With three world titles, the 2010 RACB National Team class has grown a lot...

In 2008, the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium launched its own branch, a true national motorsport team, the RACB National Team. Joining the program in 2009, Thierry Neuville was still there the following year, alongside other young talents who, almost fifteen years later, have confirmed their talents and reached, for the most part, the highest level of their respective competitions. So let's take a look back at the careers of the six drivers in this photo from the beginning of 2010...

Laurens Vanthoor

Present in F3 Euro Series in 2010, the eldest of the siblings was coming off a victorious season in German F3, allowing him to access the European level with Signature, and several podiums to his name in the 2010 and 2011 seasons. Having moved up to GT in 2012 with Team WRT, Laurens Vanthoor has accumulated numerous prestigious victories as an Audi factory driver, then Porsche (since 2017). Winner at the 12 Hours of Bathurst, the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, Spa and Le Mans (in the GTE Pro category), Laurens Vanthoor has reached the pinnacle ofEndurance by becoming world champion in Hypercar this year, on the Porsche 963 LMDh that he shared with André Lotterer and Kevin Estre.

Benjamin Bailly

He is undoubtedly the least known of the six drivers in the 2010 class of the RACB National Team, but the Liège native did not disgrace himself with a victory in the championship F2 in 2010. Having gone through multiple championships, in car, in GT or prototypes, Bailly now takes care of young drivers thanks to his structure Bailly Driver Development. He follows the careers of the Dane Theodor Jensen, the Belgian Thomas Strauven and the Australian Griffin Peebles.

Stoffel vandoorne

First Belgian single-seater world champion in 2022 with his title acquired in Formula E, Stoffel Vandoorne was 17 when he made his debut with the RACB National Team. In 2010, the Coutrais native won the F4 Eurocup 1.6, a championship that has now become F4 France. After learning at the AutoSport Academy, Vandoorne climbed the ranks, winning the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup in 2012 and GP2 in 2015. Then covered by McLaren, the Belgian made his debut in Formula 1 at the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix, before competing in two full seasons in orange. Today, he competes in the WEC with Peugeot and Formula E with Maserati.

Thierry Neuville

The most recent world champion from the flat country! After a first participation in the Rally After competing in the 2009 Spanish Rally Championship, Neuville was entered in several rounds of the 2010 season, before competing in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge at the wheel of a Peugeot 207 S2000 the same year, then in 2011. The definitive "switch" to the WRC was operated on in 2012, with a season at the wheel of a Citroën DS3 WRC, followed by a first place as vice-world champion in 2013, at Ford. The adventure Hyundai was waiting for him in 2014, until the supreme consecration, ten years later…

Bertand Baguette

The reigning Formula Renault 3.5 champion, Bertrand Baguette is certainly the driver with the most eclectic career on our list. His 2010 programme took him to the United States to compete in theIndyCar with Conquest Racing. It was in 2011 that he came within a few laps of the greatest feat of his career, the Indianapolis 500. Moving to Endurance in 2012, he won the WEC championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LM P2 category, before flying to Japan, where he achieved the Super GT championship title in 2022.

Jérôme d'Ambrosio

He is the first on the list to have reached the top of the pyramid, becoming a Formula 1 driver for Marussia in 2011, after several seasons spent in GP2. A reserve driver for Lotus in 2012 and 2013, he was one of the drivers in the first season of Formula E, before becoming Team Principal of Venturi. The Belgian made a remarkable return to the F1 paddock alongside Toto wolff in 2023, before leaving on October 1st of this year for Ferrari, where he holds the position of Deputy Team Principal and Director of the Ferrari Driver Academy.

As you will have understood, these six young wolves have come a long way in 14 years... and something tells us that it's not over!