Insight: The Full-Circle Story of China’s First Le Mans Winner

How Yifei Ye went from living near Circuit de La Sarthe as a teenager to winning 24 Hours of Le Mans with Ferrari…

Going from living on the edge of the Circuit de la Sarthe to becoming the first driver in your nation’s history to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright sounds like something straight out of a children’s novel.

Yet for Yifei Ye, that was exactly what happened when, together with Robert Kubica and Phil Hanson, he captured Ferrari’s third consecutive win at the French endurance classic aboard the No. 83 Ferrari 499P.

The win marked the culmination of a remarkable journey for the 25-year-old, who has been on Ferrari’s books as factory driver after joining from Porsche at the end of 2023.

Born in Xi’An City, located just over a thousand kilometers from China’s capital city of Beijing, Ye won a number of domestic karting championships before moving to Europe as, like so many drivers before him, he sought to make a name for himself in single seater competition.

His first port of call was the French F4 Championship, making his debut in 2015. Some of his rivals included future Porsche Penske Motorsport driver Julien Andlauer, as well as the likes of Gabriel Aubry, Sascha Fenestraz and Giuliano Alesi.

For his home base abroad, he chose to live next to the circuit that would one day become one of the most important of his entire career.

“I used to live just next to the Forest Esses,” Ye recalls. “I could actually see the [sign] of Tertre Rouge from my window. So I knew it existed [and that] it’s not just a made up place, you know? So for me to win there also makes it more special.

“It’s a place where I went to study when I was 14 years old, to find a place in Europe to start in single seaters. It’s absolutely a dream come true. Many people that I know in Le Mans congratulated me, messaged me.

“The last time I stood on the podium at Le Mans was in 2016, when I won French F4. So standing on that podium nine years later for winning Le Mans is great.”

That 2016 French F4 campaign Ye mentioned was once characterized by sheer dominance. He won 14 races, capturing the championship with a margin of 142 points over runner-up and future Audi GT3 racer Gilles Magnus.

As he plotted his next steps on the European single seater scene, the still teenage Ye was looking for some career guidance. It was then that a compatriot put him in touch with a man who had just taken his first overall victory at Le Mans.

“I got in contact with Cheng Congfu, who actually raced for Rebellion in LMP1 and who was the first Chinese driver to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We were looking for someone that can help me in Europe because I was alone [there],” he explains.

“He knows Neel Jani’s family pretty well, so I have been going to races with his father since Formula Renault. That is how we have been working together. Now, I’m more on my own and Neel’s father is getting older, but in the past he was helping me.”

Ye detailed that his relationship with Jani, who raced at Rebellion at the same time as Congfu, became quite close and endures to this day.

“When I was living on my own in Le Mans, of course there are weekends where you have school holidays,” Ye says. “I would fly to Switzerland and I would spend some time with them doing go-karts [and] cycling.

“Even now when we have time I go there and we do some go-karting before a race weekend which is good preparation.”

Once Ye was finally able to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, luck was more often than not in short supply. Heartbreakingly, an LMP2 win on debut in 2021 seemed all but secured until his Team WRT Oreca 07 Gibson ground to a halt on the final lap.

In 2023, he crashed out of the overall lead of the race in the fifth hour aboard Hertz Team JOTA’s customer Porsche 963, while last year, a promising run for Ye, Kubica and Robert Shwartzman came to an end prematurely.

“Before the race weekend started [this year], Robert was joking with me saying, we have raced Le Mans twice already [together], and we didn't finish, so maybe something is wrong between us,” Ye recalls. “I told him, the third time is the charm.”

And so it turned out to be, as the yellow-liveried Ferrari completed the hat-trick of Le Mans victories for the Prancing Horse.

Kubica and Ye both made history of their own, becoming the first drivers in the history of each of their respective nations (Poland and China) to win the prestigious race. Prior to Ye’s victory, Chinese success at Le Mans had been limited. Confu Cheng secured an LMP2 podium with Saulnier Racing in 2008.

In the late 2010s, Jackie Chan DC Racing’s JOTA-run LMP2 effort brought success for the Asian nation. David Cheng (born in Beijing before moving to the U.S. at an early age) and Ho-Pin Tung (born in the Netherlands, but with Chinese roots) both enjoyed strong finishes in 2017, with the latter finishing second overall only behind the winning Porsche 919 Hybrid.

When Ye finally became the first driver to secure an overall Le Mans win for China, it kicked off a flurry of attention for the 25-year-old.

“I was in China for a couple of days and it was just full of interviews and [other] duties, like shooting for a fashion magazine,” Ye says. “It has attracted attention not just from the racing world but also outside, which is great.

“And now a director is also calling me for maybe a small role in a movie. So it's for sure great. For myself, I think I could have had a chance to win the race already four years ago in 2021 in the LMP2 category with Robert when the car stopped on the last lap.

“Also last year, I think we had a very good package until the end. Unfortunately, the car had an issue which stopped us from fighting for the win with four hours to go. So this was kind of a redemption for us.

“For sure it brought massive attention to us, to Ferrari, to me back home, so it's great. I take this opportunity to build my career further and it's great.”

One could argue it’s a full-circle moment for Ye, going from the kid living to the edge of the circuit to winning the world’s greatest endurance race. The question remains: could Ye, looking out of his window all those years ago, imagine he’d ever add his name to the list of Le Mans winners?

“Of course, living in Le Mans, you witness the race every year,” he says. “I could picture myself probably driving in it but I could not really believe that I could win it at 24 years old. There are many excellent drivers out there that have come close to winning but never got it.

“So at the end you need speed, you need skill but also luck. So everything got together and gave me this present.”

Photos: DPPI, FFSA Academy, MPS Agency, Ferrari