Sébastien Baud

Sébastien Baud is a French racing driver. He competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship, driving in the LMGT3 class for United Autosports.

Career

Baud raced in karting during his youth, notably competing in the French national championship in 2016. Having driven in the French Mitjet 2.0 L series in 2017 with GPC Motorsports, Baud entered both the French and European championships the following year. With ten wins and a total of 18 podiums he managed to win the former in his debut year. He progressed into the Porsche Carrera Cup France for 2019, though Baud only competed in the last three events as he was combining this with a venture into rallying.
In 2020, Baud joined Cool Racing for the inaugural campaign of the Ligier European Series, driving in the JS2 R category. Having established himself as the title protagonist by completing a clean sweep of both Le Castellet rounds, the Frenchman finished on the podium a further four times to beat Natan Bihel to the title.
For the 2021 season, Baud would enter the GT4 European Series, partnering Enzo Joulié at CD Sport. The pair finished 13th in the Silver Cup standings and scored a best result of seventh. This proved to be preparation for Baud's step-up into GT3 racing in 2022, as he once again drove a Mercedes, this time a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, at GetSpeed Performance in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup. Driving alongside Valdemar Eriksen and Jeff Kingsley in the Silver Cup class, Baud only took two points finishes in the category and ended up a lowly 27th in the championship. Parallel to his GTWC commitments, Baud drove for GetSpeed in the International GT Open series. He and Steve Jans finished fourth overall, coming up strong in the second half of the campaign with three podiums.
Baud remained in the series for the 2023 season, this time competing in the Bronze Cup at Haupt Racing Team with Arjun Maini and Hubert Haupt. Together the trio took a class victory at Le Castellet, benefiting from a late issue for Henrique Chaves. They scored two more subclass podiums to finish second in the Bronze Cup standings, three points shy of Sky – Tempesta Racing. Baud also drove alongside Haupt as a bronze class entry in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, winning the class during race 2 at the Hockenheimring.
Baud progressed to the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2024, joining TF Sport with their GT3.R and partnering their new factory driver Daniel Juncadella as well as bronze-ranked Hiroshi Koizumi. Baud made headlines in only his second race, the rain-impacted 6 Hours of Imola, by winning the Goodyear Wingfoot Award, handed to the driver who clocks the fastest stint in the LMGT3 class. The trio finished the year 14th in the standings, with a podium at the season-ending 8 Hours of Bahrain.