Ben Hanley

Benjamin Hanley
Hanley at the 2019 Indianapolis 500
Nationality	British
Born	(1985-01-22) 22 January 1985 (age 39) Manchester, England
FIA World Endurance Championship career
Debut season	2017
Current team	DragonSpeed
Racing licence	FIA Gold
Car number	21
Former teams	TDS Racing G-Drive Racing CEFC Manor TRS Racing Team LNT
Starts	26
Championships	0
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	11th in 2021
Finished last season	13th
Previous series
2005 2006–07 2008 2008	Formula Renault 2.0 Italia Formula Renault 3.5 Series GP2 Asia Series GP2 Series
Championship titles
2023 2022	Michelin Endurance Cup - LMP2 Asian Le Mans Series

Benjamin Michael Hanley (born 22 January 1985) is a British racing driver who was a part of Renault F1 Team's Renault Driver Development Program from 2006 to 2008.^[1] He raced two seasons part time in the NTT IndyCar Series.^[2] Currently he is racing in the European Le Mans Series and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with United Autosports.

Hanley had a successful career in karting, winning a number of championships and individual races and coming close to winning the Karting World Championship. He made his debut in Single-seater cars in the 2005 Formula Renault 2.0 Italia series, and finished 3rd driving for Cram Competition. He then raced in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2006 and in 2007 he finished as runner-up in the championship, driving for Prema Powerteam.^[1] He was signed to drive for Campos Racing in early 2008, partnering Vitaly Petrov.^[3] He also joined the team for the second round of the 2008 GP2 Asia Series, scoring a podium finish in his first GP2 race. After three races of the season Hanley and Campos parted company, but he secured a drive with Durango before the next race.^[4] He replaced Marcello Puglisi, who was in turn deputising for the injured Davide Valsecchi. However, this was only a one-off drive, as Valsecchi returned to racing action at the next round of the championship.^[5] He began 2009 without a drive, but joined the Euroseries 3000 mid-season and won during his first event in the category. He also returned to karting in 2009, finishing third in the Karting World Championship.^[6]

On December 17, 2018, it was announced that Hanley would compete in 5 IndyCar races, including the 103rd Indianapolis 500, with DragonSpeed in 2019. Only three of those races were fulfilled because of visa issues, and he could not compete in the Championship beyond the Indianapolis 500. The No. 81 qualified 27th and then Finished 32nd in the race after a mechanical issue.

In January 2020 it was confirmed that he would return with Dragonspeed.^[7] The team planned to enter 6 races, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic the St. Petersburg, Long Beach, Mid-Ohio and Laguna Seca races were cancelled, and the team did not field an entry for Texas. On August 8, the team announced that Hanley would drive their entry for the Indianapolis 500, which was held on August 23. With little preparation time, the team had numerous mechanical issues in practice, resulting in qualifying in the 33rd and last position. The car finished the race in 23rd place.

On October 28, 2020 the team shuttered their IndyCar Series program and sold their IndyCar assets to Meyer Shank Racing, citing the team "being taken back two years" due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Team Owner Elton Julian left open the possibility of returning to the series when "the next big thing happens for IndyCar" if the resources were available.^[8]

^† As Hanley was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points. ^‡ Points only counted towards the Michelin Endurance Cup, and not the overall LMP2 Championship.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

† Non-championship event.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

^‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

^† Points only counted towards the Michelin Endurance Cup, and not the overall LMP2 Championship.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

^† Not eligible for points.

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2017	Dragonspeed - 10 Star	Henrik Hedman Felix Rosenqvist	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	343	14th	12th
2018	DragonSpeed	Henrik Hedman Renger van der Zande	BR Engineering BR1-Gibson	LMP1	244	DNF	DNF
2019	DragonSpeed	Henrik Hedman Renger van der Zande	BR Engineering BR1-Gibson	LMP1	76	DNF	DNF
2020	DragonSpeed USA	Henrik Hedman Renger van der Zande	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	361	16th	12th
2021	DragonSpeed USA	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	356	15th	10th
				LMP2 Pro-Am			1st
2022	Nielsen Racing	Matt Bell Rodrigo Sales	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	362	20th	16th
2023	Nielsen Racing	Mathias Beche Rodrigo Sales	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	18	DNF	DNF
				LMP2 Pro-Am
2024	United Autosports USA	Filipe Albuquerque Ben Keating	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	272	42nd	13th
				LMP2 Pro-Am			6th

(key)

(key)

• Ben Hanley official website
• Ben Hanley driver statistics at Racing-Reference