McLaren's Kirchhöfer getting reacquainted with Corvette in sim

Though still one of the leading factory GT drivers for McLaren in various championships around the world, Marvin Kirchhöfer took his first IMSA victory last year at the wheel of a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Kirchhöfer was the ’secret weapon’ for AWA (now 13 Autosport) when the Canadian team won last year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona in GTD, giving the Z06 GT3.R its first Daytona and GTD class win.

The German driver will be back in a Corvette this year in IMSA, running the three biggest endurance races of the season for the flagship Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports team. He recently completed his first test for the team, where he’ll team up with reigning IMSA GTD PRO champions Antonio García and Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Corvette.

"It was really nice being back behind the wheel of the Corvette, so I really enjoyed the test,” said Kirchhöfer. “I was generally quite impressed by the whole setup of the team. I got a nice welcome from my teammates as well. I already knew Nicky (Catsburg) from previous racing before, too. That was very nice and I really, really enjoyed working with them. Everyone has been very supportive and very helpful getting me up to speed within the team and getting reacquainted with the Corvette.”

His first real-world test was preceded by some driver-in-the-loop (DIL) simulator work with the team.

"I also had the DIL test a couple of weeks ago in Charlotte, which also was quite interesting,” Kirchhöfer said. “I haven't been in a sim for quite some time. It's not something that I'm used to. When I was younger, I used to do quite some development back in the day for DTM, but that was more than 10 years ago so it's been a bit of a break for me being in a sim. But I really enjoyed it. 

“It was quite impressive, with how dedicated everyone was working during those three days. The first day was about getting me into a groove, and the second day Tommy (Milner) joined. There were quite a few nice bits of information that took from him. 

"The feedback from the DIL model was very impressive. It's always a bit more difficult to get a feeling for adjustments in a simulator than in the actual real car because you are limited to only a few feedbacks that you can take. Most of them will be like visual feedbacks – you don't really have the tire sound or the feeling of the tire scrubbing and all that. It's not easy to really get it right every time, but I must say overall that it has been very good and very positive. Good preparation for the Rolex coming up in a couple of weeks.”

Outside of IMSA, where he’ll run at Daytona, Sebring, and Petit Le Mans (Road Atlanta), Kirchhöfer will continue with McLaren, heading up one of Garage 59’s new entries in the WEC LMGT3 class, and running in the Bathurst 12 Hour for Optimum Motorsport.

But with RLL Team McLaren surfacing as a late addition to the 2026 IMSA GTD PRO grid – one day after Kirchhöfer was revealed at Corvette Racing/Pratt Miller for 2026 – he’ll have to go through the unique circumstance of fighting against McLaren in America’s three biggest endurance races of the season.

“Hopefully we've done our parts and our work well and can make it a good 2026 Daytona 24 race,” he said of what’s to come with Corvette.