Tom Blomqvist: Formula Renault Champion, DTM Winner and Daytona Prototype Star

Tom Leonard Blomqvist is a British-born racing driver who has raced across karts, single-seaters, touring cars, sports prototypes and IndyCar. He won the 2018 24 Hours of Spa in a BMW M6 GT3 and the Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2022 and 2023 with Meyer Shank Racing. He is the son of the 1984 Swedish World Rally Champion, Stig Blomqvist, and he races under the British flag.

Who is Tom Blomqvist?

Tom Leonard Blomqvist was born on 30 November 1993 in the United Kingdom. He moved to New Zealand with his mother after his parents separated, and he spent most of his childhood there. He holds New Zealand, UK and Swedish citizenship and races under the British flag, although he considers himself a New Zealander.

His career began in karting, which he pursued from 2003 to 2008. In that period he won eight championship titles in New Zealand. He later moved to Europe to race, first to Sweden with his father and then to the United Kingdom, and he now lives in Monaco.

A teenage Formula Renault champion who went on to win at Spa, Daytona and in DTM, with a long road through junior single-seaters on the way.

How did Blomqvist rise through the junior formulae?

In 2009, at 15, Blomqvist left New Zealand for Europe to compete in the Formula Renault 2.0 Sweden series. He took five podium finishes and one victory in fourteen races, finishing third in the standings, and he also finished third in the Formula Renault NEZ Championship. He needed special permission to race, as he was still only 15, and he won both races in the Formula Renault UK Winter Series round at Rockingham.

In 2010 he raced the full Formula Renault UK season for Fortec Motorsport. He took twelve podiums on his way to becoming the youngest champion in the series' history at 16, beating a record set by Lewis Hamilton, who won the title aged 18. That same year he finished third in the Formula BMW Pacific race at the Macau Grand Prix for Eurointernational and set the fastest lap of the race.

The 2010 season also brought recognition. In December 2010 he was a McLaren Autosport BRDC Award finalist and received the British Club Driver of the Year award. At the BRDC awards he also received the Henry Surtees prize, recognising the year's standout rising star. In February 2012 he joined the McLaren Driver Development Programme.

In February 2012 he chose single-seaters over a Porsche Carrera Cup seat, signing with ma-con motorsport for the F3 Euroseries after being selected as a European F3 Volkswagen factory driver. He had signed with the MB Partners management company, owned by former Formula One driver Mark Blundell, in November 2011.

What happened in his Formula 3 years?

In 2011 Blomqvist competed in German F3 with Performance Racing. He was third in the championship when he was hit at the start of a race at EuroSpeedway Lausitz and propelled into a wall. The accident ended his season and broke his back, and several months of recovery followed before he could drive again.

Eurointernational invited him back for 2012, when he contested five rounds of the German F3 Championship because of his injury. He finished fifth overall with ten podiums, including five wins, and he led the points for those rounds by sixteen. He finished seventh in both the F3 Euroseries and the FIA European Formula 3 Championship that year, with a team new to the category.

Late in 2012 he was selected for the Red Bull Junior Team and joined Eurointernational as their lone driver for the 2013 FIA European Formula 3 Championship. The team had only just entered the category, but Blomqvist finished seventh in the standings, and his points gave Eurointernational fifth place in the team championship. All of the team's points that year came from Blomqvist alone.

In 2014 he raced with Carlin in the European Formula 3 Championship, alongside Antonio Giovinazzi and Sean Gelael, under the Jagonya Ayam banner. He finished second in the championship, despite incurring engine change penalties during the season.

His Macau results in those years were a mixture of promise and frustration. In November 2013 he was on course for pole in qualifying, but he lost the top spot late in the session and started sixth, and his qualifying race ended when he stalled at the start and was hit from behind. He still charged through a 28-car field the next day to finish eighth. In 2014 he was one of the quickest drivers in practice and qualifying, but a first-lap collision with Esteban Ocon ended his race.

How did Blomqvist's DTM and Formula E careers go?

In 2015 Blomqvist secured a BMW DTM drive for several seasons with the RBM team, replacing Joey Hand and driving alongside Augusto Farfus. He ended the season fourteenth overall, but his Oschersleben win made him the youngest BMW victor in a debut DTM season. He was also the second-youngest race winner for any manufacturer.

His DTM form improved in 2016, when he concluded the season with a points finish at Hockenheim and finished sixth in the championship. That made him the youngest driver in the top ten of the final standings. In 2017 he moved with BMW into the new team RBR, which included the former Formula One driver Timo Glock as his stablemate.

Formula E came next. He made his debut in the 2017-18 season with the MS&AD Andretti team in Marrakesh, finishing eighth on the debut. Despite a strong debut, the team did not consider his results good enough, and Stephane Sarrazin replaced him for the final four races of the season. He later returned to the paddock as a television pundit at the 2019 Berlin ePrix.

In 2019-20 he returned to the race seat for the last two rounds of the season at Berlin, replacing James Calado. For 2020-21 he was given a full-time seat at NIO 333 FE alongside Oliver Turvey. The car was one of the slowest on the grid, and the team finished last in the constructors' standings, with Blomqvist scoring six points. He then joined Envision Racing as a reserve driver for 2021-22.

Why is Blomqvist's endurance record important?

His endurance career includes one of the most significant results of his early years. In the 2018 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, he drove a BMW M6 GT3 for Team Walkenhorst Motorsport alongside Philipp Eng and Christian Krognes, and the trio won the 2018 24 Hours of Spa.

In 2021 he competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship's LMP2 class with Jota Sport in an Oreca 07, alongside Sean Gelael and the former Formula One driver Stoffel Vandoorne. The team collected four podiums in five races, including a second place in class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

He returned to the WEC in 2023 with United Autosports in LMP2, partnering Oliver Jarvis and Josh Pierson. He replaced Alex Lynn, who had moved to the Hypercar class with Chip Ganassi Racing. Jarvis was the main reason Blomqvist took the drive, because the two had won the DPi class title in IMSA the previous year.

How successful has Blomqvist been in IMSA?

Blomqvist made his IMSA debut in the 2018 season at Watkins Glen, driving a BMW M8 GTE in a one-off race, where he finished eighth in the GT Le Mans category. In 2019 he drove a full season for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in a BMW M8 GTE, with his best finish a third place at the Petit Le Mans. He ended the year ninth in the GT Le Mans class with 258 points.

His IMSA breakthrough came in 2022, when Meyer Shank Racing signed him for the Acura ARX-05 alongside Oliver Jarvis. He won the Rolex 24 at Daytona that season, then won at Road Atlanta, which secured the DPi title for himself and Jarvis. Meyer Shank retained him for 2023 in the new Acura ARX-06 GTP car, partnered by Colin Braun.

In 2023 the pair won the Rolex 24 again and also won the Chevrolet Sports Car Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Those results were among the strongest of his career, and they confirmed Meyer Shank as his most important team.

When Meyer Shank left IMSA for 2024, Blomqvist signed for the Michelin Endurance Cup races in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh. He drove with Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken, while also moving into a full-time IndyCar schedule.

Did Blomqvist race in IndyCar?

Yes. He tested one of Meyer Shank's IndyCar cars at Sebring in October 2022, and he was the fastest of five participants in the private evaluation. The result led to an IndyCar debut in 2023, when Meyer Shank put him in the No. 60 car at Toronto for Simon Pagenaud, who had been unable to race after an accident at Mid-Ohio.

He qualified 20th out of 27 cars at Toronto, but he crashed on the first lap after being pushed into the wall by Ryan Hunter-Reay and Jack Harvey. In August 2023 Meyer Shank announced that he would be a full-time driver for 2024, with Helio Castroneves moving to a part-time role.

His 2024 season was short. He partnered Felix Rosenqvist and scored two top-twenty finishes in the opening rounds, but a first-lap pile-up at the Indianapolis 500, involving Marcus Ericsson and Pietro Fittipaldi, brought his season to an early end. Castroneves replaced him for the next two races, and David Malukas took over for the rest of the year.