In 2008, the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium launched its sector, a true national motorsport team, the RACB National Team. Arriving in the program in 2009, Thierry Neuville was still there the following year, alongside other young shoots who, almost fifteen years later, confirmed their dispositions and reached, for the most part, the highest level of their respective competitions. So let’s take a look at the careers of the six drivers present 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 reach the European level with Signature, and several podiums in the 2010 and 2011 seasons. Switched to GT in 2012 with Team WRT, Laurens Vanthoor accumulated numerous prestigious victories as an Audi factory driver, then Porsche (since then). 2017). Winner at the 12 Hours of Bathurst, the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, Spa and Le Mans (in the GTE Pro category), Laurens Vanthoor reached the pinnacle of endurance by becoming world champion in Hypercar this year, in the Porsche 963 LMDh which he shared with André Lotterer and Kevin Estre.
Benjamin Bailly
He is undoubtedly the most unknown of the six drivers in the 2010 class of the RACB National Team, but the Liégeois was not unworthy with a victory in the F2 championship in 2010. Having completed multiple championships, in single-seaters, in GT or in prototypes, Bailly now takes care of young drivers thanks to its Bailly Driver Development structure. He thus follows the careers of the Dane Theodor Jensen, the Belgian Thomas Strauven and the Australian Griffin Peebles.
Stoffel Vandoorne
The first Belgian single-seater world champion in 2022 with his title acquired in Formula E, Stoffel Vandoorne was 17 years old when he made his debut with the RACB National Team. In 2010, the Coutraisien won in F4 Eurocup 1.6, a championship which has now become F4 France. After this apprenticeship at the AutoSport Academy, Vandoorne climbed the ranks, winning the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup in 2012 and the GP2 in 2015. Then covered by McLaren, the Belgian made his debut in Formula 1 at the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix, before playing 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 2009 Rally of Spain, 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 “switch » definitive move towards the WRC was made in 2012, with a season at the wheel of a Citroën DS3 WRC, followed by a first place vice-world champion in 2013, at Ford. The Hyundai adventure awaited him in 2014, until the supreme coronation, ten years later…
Bertand Baguette
Then reigning Formula Renault 3.5 champion, Bertrand Baguette is certainly the driver with the most eclectic career on our list. His 2010 program took him to the United States to compete in IndyCar with Conquest Racing. It was in 2011 that he came within a few laps of the greatest feat of his career, at the Indianapolis 500. Switching to Endurance in 2012, he won the WEC championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LM P2 category the following year, before flying to Japan, where he achieved the Super GT championship title in 2022. .
Jerome 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. 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 notable return to the F1 paddock alongside Toto Wolff in 2023, before leaving on October 1 this year for Ferrari, where he holds the position of Deputy Team Principal and Director of the Ferrari Driver Academy.
You will have understood, these six young wolves have come a long way in 14 years… and something tells us that it is not over!
