Benoît Tréluyer

1. Who is he?

Benoît Tréluyer is French, he was born on December 7, 1976 in Alençon. He is currently with Audi, as a factory driver, and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2011, 2012 and 2014.

2. Junior course

Benoît Tréluyer arrived in single-seaters in 1995, in Formula Campus, the former name of the current French Formula 4 championship. A year later, he moved to Formula Renault where he won a race at Le Mans with the RenCar team. The Frenchman rose through the ranks to the French Formula 3 championship in 1998. It was with the Signature team that he enjoyed his greatest success, including a victory on the Pau circuit. A season that Tréluyer finished in third place. Its performance is unfortunately insufficient for the doors to Formula 3000 to open. Benoît Tréluyer then decides to leave Europe. Head to Japan for the national F3 championship. He was crowned champion of the discipline in 2001, with 15 victories under his belt.

3. WEC course

His performances in Japan took him directly to Formula Nippon and Super GT. He won the title in 2006 in the first discipline, but especially made an impression in the second. Tréluyer won, the same year, the queen event of the season: the Suzuka 1000 Km. He will wait two more years to be champion in Super GT. In 2004, the Pescarolo Sport team decided to enter him for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, an event he knows well. Two years earlier, Tréluyer had made his debut there with a Viper, entered in GTS, finishing second in its category. But his career took a real turn in 2010, when Benoît Tréluyer was chosen by Audi to drive one of the official cars. At Le Mans, he won the 2011 and 2012 editions at the wheel of his R18. Accompanied by Marcel Fässler and André Lotterer, the crew was crowned Endurance world champion in 2012. A third success at the 24 2014 Hours of Le Mans ends its beautiful story with this event. Benoît Tréluyer is withdrawing from the WEC at the same time as Audi, at the end of 2016.

4. AUTOhebdo’s opinion

Benoît Tréluyer is a big name in the WEC. The Frenchman was one of the references of his time when he raced under the Audi banner. Today, he devotes himself to the business he started in car rental. However, a return to motorsport does not seem impossible. Tréluyer would need to find a coherent sporting project to get back on track.