Drivers to Watch: Former F1 Stars Competing in 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is just around the corner and the legendary endurance race will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2023.

With a huge grid of 62 cars in all three classes, this weekend at Circuit de Sarthe will again feature many drivers who have previously graced the F1 grid.

Eighteen drivers who have competed in a Formula 1 Grand Prix will take to the French circuit this weekend. Here are the drivers to watch and where they will be competing.

■ hypercar
Sebastien Bourdais
Sébastien Bourdais, a three-time Le Mans runner-up, will be aiming for an outright win in the top class for the first time since 2012 after winning the GTE Pro in 2016. Bourdais’ success in F1 for a season and a half with Toro Rosso in 2008 and 2009 has come in various other categories, including four Champ Car titles, the 24 Hours of Daytona and an IndyCar win. He will drive the #3 Cadillac alongside Renger van der Zande and six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon.

André Lotterer
Lotterer’s F1 career was limited to one run in the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix, and although he passed the qualifying by holding off regular driver Marcus Ericsson in qualifying, the race was over on the first lap due to Caterham’s electrical failure. became. The race was a one-time appearance for the German, who has won Le Mans three times in the past and has enjoyed incredible success at the Sarthe circuit. He will race in the #6 Porsche Penske for the first time since 2019 alongside Kevin Estle and Lawrence Vanthoor.

Kamui Kobayashi
Former Sauber and Caterham driver Kamui Kobayashi, who has been popular since his F1 days for his brave overtaking, has recently taken on the dual role of driver and team principal for Toyota’s WEC team. The jubilant Japanese driver, who scored his only F1 podium at his home Grand Prix at Suzuka in 2012, is set to return to Le Mans in 2021 after finishing on the podium four times in his last five attempts at the endurance jewel. finally won the victory. He will once again partner with his longtime teammates Mike Conway and José María López in the No. 7 Toyota car this weekend.

Sebastian Buemi
Sebastian Buemi spent three seasons in F1 with Toro Rosso, but ultimately the Swiss driver was denied a senior seat at Red Bull and moved on to other challenges at the end of 2011. However, his success since has been impressive, with him winning four Endurance World Championships, a Formula E title and four Le Mans crowns. He will partner Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley in the #8 Toyota.

Brendon Hartley
Brendon Hartley embarked on his path to Formula 1 in a rather unprecedented way, having a long-time reserve driver and an impressive endurance racing career before getting his first opportunity to drive for Toro Rosso at the end of 2017. rice field. After spending full time with Toro Rosso in 2018, he returned to endurance racing and has already enjoyed great success with four World Endurance Championship titles and three outright victories at Le Mans.

Will Stevens
Former Manor driver Will Stephens probably never got the chance to show his full potential in Formula 1 after a lone start at Caterham and a slump in 2015. Two-time class winner in the GTE Am and LMP2, Stevens stepped up to the premier class of the Sarthe circuit for the first time this year as part of the #38 Jota line-up alongside Antonio Felix da Costa and Yifei Yeh. do.

Antonio Giovinazzi
Giovinazzi, who spent three seasons with Alfa Romeo and finished fifth at Interlagos in 2019, left the F1 grid at the end of 2021 with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, but remained as Ferrari’s reserve driver and will not be named this year. In the return race to Le Mans, he gets into Ferrari. The Ferrari 499P has shown clear pace in testing at the Sarto circuit, driving the #51 car alongside Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado.

Felipe Nasse
Former Sauber driver Felipe Nasr turned to sports car racing after two seasons in F1 in the mid-2010s, scoring 29 points. After leaving F1, he won two IMSA titles and this will be his fourth attempt at Le Mans, but after three LMP2 runs, it will be his first time in the top class and the hypercar Porsche Penn. Teamed up with Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy in ski #75.

Paul di Resta
2Paul di Resta, who was active in Force India from 2011 to 2013, turned from a driver to Sky Sports critic after completing full-time driving in Formula 1, but he has been a full-fledged driver such as the DTM and the European Le Mans series. I am working on the race schedule. Di Resta, who currently drives a Peugeot hypercar, won the LMP2 class at Le Mans in 2020 and will aim even higher this weekend with Mikkel Jensen in car #93 and another familiar face. become.

Jean Eric Vergne
Vergne, one of the former F1 drivers who spent several years with Toro Rosso, has scored 51 points in three seasons with the Red Bull junior team. After leaving the team at the end of 2014, he won two Formula E titles, combined with an endurance racing schedule, and several campaigns in LMP2 before stepping up to hypercars with Peugeot last year.

Jack Aitken
Reserve driver Jack Aitken was only called up to Williams once when regular driver George Russell was pulled into the Mercedes garage to fill in for Covid-infected Lewis Hamilton at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix. It was Aitken’s only F1 start so far, and it was a difficult night to rush around the outer circuit of Bahrain. He has participated in various race schedules so far this year, including starts in the DTM, IMSA and now Le Mans. This weekend he will drive the #311 Action Express Racing Cadillac alongside Luis Felipe Delani and Alexander Sims.

Esteban Gutierrez
Esteban Gutierrez, who spent three seasons each with Sauber and Haas, had a consistent presence in the F1 paddock as Mercedes’ development driver until last year.He entered Le Mans for the first time last year in LMP2, and this time he’s stepping up to hypercars, driving the #709 Glickenhaus alongside Franck Miloux and Nathaniel Belton.

■LMP2
Pietro Fittipaldi
Former Haas man Pietro Fittipaldi remains the team’s reserve driver and has been called up for two races at the end of 2020 after Romain Grosjean’s horrific crash in Bahrain ended his F1 career. The Brazilian driver spent the rest of the season at Haas, during which time he continued to race elsewhere. After competing in LMP2 races last season and finishing 14th in class at Circuit de Sarthe last season, this will be his second time at Le Mans. He will be Jota’s #28 car and he will partner David Heinemeier Hansson and Oliver Rasmussen.

Jan Magnussen
Jan Magnussen, who shared an endurance racing partnership with his son, current Haas driver Kevin, during his time away from F1, will once again race at Le Mans without his son. But with 24 24-hour races and four class wins, Magnussen is no stranger to the track. Magnussen’s F1 career continued in the 1990s with McLaren and Stewart, partnering Mark Kvanme and Anders Fjordbach in car number 32 at the Inter Europole.

Giedo van der Garde
Giedo van der Garde, now a Formula 1 pundit and still driving driver, entered the 2013 F1 solo season with a largely uncompetitive Caterham. He has a lot of experience at the LMP2 level, winning the ELMS title in 2016, taking part in five Endurance World Championship campaigns in that car and finishing 7th in class at Le Mans in 2018. rice field. He will now drive the number 39 Graff Racing car alongside Roberto Lacorte and Patrick Pilet.

Robert Kubica
Robert Kubica, who won the Canadian Grand Prix in 2008, was one of only two F1 race winners on this list and one of the sport’s most impressive at the time. After a serious rallying injury, he returned to F1 after nine years away from a full-time seat. Last time he finished 2nd in the LMP2 class at Le Mans, and this year he is aiming to make another leap with Team WRT’s No. 41 car, along with Louis Andrade and Louis Deletraz.

Daniil Kvyat
Le Mans debutant Daniil Kvyat left F1 at the end of 2020. He had more than 100 starts and several podium appearances, but at Red Bull he was called ‘Torpedo’ for defiantly challenging Sebastian Vettel (then Ferrari). After Max Verstappen’s promotion to Red Bull, he returned to Toro Rosso, spending 2018 on the sidelines, then spending two more seasons with Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri before leaving F1 completely. Kvyat has made several starts in NASCAR and LMP2 cars and will drive the #63 Prema this weekend alongside Dorian Ping and Mirko Bortolotti.

■ Innovative Cars (Le Mans Garage 56)
Jenson Button
Button, the 2009 World Champion, collaborated with NASCAR in February as part of a surprise entry in Garage 56 prepared for tomorrow’s technology, featuring Button, NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson and former Le Mans Winner Mike Rokenfeller has announced that he will be behind the wheel of a modified next-generation Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 (V8). In addition to winning the world title in 2009, Button has competed in over 300 races for Brawn, McLaren, BAR and Honda, with 15 wins and 50 podium finishes. The Camaro seems to be a competitive machine, recording times that surpass all vehicles in the LMGTE Am class in test runs.

Category: F1 / 24 Hours of Le Mans / WEC (FIA World Endurance Championship)