Mateo Llarena

Mateo Llarena (born 26 February 2004) is a Guatemalan-Italian racing driver. He currently competes in the 2024 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.

Career

Karting

Llarena began go karting at the age of four. He finished the season in thirteenth position. His best race result was a seventh place at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

Sports car racing

At the age of fourteen, Llarena made his car racing debut by competing in some races of the Toyota Yaris Cup Guatemala. In 2019, he won the National Motorsport Championship at 15 years old, making him the youngest in history to win this tournament in Guatemala and Central America, earning his second FIA Americas Award. At the age of 16, Llarena became the youngest ever driver to compete in the Porsche Supercup.

In 2021, Llarena made his debut in the IMSA SportsCar Championship He competed in the LMP3 class with Performance Tech Motorsports. At the 2021 WeatherTech 240 at The Glen, he became the youngest ever pole sitter in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Since 2021, he has also been a part of the Lamborghini GT3 junior program after competing in the 2021 Italian GT Championship with Imperiale Racing.

In 2022, Llarena competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona with T3 Motorsport North America, driving a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo in the GTD class. He then joined NTE Sport/SSR to compete in the 12 Hours of Sebring.

In 2023, Llarena joined Vincenzo Sospiri Racing to compete in the Italian GT Sprint Championship after competing in the championship with Imperiale Racing in the two previous years. Together with his teammate Baptiste Moulin he finished the season fifth in the GT3 Pro classification after scoring two podiums throughout the season.

In 2024, Llarena joined GRT Grasser Racing Team to compete in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup for the first time.

Personal life Llarena studied at Geneva Business School in Madrid. In 2023, Llarena received two Guinness World Records for becoming the youngest Porsche Supercup driver in 2020 and the youngest IMSA SportsCar Championship pole-sitter in 2021. In 2024, Llarena competed under an Italian racing license as he lived in Italy and had received Italian citizenship.

Racing record Career summary † As Llarena was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.

Complete Porsche Supercup results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Points 2020 MRS GT-RacingRBR RBR HUN SIL SIL CAT SPA MNZ18th4

Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship results (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Class Make Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rank Points 2021 Performance Tech Motorsports LMP3 Ligier JS P320 Nissan VK56DE 5.6 L V8 DAY SEB MOH WGL WGL ELK PET 13th 838 2022 T3 Motorsport North America GTD Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo Lamborghini 5.2 L V10 DAY 44th 397 NTE Sport/SSR SEB LBH LGA MDO DET WGL MOS LIM ELK VIR PET

Complete GT World Challenge Europe results GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)