Its official! The FIA World Endurance Championship is getting younger by the year!
Since the inception of the Championship in 2012 the average age of drivers in each class has decreased and in 2014, with many more single-seater drivers electing to further their careers in the endurance discipline, there seems to be no better time for young chargers to come to the FIA WEC.
In Brazil the LMP1 class as a whole has an average age of 33 years, with the youngest driver on the Interlagos grid this weekend being Brendon Hartley who celebrated his 25th birthday just before the 6 Hours of Bahrain earlier this month.
Other fresh faced chargers in the LMP1 class include 25-year-old Rebellion Racing driver Dominik Kraihamer and Anton Ladygin, who is just a couple of months older.
But the ‘baby’ of the LMP1 class is easily Lucas Auer. The Austrian ‘wunderkind’ has been a race winner in the FIA European F3 Championship this season and has been getting valuable experience in the FIA WEC with Lotus in LMP1-L. Auer, who is the nephew of former McLaren and Ferrari F1 driver Gerhard Berger, was born two years after out-going endurance racing legend Tom Kristensen first raced an endurance sportscar in 1992!
The LMP2 class sees the all-round youngest trio in the FIA WEC in the shape of the KCMG trio – Richard Bradley, Matt Howson and Alexander Imperatori. With a combined average age of just 26, this squad has youth as well as race winning speed on their side as they aim for a third 2014 LMP2 success at Interlagos this weekend.
Whereas single-seater drivers have traditionally gravitated toward the LMP ranks, the GT classes are now also fostering rapid youthful talent.
AF Corse driver James Calado (25), Proton Competition firebrand Klaus Bachler (23) and Aston Martin Racing charger Alex MacDowell (23) have all come in to the FIA WEC recently and each announced themselves with some superlative performances.
Easily the youngest driver in the field is teenager Matthieu Vaxivière. The Prospeed Competition driver from Limoges has dovetailed a 2014 FIA WEC campaign with a season in the Formula Renault 3.5 series.
With the average age of the entire GT field at just 34 years of age, the old adage of GT racing being the domain of the more experienced racer looks to be changing fast.
Sam Smith
