5 best drivers at Le Mans 2023

1. Fabio Sherer

Ferrari won the race and a whole host of racing drivers battled it out in a top class littered with more makes and cars than we have seen for years. But the first driver that we want to highlight is a 23-year-old from Switzerland marking his third appearance at Le Mans.

It could be seen as harsh to single out Sherer over team-mate Albert Costa. The crew of the Inter Europol #34 car were all outstanding, with Costa visibly emotional after his final stint put the crew in a commanding position to take their first ever LMP2 victory. But Sherer’s performance was nothing short of heroic.

Seems like a big word to use? Maybe. But that would be to forget that at the start of the race the #33 Corvette ran over Sherer’s foot, leaving him with a suspected broken left peg. Rather than heading to hospital Sherer strapped it up, took some painkillers, refused to see a doctor and jumped in the car, braking hundreds of times with what must have been an agonising effort.

At the end of the race Sherer took the anchor leg, and suffered a radio failure that left the team desperately taping messages to planks to show to him over the pit wall. At the end, when he crossed the line to win, Sherer celebrated by slamming on the brakes, locking up all four wheels, and possibly finishing off his ruined foot.

2. Nicky Catsburg

35-year-old Catsburg made his name racing GT cars for smaller teams before graduating to bigger drives in both IMSA and the World Endurance Championship. In GTE racing he has been given sporadic chances, impressing more and more as he has matured. Last year he won at Daytona in a GTLM car, this year he followed it up with a Sebring win in GTD Pro (on a weekend where he did double duty racing in the WEC round the day before).

In 2023 Catsburg is taking the opportunity to stamp his name across GT racing. The trio of Catsburg, Nico Varrone and the incredibly popular Ben Keating have won three of the four races in the WEC this season and entered the race at Le Mans as the definite favourites – especially when a peerless Keating put the Corvette C8.R on pole.

But, at the start of the race, the big yellow machine hit trouble almost immediately, dropping two laps and seemingly any chance of a first victory at Le Mans for Catsburg. What followed was a drive for the ages. Over nine hours from Catsburg, backed up by his team-mates, brought back all those laps, before they overhauled the field and won with what seemed like ease. It’s even more incredible to think that it happened when you bare in mind that Varrone stuck the Corvette in the wall at the end of first practice, leaving the team to rebuild the car to such an extent that it needed new seatbelts.

3. Alessandro Pier Guidi

“This is a vindication to all those who said we were ‘just’ GT drivers” said an emotional James Calado after the #51 took Ferrari’s first victory at Le Mans for 58 years. Indeed many had raised an eyebrow when Ferrari chose to staff its two Le Mans Hypercars with almost exclusively drivers from its long-running and uber-successful GT programme. But those doubts must surely be dispelled now. Two of the three drivers came from the GT ranks, backed up by ex-F1 racer Antonio Giovinazzi.

But it could have been so different. In the night Pier Guidi was spooked by a spinning car in front of him and left his 499P in the gravel while leading, seemingly ending their chances. The team was fortuitous though, the position of the snatch tractors meant the car was back on the road within around one minute. It lost the lead, but stayed in second.

If that had been more consequential then not only would Ferrari not have taken a legendary victory, but Pier Guidi would not be in this list. However we’ll forgive this indiscretion given the way the 39-year-old drove for the rest of the week. An absolute metronome behind the wheel, Pier Guidi may not have had the outright speed of the #50 car’s Antonio Fuoco, but his stint consistency – crucial in endurance racing – was outstanding. His drives were a central part of clinching that win, and it was he who hunted down the #8 Toyota after another issue for #51 car, this time at a pit stop, sent the Japanese car back into the lead. With this result, Pier Guidi adds an outright victory to the three Le Mans class wins already on his record.

4. Nico Muller

Peugeot had no hope coming into Le Mans. The car was uncompetitive, a bit of a nightmare to drive and unreliable. Questions were being asked about the entire future of the project.

Then, as night fell, the #94 car was leading the race. And it wasn’t just leading the race on some quirk of pit stops or safety cars, it was there on pace. During the extreme wet weather early on in the race, the Peugeot had demonstrated that it had pace when mechanical grip was low, and this was backed up when the track temps got cooler. For multiple stints, Audi refugee Muller ran at the head of the field, keeping the much more fancied Toyotas and Ferraris at bay. At the end of his stint in the middle of the night the #94 was in with a genuine winning shot.

Sadly it wasn’t to be, Gustavo Menezes hit some of the 9X8’s handling quirks and found the wall not long after taking the car over and it was out of the running. But for a small period of time Muller was on for the biggest prize.

5. Antonio Fuoco

It wasn’t to be for the second Ferrari 499P. While the #51 car found all the luck in La Sarthe on its way to victory, the opposite could be said for the car that started the race at the head of the field. Time lost in the pits due to a mechanical problem meant there was never any real chance of the trio of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen taking victory.

But Fuoco still found time to show that he has a big future in prototype racing. Having never truly settled into GT racing after switching from single seaters, Fuoco now looks much more at home back in downforce-based cars. As well as setting a sparkling pole time, he also reeled off a string of fastest laps on Sunday morning, managing to put together what would turn out to be an incredibly impressive stint as the track began to finally rubber up following the previous evening’s rain.

Now the Ferrari team has taken its first win in the WEC and the second car has shown its potential, expect to see Fuoco kick on and take it to the sister car and Toyota.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.