Michael Wainwright (racing driver)

Michael Wainwright
Mike Wainwright as COO of Trafigura
Nationality	British
Born	(1973-07-25) 25 July 1973 (age 51) Worcester, United Kingdom
FIA World Endurance Championship career
Debut season	2016
Current team	GR Racing
Racing licence	FIA Bronze
Car number	86
Former teams	Gulf Racing
Starts	44 (44 entries)
Wins	0
Podiums	2
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	7th in 2016, 2017, 2018–19

Michael Stuart Wainwright ^[1] (born 25 July 1973) is a British racing driver and oil businessman who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for GR Racing. ^[2]

He made his professional career at oil trading company Trafigura from 1996 to 2023. Being the protégé of the company's founder Claude Dauphin, ^[3] he ultimately served as COO of the group based in Geneva. He is listed among the 300 wealthiest individuals of Switzerland, with an estimated fortune of 300-400 millions swiss francs. ^[4] In 2022, following a very profitable year on the oil market following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he acquired a property in Geneva for 49.5 million swiss francs. ^[5]

In December 2023, Wainwright was charged by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court and the US Department of Justice over allegations of bribing public officials in Angola and Brazil, together with two other individuals. In January 2025, he was sentenced to 32 months in prison on charges of bribery, with 20 months being suspended. ^[6]

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2010	24H Series - A2	Team First 2	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
	French GT Championship	Team First	4	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
	FIA GT3 European Championship	Gulf Team First	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
2011	Intercontinental Le Mans Cup - LMGTE Am	Gulf AMR Middle East	5	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGTE Am		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
	American Le Mans Series - GT		1	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
	24 Hours of Dubai - A6	Gulf Team First	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	14th
2012	Blancpain Endurance Series - Pro-Am	Gulf Racing UK	5	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Blancpain Endurance Series - Pro		1	0	0	0	0	1	27th
	24 Hours of Dubai - A6	Gulf Racing	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
2013	Blancpain Endurance Series - Pro-Am	Gulf Racing UK	4	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Gulf 12 Hours - GT3 Pro-Am	Gulf Racing	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	5th
2014	European Le Mans Series - LMGTE	Gulf Racing UK	5	0	0	0	0	28	11th
2015	European Le Mans Series - LMGTE	Gulf Racing UK [7]	5	1	0	0	2	56	4th
2016	FIA World Endurance Championship - LMGTE Am	Gulf Racing [8]	9	0	0	0	0	106	7th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGTE Am		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	5th
2017	FIA World Endurance Championship - LMGTE Am	Gulf Racing [9]	7	0	0	0	1	67	7th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGTE Am		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	10th
2018	European Le Mans Series - LMGTE	Gulf Racing UK [10]	2	0	0	0	0	10	12th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGTE Am	Gulf Racing	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	10th
2018–19	FIA World Endurance Championship - LMGTE Am	Gulf Racing UK [11]	8	0	0	0	0	79	7th
2019	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGTE Am	Gulf Racing	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	8th
2019–20	FIA World Endurance Championship - LMGTE Am	Gulf Racing	8	0	0	0	1	85	9th
2020	European Le Mans Series - GTE	Gulf Racing UK	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGTE Am		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	5th
2021	FIA World Endurance Championship - LMGTE Am	GR Racing [12]	6	0	0	0	0	23	15th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGTE Am		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	14th
2022	FIA World Endurance Championship - LMGTE Am	GR Racing [13] [14]	5	0	0	0	0	50	10th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGTE Am		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	4th
2023	FIA World Endurance Championship - LMGTE Am	GR Racing [15]	7	0	0	0	2	64	6th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGTE Am		1	0	0	0	1	N/A	3rd
2023–24	Asian Le Mans Series - GT	GR Racing	4	0	0	0	0	6	25th
2024	European Le Mans Series - GT3	GR Racing [16]	6	0	0	0	2	64	5th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGT3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	12th
2025	European Le Mans Series - LMGT3	GR Racing

^† As Wainwright was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.
^* Season still in progress.

Complete European Le Mans Series results

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	Rank	Points
2014	Gulf Racing UK	GTE	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	SIL 9	IMO 8	RBR 9				11th	28
			Porsche 911 RSR					LEC 6	EST 4
2015	Gulf Racing UK	GTE	Porsche 911 RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	SIL 1	IMO 8	RBR 7	LEC 7	EST 3		4th	56
2018	Gulf Racing	LMGTE	Porsche 911 RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	LEC Ret	MNZ	RBR	SIL 5	SPA	ALG	7th	10
2020	Gulf Racing UK	LMGTE	Porsche 911 RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	LEC	SPA	LEC	MNZ	ALG Ret		NC	0
2024	GR Racing	LMGT3	Ferrari 296 GT3	Ferrari F163 3.0 L Turbo V6	CAT 2	LEC 5	IMO 7	SPA 2	MUG 8	ALG 6	5th	64
Source: [17]

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

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

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Rank	Points
2016	Gulf Racing	LMGTE Am	Porsche 911 RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	SIL Ret	SPA 5	LMS 3	NÜR 5	MEX 4	COA 4	FUJ 4	SHA 6	BHR 4	7th	106
2017	Gulf Racing	LMGTE Am	Porsche 911 RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	SIL 4	SPA Ret	LMS 5	NÜR 5	MEX 3	COA Ret	FUJ 4	SHA 2	BHR 5	6th	97
2018–19	Gulf Racing UK	LMGTE Am	Porsche 911 RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	SPA 7	LMS 6	SIL 6	FUJ 4	SHA 9	SEB 4	SPA 7	LMS 4		7th	79
2019–20	Gulf Racing	LMGTE Am	Porsche 911 RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	SIL 4	FUJ 8	SHA 9	BHR 3	COA 6	SPA 10	LMS 5	BHR 5		9th	85
2021	GR Racing	LMGTE Am	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Porsche 4.2 L Flat-6	SPA Ret	ALG 8	MNZ 8	LMS 9	BHR 6	BHR 9				15th	23
2022	GR Racing	LMGTE Am	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Porsche 4.2 L Flat-6	SEB	SPA 6	LMS 3	MNZ 12	FUJ 12	BHR 6				10th	50
2023	GR Racing	LMGTE Am	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Porsche 4.2 L Flat-6	SEB 7	PRT 11	SPA 12	LMS 3	MNZ 3	FUJ 8	BHR 8			6th	64
Sources: [17] [2]

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2011	Gulf AMR Middle East	Fabien Giroix Roald Goethe	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2	GTE Am	141	DNF	DNF
2016	Gulf Racing	Ben Barker Adam Carroll	Porsche 911 RSR	GTE Am	328	33rd	5th
2017	Gulf Racing UK	Ben Barker Nick Foster	Porsche 911 RSR	GTE Am	328	38th	10th
2018	Gulf Racing	Ben Barker Alex Davison	Porsche 911 RSR	GTE Am	283	40th	10th
2019	Gulf Racing	Ben Barker Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 RSR	GTE Am	331	38th	8th
2020	Gulf Racing	Ben Barker Andrew Watson	Porsche 911 RSR	GTE Am	337	29th	5th
2021	GR Racing	Ben Barker Tom Gamble	Porsche 911 RSR-19	GTE Am	322	43rd	14th
2022	GR Racing	Ben Barker Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR-19	GTE Am	340	37th	4th
2023	GR Racing	Ben Barker Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR-19	GTE Am	312	29th	3rd
2024	GR Racing [18]	Riccardo Pera Daniel Serra	Ferrari 296 GT3	LMGT3	278	39th	12th
Sources: [19] [17]

References

1. "Michael Stuart WAINWRIGHT". Companies House. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
2. "Michael Wainwright". FIA World Endurance Championship . Retrieved 13 June 2024.
3. "Bribery Case Snares Man Who Held Trafigura's Secrets and Purse Strings". Bloomberg.com. 2023-12-07. Retrieved 2024-08-02.
4. "300 plus riches – Michael Wainwright". Bilan (in French). 2023-11-23. Retrieved 2024-03-21.
5. "A Genève, un pétrolier s'offre une villa à 50 millions - Le Temps" (in French). 2022-11-14. ISSN   1423-3967 . Retrieved 2024-03-21.
6. Miller, Hugo; Hunter, Archie; Farchy, Jack (31 January 2025). "Trafigura and Ex-COO Convicted of Bribery by Swiss Court". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
7. "2015 EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES — FULL SEASON ENTRY LIST" (PDF). European Le Mans Series. 5 February 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-02-06. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
8. Dagys, John (16 February 2016). "Carroll, Barker Complete Gulf Racing UK Lineup". Sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media, LLC. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
9. "2017 FIA World Endurance Championship - Provisional Season Entry List" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 February 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
10. "Four WEC Guest Entries Make It 45 Cars For ELMS At Paul Ricard". dailysportscar.com. Dailysportscar. 4 April 2018. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
11. Lloyd, Daniel (19 March 2018). "Davison Completes Gulf Racing Lineup". Sportscar365. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
12. Lloyd, Daniel (21 January 2021). "WEC Reveals 33-Car Season Entry for 2021". sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
13. Plümer, Jonas (9 February 2022). "FIA WEC: GR Racing präsentiert 2022er Aufgebot". GT-Place.com (in German). Retrieved 2023-01-10.
14. "Looped crew at GR Racing". endurance-info.com (in French). 8 February 2022. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
15. Goodwin, Graham (11 January 2023). "FIA WEC Reveal 38 Car Full Season Entry – 13 Hypercars For Breakthrough Season". Dailysportscar. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
16. Wainwright, Mike (11 January 2023). "Mike Wainwright: Asian Le Mans Series GT". Driver DB. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
17. "Michael Wainwright Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
18. "Le Mans 24 Hours: Ferrari survives late drama to score back-to-back wins". AutoSport. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
19. "Michael Wainwright". Automobile Club de l'Ouest . Retrieved 26 June 2024.