Felipe Nasr
Brazilian driver Felipe Nasr begins his third season with Team Penske
in 2024 competing for Porsche Penske Motorsport (PPM) in the IMSA
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 31-year-old native of Brasilia,
Brazil brings a wealth of success and experience to the Porsche 963
hybrid Prototype and he will team up with fellow IMSA veteran and
champion Dane Cameron in the No. 7 Porsche.
With two IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Prototype class titles under his belt (2018 and 2021), Nasr has already established himself as a consistent winner and champion. Prior to becoming one of the world's elite sports car drivers, Nasr honed his skills in open-wheel racing and advanced through some of the top European development series on his way to competing in Formula One.
At just 16 years of age, Nasr won
the Formula BMW Europe championship, as he produced five wins, six poles
and 14 podium finishes in 16 races on his way to the 2009 title. Nasr
followed that performance with a title-winning season in the 2011
British Formula 3 Championship, as he generated seven wins and 15 podium
results over 30 races.
Nasr transitioned to racing in the ultra-competitive GP2 Series from 2012-2014. He enjoyed his breakout season in 2014 as he scored four wins and 10 podium finishes to claim third place in the season standings.
The Brazilian racer also earned an opportunity as a reserve driver for the Williams Martini Racing F1 team in 2014, which paved the way for a move to the Sauber F1 team. Competing for Sauber for the full 2015 and 2016 F1 seasons, Nasr recorded seven top-10 results while racing against the top teams and drivers in the sport.
With the introduction of the high-downforce, high-power Daytona Prototype International class (DPi), Nasr turned his attention to racing full-time in the United States with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Maximizing his skills in high-downforce open-wheel cars to his advantage, Nasr teamed up with Eric Curran at Action Express Racing, as the duo won their first series race at Detroit's Belle Isle in 2018.
In his first full season of IMSA competition, Nasr captured the 2018 driver's championship with Action Express Racing. In 2019, Nasr teamed up with Curran and Pipo Derani to win both the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 10-hour season-ending Petit Le Mans event. Nasr and Action Express finished second in the 2019 DPi championship to the Team Penske duo of Juan Pablo Montoya and current PPM teammate Cameron.
After a season that was disrupted by the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Nasr returned to championship form in 2021. He and Derani won four of the 11 series races while producing eight podium results to claim the DPi title in what would become Nasr's final season with Action Express.
He joined Team Penske in 2022, competing with Cameron and Emmanuel Collard in WEC, as the trio raced in the LMP2 class in three events - the 1000 Miles of Sebring, Spa-Francorchamps and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Driving an ORECA 07-Gibson in the WEC LMP2 class, Nasr, Cameron and Collard earned an eighth-place result for Team Penske at Sebring. The team then produced top-five class finishes at Spa (fourth) and at Le Mans (fifth) before focusing on the 2023 season.
Teamed with Australian driver Matt Campbell in PPM's first full season in 2023, Nasr started off the year with a splash in the No. 7 Porsche 963. He scored an outside pole position qualifying effort at the 24 Hours of Daytona, the first race in IMSA's GTP era. Nasr and Campbell scored their first podium result at Long Beach coming home third in a 1-3 finish for PPM. No. 7 team broke through at Road America, as Nasr and Campbell led flag-to-flag to score the pairing's maiden IMSA victory. Nasr followed it up with a second-place finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, completing a 1-2 finish for PPM. Nasr would conclude the season with a fourth-place effort in the final drivers' standings.
He also competed in a third PPM entry at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet.
Away from the track, Nasr enjoys fishing, cycling and riding motorcycles and he continues to live in his native Brazil during the offseason.