Yifei Ye

Yifei Ye is a Chinese racing driver who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for AF Corse. He is the 2021 European Le Mans Series and 2021 [Asian Le Mans Series|Asian Le Mans Series] champion and previously competed in single-seater racing, winning the French F4 championship in French F4 Championship|2016] and the Euroformula Open title in Euroformula Open Championship|2020].
Ye is a former member of the Renault Sport Academy and drove for Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific as a Selected Driver from 2021 until 2023.
Ye has driven for Ferrari since 2024 and currently competes with the #83 Ferrari 499P in the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship, alongside Robert Kubica and Phil Hanson. Ye and his teammates won the 2025 [24 Hours of Le Mans], making him the first Chinese driver to take an overall victory in the event.

Early career

Born on 16 June 2000 in Xi'an City in the Shaanxi Province of China, Ye began his professional racing career in karting in 2010 at the age of ten, and would go on to win the China Karting Championship in 2011 and 2012. Ye would make his European racing debut in 2013 at the ROK Cup final in Lonato, finishing fourth overall in the Junior ROK class. His karting career concluded in early 2015 with a second-place finish in the Vega International Winter Trophy, in preparation for his step up to Formula 4.

Single-seater career

Formula 4

In 2015, Ye graduated to single-seaters in the French F4 Championship, where two wins near the end of the campaign brought him to twelfth in the standings.
The following year would see Ye return to French F4. He would go on to dominate the season, taking pole position in nearly every qualifying session and winning fourteen races. His final points tally saw him take the championship title by 142 points over runner-up Gilles Magnus - marking the largest winning margin in championship history, and the first title for a Chinese driver in Formula 4.

Formula Renault Eurocup

In December 2016, it was announced that Ye would graduate to the Formula Renault Eurocup with reigning teams' champions Josef Kaufmann Racing. He would go on to take three podium finishes on his way to the eighth place in the drivers' standings. Ye reunited with Josef Kaufmann the following season, claiming two wins at Monza and the Hungaroring to finish the championship in third overall.

Formula One

Following his performance in the Formula Renault Eurocup, Ye was signed to the Renault Sport Academy in April 2019.

FIA Formula 3 Championship

In October 2018, Ye joined the final round of the F3 Asian Championship with Absolute Racing, where he claimed two podiums out of three races. Ye rejoined the outfit for the following year's Winter Series, where he claimed four wins to finish second in the championship.
2019 saw Ye enter the inaugural season of the 2019 [FIA Formula 3 Championship|FIA Formula 3 Championship] with Hitech Grand Prix alongside Leonardo Pulcini and Red Bull junior Jüri Vips. In the final race in Sochi, he scored his best result of sixth place.

Euroformula Open Championship

In May 2020, Ye joined CryptoTower Racing in the Euroformula Open championship. He would go on to dominate the championship, taking clean sweeps at the Hungaroring, Red Bull Ring, and Catalunya rounds for a total of 11 wins, 13 poles and 12 fastest laps.

Formula E

In April 2023, Ye was announced to participate in the official rookie test at Berlin for the TAG Heuer [Porsche Formula E Team] in the Porsche 99X Electric. Ye was able to find a good rhythm and managed to provide a valuable feedback to the engineers on the setup of the Porsche 99X Electric. Additionally, following his successful Berlin rookie test, Ye was set to return to the cockpit of the Porsche 99X Electric for the Rome E-Prix Rookie Free Practice.

Sportscar career

2021: Impressive Rookie Season

At the start of 2021, Ye made his sportscar racing debut with G-Drive Racing, partnering René Binder and Ferdinand Habsburg in the LMP2 category of the Asian Le Mans Series. Having taken a pair of victories at the opening round and consolidated their championship gap during the final two races, the trio claimed the ALMS title.
For his main campaign, Ye would drive for Team WRT alongside Louis Delétraz and Robert Kubica in the European Le Mans Series. The team started off in controlling fashion, winning the opening pair of races at Barcelona and Spielberg and gaining an early lead in the standings. After two finishes inside the top five, Ye and his teammates took victory at Spa-Francorchamps, thus clinching the ELMS championship with a round to go.

24 Hours of Le Mans

In August 2021, Ye joined his ELMS teammates Delétraz and Kubica at Team WRT to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Ye completed the most overtakes in the LMP2 class, with a total of 315 passes, and led the race for much of its concluding phase. However, the car would experience an electrical failure on the very last lap of the race, forcing Ye to retire from the lead and leading to the squad being unclassified in the final results.

Promotion to Porsche Motorsport

In October 2021, Ye signed with Porsche as Porsche Motorsport Asian Pacific Selected Driver, becoming Porsche's first-ever official Chinese driver in preparation for a potential role in the upcoming Porsche LMDh program.

2022

GT Debut in Asian Le Mans Series

Ye returned to the Asian Le Mans Series in the GT3 class for 2022, making his debut in GT racing and fulfilling his duties as a newly signed driver for Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific. A pole position and a second-place finish in the final round was enough to elevate the team to eighth in the standings.

Cool Racing (European Le Mans Series)

In February 2022, Cool Racing announced its driver line-up for 2022. Reigning European Le Mans Series LMP2 Champion Ye along with the four-time winner in Le Mans Nicolas Lapierre and 2021 European Le Mans Series LMP3 runner up Niklas Krütten. The team also entered the car in the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans with a revised line-up due to Lapierre's commitments with Alpine in the FIA WEC. He was replaced by double IMSA champion Ricky Taylor. Ye took the pole position at Spa-Francorchamps and three podiums throughout the championship.

2023: First Full Season WEC Campaign in The Top Class

FIA World Endurance Championship

In 2023, Ye was announced to be making his debut in the top-flight Hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship as the youngest driver in the Hypercar class, partnering António Félix da Costa and Will Stevens in the customer Porsche 963 of Hertz Team Jota. The team would make an impressive debut at the third championship round at Spa-Francorchamps, finishing sixth. At the 100th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ye and his teammates would complete an impressive run from last to first during the first half of the race, though this would end after Ye crashed at the Porsche curves. Following repairs, Ye and Jota managed to end up completing the race. In the final three races, the team would amass a trio of top-ten finishes, with a highlight coming in Bahrain, where the trio finished in fourth place.

2024: Switch to Ferrari

In lieu of the 2024 season, Ye announced that he would be leaving the Porsche stable, soon revealing that he had signed a factory contract with Ferrari.
Ye and his No. 83 teammates Robert Shwartzman and Robert Kubica took the overall victory of the 2024 Lone Star Le Mans.

Racing record

Racing career summary

^† As Ye was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.
^* Season still in progress.

Complete Formula Renault NEC results

Year

Entrant

Points

2017

Josef Kaufmann Racing

NÜR
1
2

NÜR
2
3

SPA
1
3

SPA
2
7

SPA
3
8

HOC
1
1

HOC
2
1

8th

104

2018

Josef Kaufmann Racing

SPA
1
2

SPA
2
3

HUN
1
1

HUN
2
11

NÜR
1
6

NÜR
2
6

HOC
1
2

HOC
2
3

NC†

† As Ye was a guest driver, he was ineligible points

Complete F3 Asian Winter Series results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pos	Points
2019	Absolute Racing	CHA 1 Ret	CHA 2 2	CHA 3 1	SEP1 1 2	SEP1 2 2	SEP1 3 1	SEP2 1 1	SEP2 2 1	SEP2 3 13†	2nd	155

Complete FIA Formula 3 Championship results

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Points
2019	Hitech Grand Prix	CAT FEA 22	CAT SPR Ret	LEC FEA 13	LEC SPR 22	RBR FEA 20	RBR SPR Ret	SIL FEA 12	SIL SPR 11	HUN FEA 18	HUN SPR 22	SPA FEA 15	SPA SPR 10	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR 19	SOC FEA 13	SOC SPR 6	21st	4

Complete Euroformula Open Championship results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Points
2020	CryptoTower Racing	HUN 1 1	HUN 2 1	LEC 1 2	LEC 2 1	RBR 1 1	RBR 2 1	MNZ 1 1	MNZ 2 2	MNZ 3 2	MUG 1 5	MUG 2 3	SPA 1 1	SPA 2 11	SPA 3 3	CAT 1 1	CAT 2 1	CAT 3 1	CAT 4 1	1st

Complete Asian Le Mans Series results

Year	Team	Class	Car	Engine	1	2	3	4	Pos.	Points
2021	G-Drive Racing	LMP2	Aurus 01	Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8	DUB 1 1	DUB 2 1	ABU 1 2	ABU 2 4	1st	81
2022	Herberth Motorsport	GT	Porsche 911 GT3 R	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	DUB 1 12	DUB 2 Ret	ABU 1 17	ABU 2 2	8th	20