A karting novice who became a factory Porsche driver, won the 2024 IMSA GTD Pro title and took endurance wins for Porsche Penske in 2026.
Laurin Heinrich is a German IMSA driver who progressed through the Porsche Carrera Cup and junior programmes before winning the 2024 GTD Pro championship with AO Racing. He took endurance wins for Porsche Penske in 2026 and finished runner-up in his first full GTP season.
Laurin Heinrich is a German driver who races in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Porsche Penske Motorsport and JDC-Miller MotorSports. He moved from karting into the Porsche junior system, won the 2024 GTD Pro championship with AO Racing, and took two endurance wins for Porsche Penske in 2026. His rise came through steady Porsche programmes rather than one big break.
How did a kart racer end up in a factory Porsche?
Heinrich began karting at eight, first as a hobby and later as a competitive pursuit, and he won Swissauto kart titles in his youth. He once wanted to be a pilot rather than a racing driver. Club racing alongside his father brought out a competitive streak, and in 2017 he entered the ADAC Formula 4 Championship at 15 with the family team, Heinrich Motorsport.
The team was small, built around himself, his father and three engineers who had worked on his karts. Against larger European outfits the car rarely reached the front, and his best race finish that year was 14th overall. He skipped the final round at the Hockenheimring and did not return to single-seaters.
He did not return to professional racing until 2019. That year he took part in the Porsche Sports Cup Germany and won the 5E class title with six victories from ten races. In September he made his Porsche Carrera Cup Germany debut at the Sachsenring with CarTech Motorsport, the step that put him on the Porsche pathway.
A karting novice who became a factory Porsche driver, won the 2024 GTD Pro title and ended his first full GTP season as runner-up.
How did Heinrich build a Porsche Carrera Cup career?
In 2020 Heinrich competed full-time in the Carrera Cup Germany with T3/HRT Motorsport, finishing fourth in the points and taking the rookie title. A joint race with the French series at Circuit de la Sarthe brought his first podium in the German championship.
The 2020 season was suspended and then cut short, which suited him. It gave him more time to secure sponsorship and reduced the budget needed to field an entry. He added three more podiums during the year.
For 2021 he ran a dual programme in the Porsche Supercup and the Carrera Cup Germany, both with Huber Racing. He took his first Supercup victory at Zandvoort in September, and he finished fourth in the championship and highest in the Rookie class. Additional podiums came at Spa and Monza.
In Germany he claimed his first Carrera Cup victory at Oschersleben, and he took the lead of the championship with a second win at the Red Bull Ring. He finished the season with eight podiums from 15 races, fourth overall, and the results were enough to earn him a place at the Porsche Junior Shootout.
Porsche junior years and the 2022 title
At the end of 2021 Heinrich was selected at the Porsche Junior Shootout at MotorLand Aragon. He was named a Porsche junior for 2022, a role that came with a 225,000 euro scholarship towards a drive in the 2022 Porsche Supercup.
He began the junior campaign at the Dubai 24 Hour in the 992 Am class with Huber Racing. The 2022 Supercup gave him one win, at Silverstone, and four podiums, which earned him a career-best third in the championship.
The Carrera Cup Germany was the bigger story. Over 16 races he claimed six victories, including a weekend sweep at Spa and a double at the Sachsenring. He clinched the series title with two races to spare.
At the end of 2022 he joined 311RS Motorsport for the final round of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America, deputising for Leh Keen. He crashed out of the first race with brake problems, then won the second.
What happened in his 2023 DTM season?
Heinrich made his DTM debut in 2023, driving a Porsche 911 GT3 R for KUS Team Bernhard with financial support from the ADAC and DMSB Motorsport Team Germany programme. He claimed two podiums, second at the Nurburgring and at the Red Bull Ring, and he took his first series pole position at the Red Bull Ring.
He also joined Rutronik Racing in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, alongside Dennis Olsen and Thomas Preining in a Pro class entry. The trio took a single podium, at Barcelona, and finished seventh in the overall points classification. He made a one-off appearance in the Sprint Cup alongside Ayhancan Guven at Zandvoort.
The low point of the year came at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring. Racing for Dinamic GT on debut, Heinrich lost control of his Porsche after dark and hit a Dacia Logan at the Stefan Bellof S section of the Nordschleife. The Dacia was beyond repair at the time, and Heinrich was fined 3000 euro and apologised.
The Dacia returned in 2024 after a full rebuild.
How did Heinrich win the 2024 GTD Pro title?
Heinrich partnered Sebastian Priaulx at AO Racing in the IMSA GTD Pro class, finishing second on debut at Daytona. A first series win came at Laguna Seca, followed by victory at Detroit. He took a third win at Indianapolis in a rain-affected race and entered the Road Atlanta finale with a 99-point lead.
Priaulx stepped back after the July race at Mosport because his Multimatic testing commitments came first. A rotating group of Porsche factory drivers took his place for the rest of the season.
At Road Atlanta Heinrich took pole, gaining five points over Ross Gunn, who qualified third. Electrical problems then relegated Heinrich to 11th, while Gunn finished third. That was enough. Heinrich won the GTD Pro championship by four points.
The title brought recognition beyond the grid. Dailysportscar named him its 2024 GT Driver of the Year, and Autosport ranked him among its Top 50 drivers of 2024.
How busy was the rest of his 2024 season?
Heinrich filled the calendar with supplementary drives. He joined Dorian Boccolacci and former DTM teammate Ayhancan Guven in Schumacher CLRT's entry for most of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, with a best result of second at the Nurburgring in July.
He also drove part-time in GT World Challenge Asia. A victory at Sepang came alongside Origine Motorsport's Lu Wei, with two further podiums during his six-race stint with the team.
One-off drives at the Indianapolis 8 Hour and the FIA GT World Cup closed a busy year for Heinrich, who had now raced in several categories at once.
Did he defend the GTD Pro title in 2025?
He did, partnering Porsche factory driver Klaus Bachler for the full season. The duo finished fifth in the drivers' championship, just over 300 points behind the champions, Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims. Their best moment came at the 12 Hours of Sebring, a class win that gave AO its first endurance victory.
Heinrich returned to victory at Laguna Seca the round after Daytona, where they had finished eighth. In July at Mosport he added another podium. He later said he better understood IMSA racing and considered himself a better driver than in his title-winning debut season.
How did the Porsche 963 test lead to a WEC debut?
After Petit Le Mans in 2025, Heinrich tested the Porsche 963 alongside the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport team, with an eye on a drive in 2026. Porsche then confirmed that he would make his WEC debut in a 963 at the season finale in Bahrain.
His 2025 calendar was busy beyond IMSA. He took part in GT World Challenge Europe on a similar part-time schedule to 2024, joined a part-time drive in the Thailand Super Series, and made one-off appearances at the Bathurst 12 Hour and the Suzuka 1000 km. He returned for the Indianapolis 8 Hour, and he scored a podium at the FIA GT World Cup.
He also worked on development for the updated Porsche 911 GT3 R and 911 GT3 Cup during the year.
Key results at a glance
| Season | Series | Team | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Porsche Sports Cup Germany | Porsche Sports Cup entry | 5E class champion, six wins |
| 2020 | Porsche Carrera Cup Germany | T3/HRT Motorsport | Fourth overall, rookie title |
| 2021 | Porsche Supercup | Huber Racing | Fourth overall, first win at Zandvoort |
| 2022 | Porsche Carrera Cup Germany | Huber Racing | Champion with six wins |
| 2023 | DTM | KUS Team Bernhard | Second at the Nurburgring and Red Bull Ring |
| 2024 | IMSA GTD Pro | AO Racing | Champion by four points |
| 2025 | IMSA GTD Pro | AO Racing | Fifth in the standings |
| 2026 | IMSA GTP | Porsche Penske and JDC-Miller | Daytona and Sebring wins; runner-up in the GTP championship |
How close did he come to a GTP title in 2026?
Heinrich was named to Porsche's factory driver roster ahead of 2026 and joined the GTP team for the Michelin Endurance Cup rounds, driving the No. 7 entry with Julien Andlauer and Felipe Nasr. He ended his first full GTP season as runner-up in the drivers' championship.
A mid-season agreement put him in the privateer JDC-Miller MotorSports car for the 160-minute rounds, alongside Tijmen van der Helm. On the final lap of the Monterey round at Laguna Seca, he made a decisive move for the lead on Earl Bamber's No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R. JDC-Miller became the first privateer team to win in the GTP era of IMSA.
Porsche then drafted him back to its senior team before the 2026 IMSA Battle on the Bricks. Team Penske president Jonathan Diuguid cited the chance for Heinrich to win the GTP drivers' championship as the highest-placed factory driver. At the time of that transfer he was second behind Jack Aitken in the standings.
Where does his sim racing fit in?
Heinrich describes himself as a hybrid driver and still races in officially sanctioned sim events. From a young age he competed in high-level virtual motorsport, taking part in the Blancpain GT Series on iRacing while racing in the ADAC Formula 4 Championship.
In the 2022-23 Le Mans Virtual Series he contributed to Porsche Team Coanda's championship, with a Sebring victory and a runner-up finish in the season finale at Le Mans.
