The making of Britain’s latest Le Mans winner

Phil Hanson, Le Mans winner.

That statement was true before last weekend of course. The 25-year-old from Berkshire had already stood on the top step of the podium at the Circuit de la Sarthe, facing empty grandstands after conquering the LMP2 category in a 2020 edition held without fans. But it has held a different meaning since last Sunday, when Hanson added his name to the pantheon of British sportscar greats who have won endurance racing’s crown jewel outright, alongside the likes of Derek Bell, Allan McNish and Ferrari stablemate James Calado.

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His victory alongside Robert Kubica and Ye Yifei, aboard the #83 customer AF Corse Ferrari 499P, had no shortage of narratives. There was the climax of Kubica’s redemption arc from his life-changing 2011 rally crash, and the sweet vengeance for Kubica and Ye for losing their 2021 LMP2 class win to a freak electronic fault on the final lap. Ye is the first Le Mans winner from China, Kubica the first from Poland. It was also Ferrari’s third consecutive Le Mans triumph.

Given that Kubica set the #83 car’s headline times and had been the man on board for the last five stints, while Hanson had stepped out of the car for the last time with eight hours to go, it was easy for his contribution to be overlooked. Yet he was the driver who took the start and by eking out better fuel mileage than those around him, consistently running 13-lap stints, set the tone for car #83’s ascent of the leaderboard after starting 13th.

Aside from a brief gravelly moment during the night at Mulsanne Corner, Hanson’s performance while managing a downshift issue was faultless, as befitting a driver making his ninth appearance in the great race. The only penalty his car incurred, a five-second hold in the pits for gaining a lasting advantage by leaving the circuit, was down to Kubica.

It’s perhaps fitting that Hanson has earned fewer column inches than his team-mates, for that is entirely in keeping with his approach to motorsport. For Richard Dean, Hanson’s team boss for six seasons while serving his apprenticeship at United Autosports, it comes as no surprise that Hanson hasn’t had the same share of the limelight. “He’s always quite understated, he’s not the self-promotion sort of guy,” Dean tells Autosport.

Perhaps the biggest difference between Hanson and the esteemed names he now joins are his lack of a single-seater background. For all his success in sportscars as a champion of the World Endurance Championship, the European Le Mans Series and twice over in Asia, Hanson has never enjoyed the same sort of profile that comes with being an ex-Formula 1 driver, let alone a bone fide national hero in the ilk of 2008 Canadian Grand Prix winner Kubica.

“There’s a natural way of thinking from most people that the best drivers come from high-level karting or single-seaters and move across, but I think he’s proof that [doesn’t have to be the case],” reflects Dean. “He started pretty late, he did a bit of karting, but it wasn’t long before he was in LMP3 and then LMP2. He’s not gone the most obvious route, so he hasn’t built up a profile in the junior formula. He’s somehow gone a bit under the radar, but then his record speaks for itself.”

Hanson’s rise was meteoric. He only started racing cars in 2016 but was already on the Le Mans grid the following year, aged 17, with a Tockwith-run Ligier having earned an automatic berth in the LMP2 ranks for winning the 2016-17 Asian Le Mans Series P3 crown. He began a long affiliation with United Autosports in 2018, making his team debut at the Daytona 24 Hours alongside two sportscar rookies. Only they weren’t your conventional newcomers, but Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris.

“We’ve had a huge amount of success with Phil, but when you have those bad days which naturally motorsport brings, he’s the first one to rally around and lift the team up” Richard Dean

Being paired with well-known drivers from which he could learn would become a regular theme of Hanson’s United career, during which he matured into a well-rounded and respected prototype racer. After starting the 2018 ELMS campaign alongside Bruno Senna, he forged a successful partnership with former Audi LMP1 ace Filipe Albuquerque that would continue until 2023.

“He’s very much the sort that will take the best bits, looking at how to behave and how not to behave, and that’s what you’re starting to see today at the top level,” observes Dean.

Together, Hanson and Albuquerque swept the ELMS and WEC in 2020, winning four consecutive races in the latter spanning the 2019-20 calendar years. That included Le Mans glory joined by Paul di Resta, another ex-F1 name with whom Hanson had added the 2018-19 Asian LMS P2 title in preparation for his maiden WEC foray.

Hanson took the chequered flag for United Autosports in their LMP2 victory at Le Mans in 2020

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Entrusting Hanson with the closing stints at Le Mans in 2020, with Jota’s Anthony Davidson ready to pounce on any misstep, demonstrated Dean’s faith in his young charge. But he didn’t let the occasion overawe him.

“He wasn’t, in some people’s minds, the obvious choice to do that,” relates Dean. “We were in a real fight with Jota and we put him in. We were tasked with giving him a sportscar education in every aspect, and that Le Mans in 2020, part of that [decision] was the promise that we would give him every opportunity to prove himself. There was some risk involved, but he absolutely didn’t let us down and withstood all the pressure.”

Few are better qualified than Dean to appraise what Hanson brings to a team. So how did he get on at United?

“He knows everybody’s name, he doesn’t come across like sometimes let’s say an elite driver might,” explains Dean, who confirms Hanson was “hugely popular” at United. “He’s very much one of the boys, he’s got great empathy around the team. We’ve had a huge amount of success with Phil, but when you have those bad days which naturally motorsport brings, he’s the first one to rally around and lift the team up.”

Dean is also positive about what Hanson brings in the car. He regards “super intelligent” Hanson’s selflessness as one of his big strengths, alongside being “really dependable” and possessing excellent fitness levels that meant United didn’t hesitate to give him triple or even quadruple stints.

“He’s always prepared to sacrifice the spotlight on him for the good of the team,” Dean remarks. “Sometimes that means he can easily get overlooked, because of doing the team player job. But he’s super intelligent, so any task you give him, he’s always prepared to have a go at it. If he understands and buys into the reason, then he’s the man for it.

“He’s extremely hardworking and keen to learn, always wanting to push himself. He’s very self-critical and that’s what’s pushed him along to improve. So, a great all-rounder, super dependable, good team player and a nice kid who is desperate to do what he’s doing to the best of his ability.”

Hanson’s progression from Silver to Gold in 2021 didn’t stop his learning curve

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

That much was clear to Dean in 2021, when Hanson’s driver grading changed from Silver to Gold. Rather than take the view that he had completed his education, Dean says “he’s always had the approach that he’s still got a lot of learning to do” and applied himself to his next target.

“He’s not that sort of driver that says, ‘Right, watch me because I’m doing everything right’,” Dean notes. “It was more, ‘Okay, who am I up against? Now I’m a Gold-grade driver, who are my contemporaries and am I at that level?’ And the next step is, ‘Let’s have a look at all these Platinums’. He’s always challenging himself.”

Winning at least once in every ELMS season he spent with United (despite spending two years in the unfancied Ligier) and twice finishing as championship runner-up, Hanson had by the end of 2023 set his sights on the next step. When it became clear LMP2 would be dropped from the WEC for 2024, amid an explosion of interest in the burgeoning Hypercar class, Dean reckons it was inevitable that Hanson would fly the nest. While United has had to wait for a crack at Hypercar, with confirmation that it will run McLaren’s 2027 LMDh programme coming last week, Hanson stepped into a seat with Jota’s privateer Porsche 963 for 2024 and managed a best finish of sixth at Fuji alongside Oliver Rasmussen and Jenson Button.

“He’s won everything, not many drivers have got that sort of record” Richard Dean

“We didn’t have a Hypercar deal, he desperately wanted it and the opportunity came up,” says Dean, who continues to keep tabs on Hanson in races. “We couldn’t have been happier for him. I think we all hoped we’d do it together, but you can’t get what you want all the time, can you?”

Everything fell into place for Hanson this year. Working with the Greenlight Sports Management agency of Andy Meyrick and 2003 Le Mans winner Guy Smith, who have both raced for United with gentlemen drivers in LMP3 and P2, Hanson secured the vacant berth in the customer Ferrari when Robert Shwartzman departed for IndyCar. That meant he had what turned out to be the best tool at Le Mans to enter sportscar racing immortality.

“He’s won everything, not many drivers have got that sort of record,” concludes Dean. “And when you look at that, you’d say it’s not surprising that he’s capable of winning in the top category.”

Hanson achieved motorsport immortality with overall Le Mans glory alongside Kubica and Ye

Photo by: Nikolaz Godet