Mateo Llarena

Mateo Llarena is a Guatemalan-Italian racing driver. He currently competes in the 2024 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.

Career

Karting

Llarena began go karting at the age of four. He won two National Karting Championships and the FIA Americas Award before transitioning to open wheel racing. In 2014 and 2016 he was the champion in the Cadet category of the Guatemalan Karting Championship with the team Mazzotti Corse.

Formula 4

In 2018, Llarena made his single-seater debut by competing in the 2018–19 NACAM Formula 4 Championship with Telcel RPL Racing. He finished the season in thirteenth position. His best race result was a seventh place at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

Sports car racing

At the age of fourteen, Llarena made his car racing debut by competing in some races of the Toyota Yaris Cup Guatemala. In 2019, he won the National Motorsport Championship at 15 years old, making him the youngest in history to win this tournament in Guatemala and Central America, earning his second FIA Americas Award.
The 2019 season also saw Llarena receive an invitation from Porsche AG to participate in the 2020 Porsche Supercup. He competed for the German-based team MRS GT-Racing, and finished seventeenth overall in the championship. At the age of 16, Mateo became the youngest ever driver to compete in the Porsche Supercup.
In 2021, Llarena made his debut in the IMSA SportsCar Championship He competed in the LMP3 class with Performance Tech Motorsports. At the 2021 WeatherTech 240 at The Glen, he became the youngest ever pole sitter in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Since 2021, he has also been a part of the Lamborghini GT3 junior program after competing in the 2021 Italian GT Championship with Imperiale Racing.
In 2022, Llarena competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona with T3 Motorsport North America, driving a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo in the GTD class. He then joined NTE Sport/SSR to compete in the 12 Hours of Sebring.
In 2023, Llarena joined Vincenzo Sospiri Racing to compete in the Italian GT Sprint Championship after competing in the championship with Imperiale Racing in the two previous years. Together with his teammate Baptiste Moulin he finished the season fifth in the GT3 Pro classification after scoring two podiums throughout the season.
In 2024, Llarena joined GRT Grasser Racing Team to compete in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup for the first time.

Personal life

Llarena studied at IE University in Madrid. In 2023, Llarena received two Guinness World Records for becoming the youngest Porsche Supercup driver in 2020 and the youngest IMSA SportsCar Championship pole-sitter in 2021. In 2024, Llarena competed under an Italian racing license as he lived in Italy and had received Italian citizenship.