We are approaching one of the most important and recognized motorsport events in the world: the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This year’s edition, which will be held on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June, will see the participation of 19 drivers who have raced more or less extensively in F1, 17 of whom will compete in the main class of Le Mans Hypercar prototypes. Here is the complete and updated list:
Felipe Nasr: Porsche Penske Motorsport #4 (Hypercar)
Felipe Nasr will compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the sixth time this year and currently has 0 wins. The Brazilian driver is mainly known for having raced in F1 with the Sauber team between 2015 and 2016, with 39 Grands Prix entered, but his real glory came in IMSA, where he boasts three driver titles, three 24 Hours of Daytona wins, and is dominating the 2025 season alongside Nick Tandy. The Brazilian is rightly considered one of, if not the, strongest drivers fielded by Porsche Penske Motorsport.
Pascal Wehrlein: Porsche Penske Motorsport #6 (Hypercar)
Pascal Wehrlein, Formula E world champion in the 2023-2024 season, will participate in the 24 Hours for the first time this year. Like Nasr (his teammate this year at Le Mans with Nick Tandy), he has 39 starts in Formula 1 (2016-2017) with smaller teams like Sauber and Manor.
Kamui Kobayashi: Toyota Gazoo Racing #7 (Hypercar)
The Japanese Kamui Kobayashi needs no introduction, having 75 starts in Formula 1 (2009-2012, 2014) with teams such as Toyota, BMW, Sauber, and Caterham. Few seasons, but enough to be remembered as one of the most aggressive drivers of the period, capable of surprising overtakes with cars not necessarily among the most competitive.
At the end of his F1 career, the Japanese driver moved to endurance racing, first with AF Corse’s Ferraris, then with Toyota from 2016, participating in Le Mans 10 times and securing only one victory in 2021.
The Toyota Team Principal (since 2022) also boasts five second places and a third place at Le Mans, 2 WEC titles (2019-20 and 2021), and 17 overall wins in the World Championship.
Sebastien Buemi: Toyota Gazoo Racing #8 (Hypercar)
Former Red Bull family driver in Formula 1, Sebastien Buemi has 55 starts between 2009 and 2011 with Toro Rosso. The Swiss is also a former Formula E champion (title won in the 2015-2016 season), though his real success came in WEC, of which he is a 4-time champion. This year he will participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the 13th time, already counting 4 wins (2018, 2019, 2020, 2022). A possible fifth victory would put him level with Emanuele Pirro, Franck Biela, and Derek Bell, behind only the “Mr. Le Mans” Jacky Ickx and Tom Kristensen.
Brendon Hartley: Toyota Gazoo Racing #8 (Hypercar)
Brendon Hartley is also a former Red Bull Racing junior program F1 driver, though with an unusual story. He raced 25 Grands Prix with Toro Rosso between 2017 and 2018 before returning to WEC. He is the only driver to have taken the reverse path, winning two world titles and a Le Mans (2017) with the Porsche 919, before being recalled to the F1 Circus by Helmut Marko. After closing his F1 experience, after a brief stint with SMP Racing, Hartley joined Toyota, becoming one of their cornerstones.
He currently has 11 Le Mans starts with 3 wins (2017, 2020, 2022), and four WEC world titles (2022-23 with Toyota in Hypercar), second only to his teammate Sebastien Buemi.
Brendon is in some ways the most complete driver of his (very strong) team: metronomic, calm, often sacrificing his stints to allow his teammates to attack in the final phases.
Nyck de Vries: Toyota Gazoo Racing #7 (Hypercar)
Nyck de Vries, Formula 2 champion (2019) and Formula E world champion (2020 with Mercedes), raced in Formula 1 for 11 Grands Prix between 2022 and 2023, first with Williams and then with AlphaTauri.
His WEC career began in 2018 with Racing Team Nederland; in 2019 at the 6 Hours of Fuji he claimed a brilliant wet victory in LMP2, and before his F1 stint, he had already signed a contract with Toyota. The Cologne-based team welcomed him warmly in 2024, where he contributed to the constructors’ title with a win at the 6 Hours of Imola. He currently has 5 Le Mans participations, with a best result of second place last year.
Will Stevens: Cadillac Hertz Team Jota #12 (Hypercar)
With only 18 starts in Formula 1 with teams such as Caterham and Marussia, Will Stevens found his success in WEC where he won the LMP2 class title with JOTA Racing in 2022. This year he will participate in the 24 Hours for the tenth time in his career. The English driver boasts two class wins, in 2017 with JMW Motorsport’s Ferrari in GTE-AM (also with Dries Vanthoor) and in 2022 with JOTA Sport in LMP2.
Kevin Magnussen: BMW M Team WRT #15 (Hypercar)
One of the longest-serving Formula 1 drivers on the list, Kevin Magnussen raced with McLaren, Renault, and Haas — managing to score a single podium. After ending his F1 career in 2024, the Dane moved to endurance racing. He already raced at Le Mans in 2021 (with Danish High Class Racing, alongside his father Jan) and hopes for a better result this year, where he will start with a competitive crew including heavyweights Dries Vanthoor and Raffaele Marciello.
Sebastien Bourdais: Cadillac Hertz Team Jota #38 (Hypercar)
The veteran former F1 driver, Sebastien Bourdais, was actually born in Le Mans in 1979. He has participated in the 24-hour race, his home race, 17 times, finishing second three times with the Peugeot 908 between 2007 and 2011, suffering the ups and downs of the tough battle with Audi. He also won in the GTE Pro class in 2016, during the historic debut of the Ford GT GTE at Le Mans.
A former Toro Rosso F1 driver, he only has 27 starts between 2008 and 2009, riding the wave of previous American successes but struggling against the young Sebastian Vettel.
Bourdais was also the dominant figure in the final years of Formula CART, winning the last 4 seasons from 2004 to 2007. He also won two 24 Hours of Daytona, in 2014 and a class win in 2017 with Ford, although he was disqualified in LMP2 this year for a technical infraction post-race.
Jenson Button: Cadillac Hertz Team Jota #38 (Hypercar)
2009 world champion with Brawn GP, Button is certainly the most successful former F1 driver on the list. This year he will race at Le Mans for the fourth time in his career, the first with the official JOTA Sport Cadillac V-Series.R. The other three races were also firsts: in 2018 with SMP Racing’s LMP1, in 2023 driving the NASCAR Garage 56 entry, invited in the “special” lab car category, and in 2024 with JOTA’s customer Porsche 963, although that race was unlucky.
Besides the F1 title, Button also triumphed in Super GT at his 2018 debut, alongside Naoki Yamamoto.
Mick Schumacher: Alpine Endurance Team #36 (Hypercar)
Mick Schumacher, son of seven-time F1 world champion Michael, raced in F1 between 2021 and 2022 with Haas, after winning the 2020 F2 title. This year he will compete at Le Mans for the second time with Alpine, hoping for a better result than last year when both Alpine cars retired due to engine failure.
Prospects look positive: Alpine had good results at the Test Day, and the #36 car comes from two consecutive podiums at Imola and Spa, the latter seeing Mick finish just seconds behind two official Ferraris, battling with them over the last two hours. He is also paired with veterans Fred Makowiecki and Jules Gounon, and in recent races he has shown pace among the leaders.
Robert Kubica: Ferrari #83 AF Corse (Hypercar)
Robert Kubica has 99 starts in Formula 1, a category where he never had the chance to fully showcase his talent. After the 2021 season, the Polish driver moved to endurance racing and has 4 participations at Le Mans.
Kubica has had a complex relationship with Circuit de La Sarthe. In his 2021 debut with the powerhouse WRT team, he came close to victory in LMP2 but his car suffered an accelerator failure at the start of the last lap, forcing retirement in a dramatic finale. His current teammate Yifei Ye was driving at that time.
In 2022 and 2023, with Prema Racing and WRT, he finished second in LMP2, narrowly missing victory, while in 2024 he debuted with the third 499P, leading the race for several laps but causing a serious (and controversial) accident involving BMW #15 of Dries Vanthoor, which crashed into the Mulsanne barriers at nightfall. Despite the penalty, the #83 AF Corse remained in contention until the final hours, retiring due to a hybrid system failure.
Kubica is also one of the best LMP2 drivers of recent seasons, boasting a WEC title (2023) with WRT and two ELMS titles (2021 and 2024) with WRT and AO Racing.
Antonio Giovinazzi: Ferrari AF Corse #51 (Hypercar)
After three years in F1 with Sauber and Alfa Romeo, the Italian driver found his path in WEC with Ferrari, as part of the 499P program. He currently has 3 participations at Le Mans and one victory with Ferrari, the now historic 2023 win, which saw both team and driver win on debut. Antonio Giovinazzi, sharing the cockpit with veterans James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, arrives at La Sarthe leading the drivers’ championship after wins at Imola and Spa.
Paul di Resta: Peugeot TotalEnergies #93 (Hypercar)
Winner of the 2010 DTM title and a class winner at Le Mans (where he has 6 participations), di Resta raced steadily in F1 between 2011 and 2013 and again in 2017 with Force India and Williams.
This will be his seventh 24 Hours of Le Mans, a race he won in class in 2020 with United Autosports in LMP2.
Stoffel Vandoorne: Peugeot TotalEnergies #94 (Hypercar)
Formula E champion Stoffel Vandoorne will participate for the 4th time at Le Mans this year. The driver, currently in the Peugeot Hypercar program, has 42 F1 starts between 2016 and 2018 with McLaren.
Jean-Eric Vergne: Peugeot TotalEnergies #93 (Hypercar)
Former Toro Rosso F1 driver between 2012 and 2014, Vergne managed, after ending his career in the circus on a low note, to find his way in Formula E, winning two championships (2018 and 2019). This year will be his seventh participation at Le Mans.
Jack Aitken: Cadillac Whelen #311 (Hypercar)
Jack Aitken has only one F1 start in 2020 when he replaced George Russell at Williams for the Bahrain GP. Not managing to establish himself in Formula 1, Aitken moved to endurance racing and will compete in his second 24 Hours of Le Mans this year with the Cadillac V-Series.R.
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