Yifei Ye (; born 16 June 2000) is a Chinese racing driver who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for AF Corse as a Ferrari factory driver.
Ye began his career in single-seater racing. He won French F4 in 2016, reached FIA Formula 3 as a Renault junior, and won Euroformula Open in 2020. He then moved to sports car racing for 2021, and was picked by Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific as a Selected Driver. Ye was also crowned European Le Mans Series champion for Team WRT in 2021. After two seasons in LMP2, Ye graduated to Hypercar with Hertz Team Jota in 2023.
Ye signed for Ferrari as factory driver in 2024, and was placed in AF Corse's No. 83 car in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Ye won the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside Robert Kubica and Phil Hanson, becoming 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 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: 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 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.
Karting record
Karting career summary SeasonSeriesTeamPosition2013ROK Cup International Final — Junior ROK28th2014South Garda Winter Cup — KF317thWSK Champions Cup — KFJART Grand Prix19thCIK-FIA European Championship — KFJ48thROK Cup International Final — Junior ROKInternational Kartronix4th2015WSK Champions Cup — KFJKartonix International25thSouth Garda Winter Cup — KFJNCVega International Winter Trophy — KFJ2ndWSK Super Master Series — KFJRB Racing12thCIK-FIA European Championship — KFJ46th
Racing record
Racing career summary Season Series Team Races Wins Poles Podiums Points Position 2015 French F4 Championship Auto Sport Academy 21 2 0 0 2 73 12th Italian F4 Championship RB Racing 15 0 0 0 0 10 21st 2016 French F4 Championship FFSA Academy 23 14 10 17 15 420 1st Italian F4 Championship Kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport 18 0 0 2 2 79 10th 2017 Formula Renault Eurocup Josef Kaufmann Racing 23 0 0 1 3 106.5 8th Formula Renault NEC 7 2 2 2 4 104 8th 2018 Formula Renault Eurocup 20 2 1 3 10 239 3rd Formula Renault NEC 8 0 0 0 0 0 NC† F3 Asian Championship Absolute Racing 3 0 0 0 2 37 11th 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship Hitech Grand Prix 16 0 0 0 0 4 21st F3 Asian Winter Series Absolute Racing 9 4 2 5 7 154 2nd 2020 Euroformula Open Championship CryptoTower Racing 18 11 12 12 16 369 1st 2021 European Le Mans Series - LMP2 Team WRT 6 3 0 1 4 118 1st 24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP210000N/ANC Asian Le Mans Series - LMP2 G-Drive Racing 4 2 1 0 3 81 1st 2022 European Le Mans Series - LMP2 Cool Racing 6 0 1 0 3 70 5th 24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP210000N/A7th Asian Le Mans Series - GT Herberth Motorsport 4 0 1 1 1 21.5 8th 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship - Hypercar Hertz Team Jota 5 0 0 0 0 38 9th 24 Hours of Le Mans - Hypercar10000N/A13th FIA World Endurance Championship - LMP2210010NC† 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship - Hypercar AF Corse 8 1 0 0 1 57 9th 24 Hours of Le Mans - Hypercar10000N/ADNF GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup AF Corse - Francorchamps Motors100000NC FIA GT World Cup Harmony Racing 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 11th 2025FIA World Endurance Championship - Hypercar AF Corse 8 1 1 0 2 117 2nd 24 Hours of Le Mans - Hypercar11001N/A 1stGT World Challenge Europe Endurance CupAF Corse - Francorchamps Motors100000NCGT World Challenge AsiaWinhere Harmony Racing410012523thFIA GT World CupHarmony Racing10000N/A5th 2026 IMSA SportsCar Championship - GTD Triarsi Competizione 1 0 0 0 0 260 65thFIA World Endurance Championship - HypercarAF Corse 6 0 0 0 0 31 16th*International GT Open2026–27Asian Le Mans Series - HypercarAF Corse † As Ye was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points. * Season still in progress.
Complete French F4 Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Pos Points2015 LÉD1 LÉD2 LÉD3 LMS1 LMS2 LMS3 PAU1 PAU2 PAU3 HUN1 HUN2 HUN3 MAG1 MAG2 MAG3 NAV1 NAV2 NAV3 LEC1 LEC2 LEC3 12th 73 2016 LEC1 LEC2 LEC3 LEC4 PAU1 PAU2 PAU3 PAU4 LÉD1 LÉD2 LÉD3 LÉD4 MAG1 MAG2 MAG3 MAG4 LMS1 LMS2 LMS3 LMS4 CAT1 CAT2 CAT3 1st 420
Complete Italian F4 Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Pos Points 2015 RB RacingVAL1VAL2VAL3MNZ1MNZ2MNZ3 IMO11 IMO12 IMO13 MUG1 MUG2 MUG3 ADR1 ADR2 ADR3 IMO21 IMO22 IMO23 MIS1 MIS2 MIS3 21st 10 2016 Kfzteile24 Mücke MotorsportMIS1 MIS2 MIS3 MIS4ADR1 ADR2 ADR3 ADR4 IMO11 IMO12 IMO13 MUG1 MUG2 MUG3VAL1VAL2VAL3 IMO21 IMO22 IMO23 MNZ1 MNZ2 MNZ3 10th 79
Complete Formula Renault NEC results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 DC Points 2017 Josef Kaufmann Racing MNZ1 MNZ2 ASS1 ASS2 NÜR1 NÜR2 SPA1 SPA2 SPA3 HOC1 HOC2 8th 104 2018 Josef Kaufmann Racing PAU1 PAU2 MNZ1 MNZ2 SPA1 SPA2 HUN1 HUN2 NÜR1 NÜR2 HOC1 HOC2 NC† 0
† As Ye was a guest driver, he was ineligible points
Complete Formula Renault Eurocup results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Pos Points 2017 Josef Kaufmann Racing MNZ1 MNZ2 SIL1 SIL2 PAU1 PAU2 MON1 MON2 HUN1 HUN2 HUN3 NÜR1 NÜR2 RBR1 RBR2 LEC1 LEC2 SPA1 SPA2 SPA3 CAT1 CAT2 CAT3 8th 106.5 2018 Josef Kaufmann Racing LEC1 LEC2 MNZ1 MNZ2 SIL1 SIL2 MON1 MON2 RBR1 RBR2 SPA1 SPA2 HUN1 HUN2 NÜR1 NÜR2 HOC1 HOC2 CAT1 CAT2 3rd 239
Complete F3 Asian Winter Series results