A few weeks after Joachim Winkelhock, Pierluigi Martini and Yannick Dalmas triumphed at Le Mans with the BMW V12 LMR, two new racing drivers came into the world. Frenchman Julien Andlauer was born near Lyon at 8.30am, a few hours before Phil Hanson took his first breath at 5.23pm in Berkshire, UK. The Briton is therefore the youngest driver in the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Although the young men share a birthday, they followed quite different paths to reach the pinnacle of endurance racing.

Hanson started out in go-karting, winning the Whilton Mill Club Championship in 2014 and the Super One British X30 Junior Karting Championship the following year. By the age of 17, he was already competing in endurance races. He began by winning the Asian Le Mans Series in LMP3 with Tockwith Motorsports. It was only logical then, to see him at the wheel of an LMP2 at Le Mans in 2017, when he was not only the youngest in the line-up, but also became the youngest ever driver to finish the race (9th in class).

Andlauer’s father runs a go-karting club and he started competing even earlier than Hanson. He was runner-up in the World X30 go-karting championship in 2013. He switched to single-seaters (Formula 4) before triumphing in the Porsche Carrera Cup. Winning the title earned him a place on the manufacturer’s junior programme for the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup and the ultimate prize in endurance, a seat in the World Endurance Championship.

This weekend the young men will not be in direct competition because Hanson is racing in the LMP2 class with United Autosports while Andlauer is in LMGTE Am with Dempsey-Proton Racing. However, both are fired up and raring to go! Hanson already had his sights set on a podium back in April.  Judging by his reaction on Test Day, Andlauer is just as eager.

Photo: Phil Hanson is the youngest driver in the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans.