.

What was it about Lamborghini that appealed to you so much to sign the contract?

There are many reasons but the biggest one was the project with the Temerario GT3, this just sounded so interesting for me because it is a new car, and I would be there right at the beginning of its life cycle. Obviously, it’s not just a two-year project, it’s a long-term one and it really caught my attention and to be part of the development of something like this is very exciting for me. I also missed the closeness of Lamborghini as well, being a little bit smaller than some other brands.

You have been part of the Young Driver Program with Lamborghini in the past when you were driving in Super Trofeo. What are the memories from this period of your career?

At the beginning, because I was coming from single seaters, I was used to having an engineer or a mechanic attaching my seatbelts, because in those cars, you don’t have enough space to do them yourself. When I was doing my first test, I couldn’t actually do my own seatbelts because I had never needed to do them before in my career! In endurance racing, of course you need to be able to do this because you share the car and we do the pit-stops in 12-seconds, so we laughed about it together. But the memories from my early time with Lamborghini are fantastic, I really enjoyed Super Trofeo and doing a lot of the Academia car projects as well.

What are the main objectives for the 2026 season?

I am a racing driver, so my goal is always to win the championship, but I think we need to be realistic for the first year with the new car. It will be for sure a learning year, but the expectation is to learn the car, get to grips with it and make sure that we optimise the maximum out of our performances. Then, after that, we will see what the future holds.

And a word on our new partner for this season, Rutronik Racing: you know them very well, what do they bring to Lamborghini from a team perspective?

We have so much history together; I won my first GT3 title in ADAC GT Masters with Rutronik in 2019 and that did so much for my career. I’d had a difficult couple of years since I left Lamborghini and lost a bit of my confidence, and they really helped me. And in motorsport, if you are successful together, then there is a reason for that I believe. There is a genuine understanding of both sides, a lot of respect as well and we trust each other implicitly. It’s difficult to explain, but the importance of continuity between drivers and teams can be really important.