Ranking the top 10 Hypercar drivers in the 2023 WEC

For the past three seasons, we haven’t done a top 10 as part of our review of the WEC season, rather a pair of top fives, one for Hypercar and one for GTE Pro. There weren’t enough cars in the top class to justify listing 10 drivers, but that changed this year.

PLUS: Why Ferrari's Le Mans glory proved an outlier as Toyota dominated the WEC

We’ve never done a GTE Am top whatever, but if you are ranking drivers from a pro-am class you have to take into account their FIA grading. Corvette Racing took the title with the strongest driver line-up, not as a result of having Nicky Catsburg in the seat aboard its C8.R reserved for a pro, but because in Ben Keating and Nicolas Varrone it had easily the best bronze and silver.

Making calls in LMP2 is always difficult, even if it has become a one-make class now that everyone is running the ORECA. The tactical variations employed mean like-for-like comparisons aren’t easy. Goodyear, the tyre supplier for the class, has helped out with its Wingfoot award named after the company logo. It calculates the average for each driver’s best double stint on a set of Goodyears at each race and has come up with a championship table based on the results. United Autosports driver Filipe Albuquerque was the winner from Albert Costa and Robert Kubica from Inter Europol and WRT respectively.

United Autosports driver Filipe Albuquerque was the winner ahead of WRT’s Robert Kubica.

Fastest in LMP2 at Le Mans, perhaps the best indicator of a driver’s pace was WRT driver Robin Frijns, and by some margin. Quickest in class at the Sebring 1000 Miles was Jota man Oliver Rasmussen, though he couldn’t repeat that form consistently.

Louis Deletraz, the other pro in the title-winning WRT car with Kubica, and United’s Ben Hanley deserve mention, as does Charles Milesi. The last-named was outstanding from Le Mans on even though he accrued little in the way of concrete results with Alpine. He was up there among the fastest LMP2 drivers at every race. His speed hasn’t been overlooked at Alpine: he’s got a contract to race its A424 LMDh in Hypercar next year.

10. Michael Christensen

Photo by: Paul Foster

Christensen didn't manage to score a podium this year, but he was usually the best performer in the second Porsche

The Dane’s performances in a prototype this year provided the final rehabilitation of a driver who was dropped from the full factory roster at Porsche for the 2021 season. Christensen was more often than not up there among the quickest Porsche drivers, including Le Mans where there was only a gnat’s whisker between him, Vanthoor and team-mate Frederic Makowiecki. For all his pace, there was no silverware for Christensen, Makowiecki and Dane Cameron in what was definitely the second Porsche in 2023.

9. Kevin Estre

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Defending from the Toyotas at Fuji was Estre's seasonal highlight in the #6 Porsche

The star of Porsche’s WEC GT roster took his opportunity in the prototype ranks with both hands. Estre had some strong performances where he was the quickest Porsche driver, but his best race was Fuji, where he fought a robust rearguard action when caught for the lead by Lopez in the #7 Toyota. He proved equal to the task, so much so that the Japanese manufacturer swapped its two cars to let Hirakawa have a go at him. It was all the more impressive given the fuel-saving Estre was having to do at the time.

8. Earl Bamber

Photo by: Nikolaz Godet

Clouting Mike Conway at Bahrain's first corner was the low point of Bamber's year with Caddy

Bamber was generally the fastest of the WEC regulars at the Ganassi Cadillac squad, though drivers from the other V-Series.R LMDhs outpaced him at Le Mans. Third in the 24 Hours was the high point of the season for Bamber, Ganassi and Caddy, though there could and probably should have been more podiums. Sebring was one that got away on a day when Bamber was at his best. The New Zealander would have ended up higher but for his first-corner Bahrain gaffe, which probably cost the Ganassi team a shot at a first podium in a regular WEC round.

7. Jose Maria Lopez

Photo by: Marc Fleury

Lopez could count himself unfortunate to not be retained by Toyota for 2024

The Argentinian finds himself without a Hypercar drive for next year after getting a season’s reprieve for 2023. That Lopez was due to be replaced by Nyck de Vries prior to his F1 sojourn had nothing to do with his performances in 2022, just as what he did this year isn’t the reason he is now losing his WEC seat after six seasons. It is a shame for a driver who was pretty much on par with Buemi in 2023; they were the number two performers in their respective entries over the course of the season.

6. Sebastien Buemi

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Title-winner Buemi was superb at Sebring and Bahrain

Buemi bookended his season in 2023 with outstanding performances at Sebring and Bahrain when he was the quickest among the Toyota drivers. It would be wrong to say he was less convincing in between times, just that there were other drivers in the Japanese camp who were faster. Had a solid rather than stellar Le Mans, but his drive through the field from the back of the pack after Hartley’s qualifying misdemeanour at Spa in difficult conditions shouldn’t be overlooked.

5. James Calado

Photo by: Paul Foster

Calado's recovery to the podium at Spa was excellent and even took his engineer by surprise

Another driver to make a smooth transition from GT machinery to prototypes, Calado was a quick and consistent performer over the full season, even if Antonio Fuoco was the man for Ferrari at Le Mans and team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi shaded him on the averages in the winning car.

His best performance of the year came at Spa where he drove a storming double at the end to pull back 50s on the Porsche ahead of him to snatch a podium on the final lap of the race. It took some believing, even on Ferrari pit perch. The race engineer of #51 had been telling Calado that he was due to catch Frederic Makowiecki on the final lap: it was a lie, but he knew he had to give his driver hope!

4. Kamui Kobayashi

Photo by: Andy Chan

Kobayashi was superb at Fuji and claimed three poles during the year as he led the #7 Toyota crew by example

Another strong season for the Japanese driver as he continued to pull double duty as the talisman driver in #7 and team principal of the WEC squad, a strange combination if ever there was one. Nowhere was he better than on home ground at Fuji: his double stint at the end was breathtaking.

Chuck in a trio of poles and there’s nothing to suggest that his wider role at Toyota is in any way taking a toll on his driving. He was entirely blameless in the accident at Le Mans that put #7 out and pretty much did for its championship chances.

3. Laurens Vanthoor

Photo by: Juergen Tap / Porsche

Vanthoor was the benchmark Porsche driver and thrilled in taking the lead at Fuji

A driver who has pretty much done it all in two codes of GT racing made the switch to prototypes with ease. Vanthoor was the ace in Porsche’s pack in 2023, belying the fact that he’d previously only made a handful of starts in pure-bred sportscar machinery. More often the not, he was the quickest of the six Porsche Penske Motorsport drivers and at his best at Fuji. He claimed the lead at the start in opportunistic - cheeky, even - style and then maintained amazing pace aboard his 963 LMDh while in aggressive fuel save mode.

The Belgian was quickest Porsche driver at Le Mans, too. It might just prove that a racing car is a racing, though Vanthoor wasn’t the only GT graduate to impress in a heavier and perhaps less dynamic breed of prototype to what went before.

2. Brendon Hartley

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Hartley claimed his fourth WEC title and starred at crucial moments along the way

Another strong season for the Kiwi in which he was always up there among the fastest Toyota drivers yielded a fourth WEC drivers’ title, though it should be pointed out that he was in the marginally slower of the two GR010 HYBRID LMHs across the full season. Hartley was outstanding at Le Mans, where he was the quickest of the Japanese manufacturer’s six drivers: his charge after lunch on Sunday looked like it might extend Toyota’s run at La Sarthe.

Pole position when the pressure was on at the Bahrain finale shouldn’t be overlooked; the point that came with it could have been all-important in the championship battle. But his shunt in qualifying at Spa can be, overlooked that is: the circumstances were the same as for Fuoco at Spa.

1. Antonio Fuoco

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

Fuoco was stunning in his first year of racing prototypes, impressing in race stints and earning standout poles at Sebring at Le Mans

A first season in the prototype ranks for the Ferrari Formula 1 development driver was nothing short of sensational. The Italian had already shown he was a sportscar star of the future in GT machinery — his drive that was so crucial in Ferrari’s class win, admittedly in GT Daytona, at the 2022 Sebring 12 Hours was outstanding — and he emerged as the quickest of six drivers in the Italian manufacturer’s 499P Le Mans Hypercar.

A first time-out pole at Sebring and then another as part of a Ferrari front-row block-out at Le Mans grabbed the headlines, but it was Fuoco’s race pace that gets him the top position. Nowhere was he better than at Le Mans: he was fastest Ferrari driver on any metric you might choose, and by some margin. His shunt out of the pits at Spa in April is only a minor black mark given the absence of tyre heaters in dreadful conditions. A mistake it was, but everyone is allowed one a season.

Photo by: Paul Foster

Fuoco was the quickest Ferrari driver of 2023

Honourable mentions

Alessandro Pier Guidi has been a regular feature of Autosport's top this-and-that lists over the years: the Italian was up at #19 in our end-of-season Top 50 in 2022. He didn’t make it into the WEC Top 10 this year but was undoubtedly a contender for a spot in there somewhere. That he didn’t can be explained by the identity of the driver at #1. There appeared times that Fuoco stood head and shoulders above his team-mates over the course of the season.

That said Pier Guidi’s technical nous — remember his drive in fifth gear to secure the GTE Pro title in Bahrain back in 2022 — shone through again. He was the cool head in the cockpit at the end of Le Mans when an electronic reset was required at the final pitstop, and it’s not the simple control-alt-delete of your laptop.

There’s no Peugeot driver in this list, though Gustavo Menezes might have made the cut for his Le Mans heroics that propelled the French manufacturer’s 9X8 LMH to the front on Saturday evening. That he subsequently dropped it and wasn’t retained for 2024 made it hard to justify his inclusion.

There wasn’t a stand-out driver at Peugeot this season, which perhaps isn’t surprising given the inconsistency of the 9X8. Mikkel Jensen and Paul di Resta, two drivers with massively different levels of experience, deserve mention, along with the aforementioned Menezes.

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Menezes shone at Le Mans to haul Peugeot into the lead before shunting