It depends on where you are in the world as to where you might have come across the name Laurin Heinrich, because he's raced nearly everywhere. That is, if you’ve come across his name. My first introduction to the young Porsche driver was Petit Le Mans, 2024, just after his IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship win in the GTD Pro category with the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911-Rawr, Rexy. I, too, wondered who this young driver was, originally expecting him to be an older, seasoned professional.
Seasoned professional he is, even at the young age of 23, having graced the podiums of some of the top tier racing series in Europe and the US in just a few short years, including Porsche’s German Carrera Cup, DTM, and most recently, IMSA. And if it had not been for a string of good will and fortune, as well as a global pandemic — we might not know this young driver who brought AO Racing’s “Rexy” Porsche to win a series championship.
Laurin Heinrich (far right) on the podium with the AO Racing team and Rexy at Sebring. From the left: Team Principal Gunnar Jeannette, and co-drivers Alessio Picariello, and Klaus Bachler
Porsche
Racing was a hobby, not a career path, at least in the beginning for the young German. It was something to do with his father in their down time. But the novelty of “driving around in circles without competition got a bit boring,” as Heinrich explained in an interview with Motorsport.com, and the two made the jump to try out competing, entering a low-level club sports regional championship. It went well enough, he managed to claim a few championships. Then they took a brief next step in trying a “real” car — a Formula car.
“I thought it was just to get this experience — to drive a race car for once because I knew we didn’t have the funding to go to a race team and pay them to race one season.”
His father surprised him, buying an old, used Formula car to make an attempt to compete. Their small karting team, who helped with the mechanical side of things, came to aid in the Formula endeavor for free. There were no engineers or management. “It was just my father, me and three mechanics,” Heinrich shared.
“We came to the races against the big European teams to also compete in Formula 4. …we were more than a hobby team, but with the resources we had, it was tough. We did one year like that. I got my first experiences on big race tracks, racing cars – which was great. But we didn’t have the funding anymore to continue. So, the dream was over. I can say it was a break [now], but at that point, I didn’t know that we would continue again.”
After the break
Heinrich used his unintended break to finish his schooling. The timing worked out because shortly after, a friend offered the young German teen his Porsche Cup car so he could compete in Germany’s Porsche Sprint Challenge GT4 series – part of Porsche Sports Cup Deutschland. There also happened to be a new team (the Speed ...
