René Binder
Binder in 2019
Nationality	Austrian
Born	(1992-01-01)1 January 1992 (age 34) Innsbruck, Austria
Relatives	Franz Binder (father) Hans Binder (uncle)
European Le Mans Series career
Debut season	2019
Current team	Proton Competition
Racing licence	FIA Silver(until 2022) FIA Gold(2023–)
Former teams	Panis Barthez Competition,Inter Europol Competition, Algarve Pro Racing
Starts	35 (35 entries)
Championships	0
Wins	2
Podiums	3
Poles	9
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	3rd in2024
Previous series
2018–19,2022 2018 2017 2016–17 2012–16 2015 2010–12 2011 2009	World Endurance Championship IndyCar Series FIA Formula 2 Championship Formula V8 3.5 Series GP2 Series Formula Renault 3.5 Series ATS Formel 3 Cup FIA Formula Two Championship ADAC Formel Masters
Championship titles
2021	Asian Le Mans - LMP2

René Binder (born 1 January 1992) is an Austrianracing driver who currently competes in the2025 European Le Mans Series withProton Competition. He is the nephew of formerFormula One driverHans Binder, and his father,Franz, was also a racing driver.^[1]

Binder was born inInnsbruck. He began his racing career inkarting in 2002, remaining in the category until 2008.^[2] During this time, he finished third in the German Junior Kart Championship in 2007 and was runner-up in the German Challenger Kart Championship in 2008.^{[citation needed]}

In 2009, Binder began hisformula racing career by competing in theADAC Formel Masters series for theAbt Sportsline team. Whilst his teammateDaniel Abt won the championship, the Austrian finished the season in seventh position with three podium finishes. Binder then moved up to theGerman Formula Three Championship: in2010, he drove forMotopark Academy and finished in twelfth place in the championship, with a best result of third position;2011 saw him move to theJo Zeller Racing team,^[3] for whom he improved to eighth place despite missing a round of the championship; and for the2012 season he is driving for theVan Amersfoort Racing team. In 2011, he also competed in one round of theFIA Formula Two Championship, held at the AustrianRed Bull Ring.

Binder made hisGP2 Series début in the tenth round of the2012 season, held at theCircuit de Spa-Francorchamps. He replacedGiancarlo Serenelli in theLazarus team, where he partneredSergio Canamasas.^[4] He did not score any championship points. The following year, Binder would remain at Lazarus for a full-time assault atGP2.^[5] Taking three points finishes, including a season-best sixth atMonte Carlo, the Austrian would end up 23rd in the standings.

A switch toArden International was in order for the2014 season, where Binder teamed up with BrazilianAndré Negrão.^[6] However, whilst his teammate turned out to score points regularly during the second half of the year, Binder would regress, only amassing three points on his way to 25th in the championship.

For the2015 season, Binder partneredFerrari Academy driverRaffaele Marciello atTrident Racing.^[7] Following a scoreless opening half of the season and after missing the round atSpa due to a streptococcus infection, Binder moved toMP Motorsport.^[8][9] Despite taking a pair of points finishes during his first round with the team, Binder would finish the season 22nd overall.

Binder made a change of career trajectory in 2016, moving to theCharouz Racing System-run Lotus team in the rebrandedFormula V8 3.5 Series.^[10] Even though Binder was beaten in the standings by fellow Lotus driverRoy Nissany, his results progressed, as five podiums throughout the campaign earned him seventh place in the drivers' standings. Remaining with Lotus in2017, he secured his first podium atSpa-Francorchamps and subsequently won both races atMonza, taking his first victories since 2012. Thus, Binder temporarily took the championship lead, although he would soon fall down to sixth overall following the middle portion of the season. He made up ground inAustin, winning his third race after taking pole position.^[11] He won the very last race of the year inBahrain and finished fourth in the championship, level on points with Nissany but ahead of him in terms of wins.^[12] However, Binder would once again be beaten by his Lotus teammate, this time via eventual championPietro Fittipaldi.^[13][14]

At the end of 2017, Binder took part in a private test with theRenault Sport F1 Team, driving a rebadgedLotus E20 at theCircuit Paul Ricard.^[15]

This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(December 2025)

In 2018, Binder signed a contract withJuncos Racing to run the No. 32 car in six races of theIndyCar Series.^[16] With two top-twenty race finishes, Binder ended up 28th in the standings. During the same year, he would take his first step into endurance racing, driving anLMP1 car forByKolles Racing at the6 Hours of Silverstone.^[17] However, the Austrian failed to see the checkered flag, as he spun out during full-course yellow conditions.^[18]

2019 saw Binder undertake a fully-fledged assault at the sportscar scene, as he partneredWill Stevens andJulien Canal atPanis Barthez Competition in the LMP2 class of theEuropean Le Mans Series.^[19] In addition, he would joinJuncos Racing's new project in the DPi category for the Michelin Endurance Cup rounds of theIMSA calendar.^[20]

For the following year, Binder switched toInter Europol Competition for another season in theELMS, teaming up withMatevos Isaakyan andJakub Śmiechowski.^[21] With a pair of top ten results, the outfit finished twelfth in the teams' standings.

At the start of 2021, Binder partook in theAsian Le Mans Series alongsideYifei Ye andFerdinand Habsburg with Algarve Pro-runG-Drive Racing.^[22] The campaign began strongly, as a fortunately timed pit stop under full-course yellow conditions granted the team victory at the season opener inDubai.^[23] Another win followed the next day, as Binder took the lead during his opening stint before handing the car to his teammates.^[24] Despite a clean sweep by title rivalsJota atYas Marina, second and fourth-placed finishes were enough for Binder, Ye and Habsburg to claim the title.^[25][26]

In theELMS, Binder moved teams once again, this time entering as part of theDuqueine Team.^[27] He,Tristan Gommendy, andMemo Rojas ran in the upper midfield for the majority of the season, with a highlight coming atSpa-Francorchamps, where the team finished second.^[28] Fifth place overall would end up being Duqueine's final result.

Originally slated to joinG-Drive alongsideDaniil Kvyat andJames Allen in theFIA World Endurance Championship for the 2022 season, theRussian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent withdrawal of the team forced Binder and Allen to enter the series under theAlgarve Pro Racing banner, driving alongside bronze-ratedSteven Thomas in the LMP2 Pro-Am category.^[29][30][31] The year turned out to yield success, as the trio took a class victory at the24 Hours of Le Mans along with another class win during the subsequent round atMonza.^[32][33] Algarve Pro ended up second in the Pro-Am classification, 23 points behindAF Corse.^[34]

Following a driver ranking upgrade from silver to gold in 2023, Binder returned to theEuropean Le Mans Series with Duqueine, this time teamed up withNeel Jani andNico Pino.^[35][36] The team began the season with a class win atBarcelona, missing out on overall victory to the Pro-AmRacing Team Turkey entry ofLouis Delétraz.^[37] A second place overall inLe Castellet followed, however this would be Duqueine's final podium of the year, with them missing out on a spot in the championship's top three by season's end.^[38][39] The closest they came was at thePortimão season finale, where Binder charged from sixth to second during a weather-affected middle stint, before teammate Jani was involved in an incident later on.^[40]

In July of the same year, Binder, Jani, and Pino entered into the24 Hours of Le Mans under the Duqueine banner, taking third overall despite suffering a broken suspension on the final corner of the final lap.^[41] Binder took part in theWEC rookie test at the end of the season, driving aPorsche 963 withProton Competition.^[42] He returned to the team in December, as he partnered GT starJulien Andlauer and bronze driver Giorgio Roda in theAsian Le Mans Series.^[43] The trio scored three podiums in a campaign which went into early 2024, leaving Proton second in the standings.^[44]

Binder remained at Proton for the 2024ELMS season, being part of the team's Pro-Am lineup alongsideBent Viscaal and Giorgio Roda. After a fifth place in class atBarcelona, the trio managed to score a second place atLe Castellet.

Binder married a woman named Melanie in November 2017.^[15] His family runs the company Binderholz, a manufacturer of solid wood products, whose 2018 revenue reached up to 1.3 Billion Euros.^[45][46]

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position; races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position; races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position; results initalics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2019	Panis Barthez Competition	Julien Canal Will Stevens	Ligier JS P217-Gibson	LMP2	362	13th	8th
2020	Inter Europol Competition	Jakub Śmiechowski Matevos Isaakyan	Ligier JS P217-Gibson	LMP2	325	42nd	17th
2021	Duqueine Team	Tristan Gommendy Memo Rojas	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	357	14th	9th
2022	Algarve Pro Racing	James Allen Steven Thomas	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	363	19th	15th
2023	Duqueine Team	Neel Jani Nico Pino	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	327	11th	3rd
2024	DKR Engineering	Laurents Hörr Alexander Mattschull	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	195	21st	7th
				LMP2 Pro-Am			3rd
2025	Proton Competition	Giorgio Roda Bent Viscaal	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	365	23rd	6th
				LMP2 Pro-Am			3rd

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

• Official website(in German)
• René Binder career summary at DriverDB.com

• 1992 births
• Living people
• Sportspeople from Innsbruck
• Austrian racing drivers
• ADAC Formel Masters drivers
• German Formula Three Championship drivers
• FIA Formula Two Championship drivers
• GP2 Series drivers
• World Series Formula V8 3.5 drivers
• FIA Formula 2 Championship drivers
• IndyCar Series drivers
• 24 Hours of Daytona drivers
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• European Le Mans Series drivers
• FIA World Endurance Championship drivers
• WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers
• Motopark Academy drivers
• Van Amersfoort Racing drivers
• Team Lazarus drivers
• Arden International drivers
• Trident Racing drivers
• MP Motorsport drivers
• Charouz Racing System drivers
• Carlin racing drivers
• ART Grand Prix drivers
• Juncos Hollinger Racing drivers
• Kolles Racing drivers
• Rapax Team drivers
• G-Drive Racing drivers
• Jo Zeller Racing drivers
• Abt Sportsline drivers
• Asian Le Mans Series drivers
• Duqueine Team drivers
• Pons Racing drivers
• Proton Competition drivers
• Algarve Pro Racing drivers
• Inter Europol Competition drivers
• DKR Engineering drivers
• 12 Hours of Sebring drivers

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