Louis Delétraz

Louis Charles Hubert Delétraz is a Swiss racing driver currently competing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing and in the Le Mans Series for AO by TF.
Delétraz won the Formula Renault Northern European Cup in 2015, as well as being a record-setting four-time champion in the European Le Mans Series. He also won the LMP2 Pro-Am class of the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans. He is the son of former Formula One and Le Mans 24 Hours class winner Jean-Denis Delétraz.

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Early career

Soap box racing

Delétraz was introduced to racing by his father Jean-Denis, who forbid him from racing karts competitively until he was ten years old. As a result, Delétraz began racing with soap boxes, building them together with his father.

Karting

Delétraz began karting in his native Switzerland 2008, winning the Vega Trofeo Super Mini class the following year. Third-place finishes followed in the KF3 Bridgestone Cup Switzerland and Vega Trofeo Junior categories in 2010 before winning the latter championship in 2011.

Formula BMW Talent Cup

Delétraz began his single-seater career in 2012, racing in the Formula BMW Talent Cup. At the Grand Final, held at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben in Germany, he started each of the three races from Pole position, winning the second race of the event. In the final race of the weekend, Delétraz collided with fellow Swiss driver Ralph Boschung with both drivers retiring from the race. He was subsequently excluded from the event following an incident in the pit lane after the race.

Formula Renault 2.0

2013

Delétraz graduated to Formula Renault for 2013, racing in the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC championship with Josef Kaufmann Racing. He finished the season in 19th place in the championship, with a best race result of fifth coming in the second race of the Silverstone meeting.

2014

Delétraz continued with the team for a second FR2.0 NEC season in 2014. After winning the opening race of the season at Monza, he took a further four podium positions to finish runner-up in the championship, sixteen points behind Fortec Motorsports Ben Barnicoat. His title charge ended when the season finale at the Nürburgring was cancelled. During the year, Delétraz also made his debut in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championship, taking part in the rounds at Spa-Francorchamps, Nürburgring and Paul Ricard as a guest driver.

2015

In 2015, Delétraz stayed with Josef Kaufmann Racing for a third season, racing a dual campaign in both Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 NEC. He won the Formula Renault NEC while he finished second in the Eurocup with three victories, narrowly losing the title to Jack Aitken.
In April 2015, Delétraz was announced as one of the four drivers selected to join the BMW Motorsport Junior Programme for 2015. As part of the initiative, he is due to contest three races of the Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring series for the manufacturer.

Formula Renault 3.5 Series/Formula V8 3.5

Delétraz made his debut in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series at the fifth round of the 2015 season at the Red Bull Ring, driving for the returning Comtec Racing team.
Delétraz stepped up to the series full-time with Fortec in 2016, being mentored by Formula One driver Romain Grosjean. After winning the season opener at Aragón, Delétraz became embroiled in a title battle with experienced single-seater driver Tom Dillmann. Delétraz took his second and final win of the campaign in round 4 at Le Castellet, using an undercut to go from third to first. The title battle heated up at the penultimate round in Jerez, where Delétraz fell outside the points due to a penalty he received for causing a collision with Dillmann, who retired in the gravel trap. Delétraz took the championship lead in race 2 of the weekend, finishing second after being passed by Egor Orudzhev at the start. In race 1 of the season finale at Barcelona, Delétraz pressured Dillmann into a mistake and passed him to finish second. Delétraz then took pole position for the title decider, but lost four places at the start and got undercut by Dillmann, thereby finishing seven points behind him in the standings.

GP2 Series

On 18 November 2016, it was announced that Delétraz would make his debut in the final round of the 2016 season with Carlin. He finished 26th in the overall standings with no points.

FIA Formula 2 Championship

2017

In December 2016, after partaking in post-season testing with them, Delétraz signed to race full-time with Racing Engineering in alongside Gustav Malja. After a poor first half of the season, scoring only 1 point, he switched to Rapax, replacing Nyck de Vries who in turn took his place at Racing Engineering. It was later claimed by Sebastian Viger, then Racing Engineering's technical director who later worked with Delétraz at Team WRT, that Delétraz needed time to learn the new category and gain experience. Delétraz finished 17th in the standings.

2018

Delétraz switched teams for the 2018 season, moving to Charouz Racing System to partner former Ferrari Driver Academy member Antonio Fuoco. Having scored second places during the sprint races in Monaco and Le Castellet respectively, the Swiss driver ended up tenth in the championship.

2019

In 2019, Delétraz moved to reigning teams champion Carlin with Honda junior driver Nobuharu Matsushita. He finished the season eighth in the standings with a best result of second in both the Monaco and Silverstone sprint races.

2020

For 2020, Delétraz returned to Charouz alongside Pedro Piquet. Having scored five podiums, Delétraz ended his final season in the category eighth overall.

Formula One

In February 2016, Delétraz was confirmed as a member of Renault's young driver program.
In November 2018 it was announced that Delétraz would make his Formula One test debut with Haas F1 Team at the end-of-year Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi. He completed 117 laps in the second day of the 2 day test.
In May 2019 it was announced that Delétraz would join Haas F1 Team as simulator driver for the remainder of the 2019 season. Delétraz continued as reserve and development driver for 2020. However, following Romain Grosjean's crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, the team preferred to bring in its other development driver, Pietro Fittipaldi. The Swiss driver criticized this decision on social media. Haas team principal Guenther Steiner brushed off these criticisms, saying Fittipaldi deserved the seat, as he had more Formula One mileage than Delétraz. Delétraz did not continue as a development driver with Haas for 2021.

Sportscar career

2020: Endurance debut

Delétraz competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual and won it with Rebellion Williams eSports, driving the Oreca 07 in the LMP category alongside Raffaele Marciello, Nikodem Wisniewski and Jakub Brzezinski. In the same year, Deletraz also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Swiss outift Rebellion Racing, partnering Nathanaël Berthon and Romain Dumas in the LMP1 category. The team finished fourth, losing a podium spot in the closing hours after Delétraz brushed the wall at Indianapolis turn; the subsequent pit stop to replace the front and rear bodywork and a clutch issue when restarting the car dropped the team behind the No. 7 Toyota.

2021: ELMS glory

In 2021, it was announced that Delétraz would be competing with Team WRT in the European Le Mans Series in the LMP2 category alongside Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye. With three wins and a P2 finish, they clinched the 2021 European Le Mans Series championship in the LMP2 category. Alongside this, Delétraz competed in the 2021 8 Hours of Portimão in the FIA World Endurance Championship, finishing in P6. Additionally, Delétraz competed in the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans with his European Le Mans series teammates. After leading the race with one lap to go, the car, with Yifei Ye behind the wheel, stopped down the hill past the Dunlop Bridge because of a broken throttle sensor creating an electrical short circuit that temporarily turned the engine's electronic control unit off. Because of this, the team had to retire the car.

2022: Successful ELMS title defence

In 2022, it was announced that Delétraz would be competing with the Prema Orlen Team in the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship and Prema Racing in the 2022 European Le Mans Series both on a full season basis. In the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship, Delétraz finished fifth in the LMP2 championship with a second place finish in the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans. In the 2022 European Le Mans Series however, Delétraz and his teammate, Ferdinand Habsburg clinched the LMP2 Driver's championship with four wins and a third place finish in Spa. Alongside this, he also competed in the IMSA SportsCar Championship with Tower Motorsport in the LMP2 class. He lost out on victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona, dropping to third after having had to save fuel heavily. Similarly, an aggressive fuel saving strategy at Road America caused the leading Delétraz to be passed by Ryan Dalziel a few laps from the finish. Nonetheless, two wins in Laguna Seca and Petit Le Mans helped Delétraz to carry his bronze-ranked teammate John Farano to the drivers' title.

2023: WEC Title

In 2023, it was announced that Delétraz would be joining the Wayne Taylor Racing squad, driving the Acura ARX-06 GTP entry alongside mentor Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor. He serves as a third driver, competing in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup in Daytona, Sebring and Petit Le Mans. In the opening race at the 24 Hours of Daytona, Delétraz and his team finished in second, ending up 4.190 seconds behind the Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura entry. The team would end up missing out on the title owing to contact between Albuquerque and championship rival Pipo Derani in the final race at Road Atlanta, an event where Delétraz qualified the No. 10 Acura on pole position, thereby scoring his first ever pole in endurance racing.
For his European season, the Swiss driver would contest a campaign for Team WRT in the LMP2 category of the FIA World Endurance Championship, whilst also joining Racing Team Turkey in an attempt to defend his European Le Mans Series title for the second year in a row, this time entering the Pro-Am class alongside Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluç. During the ELMS season-opener at Barcelona, Delétraz managed to overcome a late pit stop for a change of his car's tail section to pass Neel Jani for the lead with 15 minutes to go, thus beginning RTT's season with an overall victory. Another class victory followed at Paul Ricard, though Delétraz would drop from the overall lead to third within the final few laps as a de-laminating tyre shredded parts of the car's bodywork. Bad luck hit the #34 crew at Aragón, where a prospective second place was scuppered during the final pit stop, as the car could not be fired up for eleven minutes, thus dropping them to ninth in class. Despite one further Pro-Am podium in Spa, the team missed out on the title, as a spin by Yoluç in the penultimate race acted as a defining setback. At the end of the year, the team finished third, both in the Pro-Am and overall standings.
The main success story of the season came in the WEC, where Delétraz was partnered by Robert Kubica and Rui Andrade. Following a fifth place at Sebring and a podium at Portimão, the trio combined to take the championship lead with a victory at Spa. Despite a strong race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the team were unable to beat the #34 of Inter Europol Competition; Delétraz losing out in the final stint to Fabio Scherer, who controlled the gap until the checkered flag. Another podium followed in Italy, where a late-race overtake by the Swiss driver on the #23 United Autosport guaranteed the team third. Thereafter, a controlled drive to victory in Fuji and a dominant display by WRT at Bahrain, one where the No. 41 took the lead late thanks to pit stop troubles for the #31 sister car, ended up guaranteeing Delétraz, Kubica, and Andrade the final ever LMP2 title in the WEC era.
At the end of the year, the Swiss auto racing federation awarded Delétraz the 2023 Auto Sport Schweiz Award for "special services to Swiss motorsport".

2024: Sebring win & third ELMS title

Remaining with Wayne Taylor Racing, Delétraz embarked on a full-time campaign in the IMSA SportsCar Championship alongside Jordan Taylor, with Colton Herta joining them for the endurance rounds. At the season-opening 24 Hours of Daytona, the Swiss driver managed to resist the advances of Porsche's Mathieu Jaminet during a late restart to finish third, managing to recover for a podium despite a loss of power that lost the team one lap during the night. The following 12 Hours of Sebring saw Delétraz pull off a winning move on Sébastien Bourdais with five minutes to go, claiming WTR's first victory of the GTP era. At Long Beach, Delétraz crashed out of the race at the first corner, minutes after starting his stint. Following two top-five finishes, the Swiss driver took his first pole position of the campaign at Watkins Glen. Delétraz was in the lead until the final restart, where he could not get heat into his car's tyres and dropped to fourth. At Road America, Delétraz served two drive-through penalties, one for causing a collision with Richard Westbrook and one for a pit stop infraction committed by his team, leaving the car eighth by the end. Another penalty, this time for contact with the GT of Chaz Mostert, caused Delétraz to miss out on a podium once again in Indianapolis, though a post-race disqualification dropped the #40 to last. Seventh at Petit Le Mans left Delétraz and Taylor fifth in the GTP drivers' standings.
Parallel to his commitments overseas, Delétraz partnered long-time teammate Kubica and prototype rookie Jonny Edgar at AO Racing by TF in the ELMS. The team started the campaign with seventh at Barcelona and third in Le Castellet. Despite being jumped for the lead in the pits and later gapped by Charles Milesi near the end of the Imola race, Delétraz initially inherited the win as Milesi was penalised for a FCY infraction. The penalty was dropped after an appeal by Panis Racing, leaving the #14 AO car second. Delétraz then scored pole for the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and fended off Tom Dillmann in the closing laps to take victory, one that put the team into the championship lead. Fifth at Mugello set up a title decider in Portimão, ahead of which Delétraz and his teammates were leading the #43 Inter Europol entry by merely six points. Helped by a falsely applied penalty to Inter Europol in the finale, Delétraz, Kubica, and Edgar clinched the ELMS title by finishing second. This result made Delétraz the first driver to take three LMP2 titles in the European Le Mans Series.
Delétraz and AO by TF also took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a Pro-Am entry with Alex Quinn and team owner P. J. Hyett, where the Swiss went on to take pole position. The team finished second in the Pro-Am subclass and sixth in LMP2 overall.

2025: ELMS title Nr. 4, Le Mans subclass win

As WTR moved to the Cadillac V-Series.R chassis ahead of the 2025 IMSA season, Delétraz and Taylor remained with the No. 40 crew. Joined by Kamui Kobayashi for the 24 Hours of Daytona, the talents of the Japanese racing legend brought the No. 40 into the lead during the evening. This was undone by a mistake from Delétraz during the eighth hour, as a twitch saw him spin into the turn 2 barrier, after which the car was carried back onto the track and hit by oncoming traffic. Delétraz later theorised that a loss of tyre grip caused him to lose control. Another crash, this time one caused by one-off teammate Brendon Hartley, caused the team to fall out of contention at Sebring. Following three finsihes inside the top ten, Delétraz and Taylor finished second at Watkins Glen. Three more finishes at the lower end of the top ten left the #40 team ninth in the teams' standings.
Delétraz returned to AO by TF in ELMS, pairing up with Hyett and 2024 IMSA champion Dane Cameron in the LMP2 Pro-Am class. Having fought for victory in Barcelona, Delétraz was relegated to last in class thanks to a mechanical failure. The team returned to form with second in class, third overall at Le Castellet, where Delétraz charged past category rival Mathias Beche late in the race. Then came Le Mans, where Delétraz qualified third in LMP2 before leading AO by TF to a Pro-Am subclass win. Subsequently, a strong fight against the #77 Proton Competition at Imola heralded AO by TF's first ELMS victory of the season. Despite suffering contact from Rodrigo Sales at the start in Spa, the team recovered to third in class. At the second-to-last race in Silverstone, it looked like Delétraz had beaten Algarve Pro Racing's Alex Quinn to victory in a battle in rainy conditions; though when the race was red-flagged, a five-second penalty given to Delétraz for driving standards demoted the Swiss driver to second. Nevertheless, Delétraz and his teammates won the Pro-Am title by finishing second in Portimão. This extended Delétraz's streak to four ELMS titles in five seasons.

Driver profile

Delétraz has been noted for his bold and aggressive overtaking style in high-pressure scenarios. This has been exemplified by his pass for the win on Neel Jani at the 2023 4 Hours of Barcelona and the overtake on Sébastien Bourdais to win the 2024 12 Hours of Sebring. He also notably attempted an unlikely attack against leader Anthoine Hubert on the final lap of the 2019 Monaco F2 sprint race, which Delétraz lost by less than a tenth of a second.
Before his first top-class endurance season in IMSA as a third driver for Wayne Taylor Racing, team owner Wayne Taylor described Delétraz as "very mature". Delétraz showed this in the 2022 ELMS season finale, where he was handed the car in a dominant lead and told to consolidate the lead without crashing.