How Dries Vanthoor went from Le Mans GT winner to a BMW Hypercar driver

Dries Vanthoor is a Belgian driver who won the Le Mans GT class in 2017, the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2018 and the Nurburgring 24 Hours in 2019 and 2022. He was part of a three-year run of Sprint Cup titles alongside Charles Weerts at Audi, and he now races for BMW M Team WRT in the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship. His brother Laurens is also a factory driver, for Porsche and McLaren.

How did Vanthoor start out in racing?

Vanthoor was born in Heusden-Zolder in 1998 and began in karting, which he continued until 2014. The step up to junior single-seaters came in 2015, when Josef Kaufmann Racing ran him in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup. He won at Assen and finished third at the Nurburgring, and that was enough for sixth place in the championship.

The move to sportscars came in 2016. He switched to WRT, racing in both the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and the Sprint Cup, partnered by Frederic Vervisch in both series. His brother Laurens joined him in the endurance championship, and the rookie scored two podiums to finish eighth overall.

A brother-in-arms partnership, three Sprint Cup titles and a move from Audi to BMW that turned a Le Mans pedigree into a Hypercar role.

What did the 2016 season add to his record?

The first big result came in the Sprint Cup, where he finished fourth in a qualifying race. That season he also won the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring in May, driving for Bonk Motorsport in the Cup 5 class. He made his prototype debut at the 4 Hours of Spa in the European Le Mans Series, finishing second alongside his brother and Will Stevens.

At Silverstone he briefly led an endurance race, until Jazeman Jaafar went past and took the win a lap later.

The Sprint Cup started badly, with a collision with Maxime Soulet in the season-opening main race at Misano, and he and Vervisch fought back from there.

How did the Audi years begin?

In 2017 he stayed with WRT in both series. Alongside Marcel Fassler in the endurance races he suffered four retirements in five events, while the Sprint Cup was far better, with two wins at the Hungaroring and another podium in Germany. A pit stop problem in the final race cost them the title, and they finished fifth.

The high point of 2017 came at Le Mans. He set a lap record for the LMGTE Am class in qualifying, then won the race in dominant style with Will Stevens and amateur driver Rob Smith. Audi Sport then announced that he would become a factory driver from 2018.

The 2018 Sprint Cup began with second place at Zolder, where he lost the lead on his in-lap after being caught in traffic. In the second Zolder race a pit-stop manoeuvre briefly gave him the lead before a drive-through for an improper pit exit.

In 2018 he also raced in the ADAC GT Masters with EFP by TECE, where his best result with the team and Florian Spengler was eighth.

In 2018 he claimed a win at the Bathurst 12 Hours with Robin Frijns and Stuart Leonard in a race that was red-flagged. Monza brought another endurance win with Christopher Mies and Alex Riberas, and in the Sprint Cup he took the Brands Hatch race one win and finished fourth in the championship with Stevens.

Which titles did Vanthoor win with Charles Weerts?

Vanthoor won three consecutive GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup titles with Charles Weerts, in 2020, 2021 and 2022. The pair became the most successful partnership in the series' history, winning the 2022 title at the final round in Valencia.

The 2020 season was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the title still came with two wins and three further podiums. Weerts and Vanthoor also won the ADAC GT Masters opener at Lausitzring that year after Vanthoor took his first pole in the category. The 2021 defence was even more dominant, with four wins including a weekend sweep at Misano. Endurance was closer, with second places at Le Castellet, where he passed Marco Mapelli on the final lap, and at the 24 Hours of Spa, where he narrowly lost to Alessandro Pier Guidi. WRT finished third overall.

The 2022 Sprint Cup was their best campaign. They won half of the ten races, took another double at Misano and finished off the podium just once. The Endurance Cup was less kind, with an eighth place overall despite a win at the Imola opener and two poles.

What did Vanthoor win outside the title fights?

In 2019 he also raced for Montaplast by Land-Motorsport in the GT Masters, while WRT and Audi remained his partners in the Endurance and Sprint series. He won the ADAC GT Masters race at Zandvoort alongside Ricardo Feller, a Sprint Cup round at Misano with Weerts, and the Nurburgring 24 Hours with Team Phoenix. That endurance win came with Pierre Kaffer, Frank Stippler and Frederic Vervisch. Those three wins were the highlights of his 2019 season.

The 2022 season also included a win at the 6 Hours of Fuji in an Oreca LMP2 car, shared with Robin Frijns and Sean Gelael. He had replaced Rene Rast for that race. In the same year he won the Nurburgring 24 Hours again, with Team Phoenix, after coming through a collision with his brother Laurens earlier in the race.

Why did Vanthoor leave Audi for BMW?

At the end of 2022 both he and Weerts left Audi, and they soon announced their moves to the BMW factory line-up. The 2023 season was his first in a BMW M4 GT3 rather than an Audi R8, and he defended his 2022 Dubai 24 Hours win at the start of the year.

The 2023 Endurance Cup went badly, with Sheldon van der Linde alongside him and retirements at Paul Ricard and Spa leaving the crew eleventh. The Sprint Cup was better: they won at Valencia, collected five further podiums and finished third in the points.

How did the Hypercar era begin?

In 2024 Vanthoor joined the WRT-run BMW Hypercar programme in the FIA World Endurance Championship, sharing the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 alongside Marco Wittmann and Raffaele Marciello. At Le Mans that year he put the car on pole in the regular qualifying session, but he crashed during the Hyperpole and started sixth. In the race he went off after contact with Robert Kubica's Ferrari, which was later penalised.

In May 2024 Envision Racing also asked him to join its Formula E Berlin rookie test.

The car's first WEC podium came at Fuji later in 2024, when the No. 15 crew finished second after Vanthoor qualified third.

At the 2025 24 Hours of Daytona he drove the M Hybrid to its first pole position in qualifying, in the No. 24 car with Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Philipp Eng. The crew was in the hunt for overall victory alongside the Porsche Penske and Meyer Shank Racing GTP cars, and it led for most of the race, but a nose problem in the final hour worsened the car, and the team finished fourth.

Career results by series