Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #30 Dries Vanthoor

The world already knew the talents of the younger Vanthoor brother aboard a GT3 car. He’s been one of the most consistent performers in the category for two different manufacturers – Audi and now BMW – for ages.

But in 2024 he showed that he’ll be a force in prototypes in coming years. Just like sibling Laurens at Porsche 12 months before, he took to an LMDh hybrid immediately, and both, it should be pointed out, had minimal experience at the start of their prototype adventure. Dries quickly emerged as the star driver in the pair of M Hybrid V8s.

Versatile Vanthoor’s ongoing learning process

“Not one of my best years”. Dries Vanthoor has got it wrong when he describes a season that propelled him to his highest position yet in the Autosport Top 50.

The only thing missing was a championship win, which explains his downbeat assessment. He’s got used to winning them over the years and narrowly missed out on the GT World Challenge Europe overall title and a fourth Sprint Cup crown.

Vanthoor raced 26 times in 2024. Swapping back and forth from prototype to GT machinery wasn’t easy to start with, but once he made it a habit, it was only of value to his driving.

“You are always learning as a driver, and you can take things back and forth between the two types of car,” he says. “I learned a thing or two.”

Achievements in different kinds of car offer some kind of validation for a driver’s talents, reckons Vanthoor: “If you want to be able to call yourself a top driver, you have to be able to drive anything – and be quick in four or five laps.”

When asked about his best race performances of ’24, not counting his lap to top opening qualifying at Le Mans, Vanthoor choses one from each sportscar discipline. The drive to second with WEC team-mates Marco Wittmann and Raffaele Marciello at Fuji is his prototype pick, third place at the Spa 24 Hours with Charles Weerts and Sheldon van der Linde is the one he plumps for from his GT campaigns.

Vanthoor’s programme for 2025 will include taking on both the WEC and IMSA SportsCar Championship. A racer down to his boots, he enjoyed a one-off in British GT this year at Silverstone and gets excited at the mention of Donington Park, a circuit he’s yet to visit.

“If I have the chance to go there, for sure I take it,” he says. “I’d like to try it.”

Vanthoor rates highly his performance at Fuji to claim a maiden WEC podium for BMW’s Hypercar project

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images