Which driver has started the most WEC races?

How the count works

WEC Engine credits a driver with a start when he drove at least one racing lap in the race, the same rule the records pages use. The archive holds 107 races, from 2012 to the 2026 Barcelona round.

There are two complications. First, some drivers are listed in a crew but never drive. Buemi was nominated for the No. 8 Toyota at Interlagos and Fuji in 2013 without taking the wheel: the car retired after 25 laps in Brazil with Stéphane Sarrazin driving, and the rain-hit Fuji race lasted only 16 laps. Lietz was in the same position at that 2013 Fuji race. Neither nomination counts as a start.

Second, Toyota has listed reserve drivers across both of its cars at recent Le Mans races. A reserve who did not drive the car is not credited with a start, so those cross-listings in the raw entry data do not count either. The 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans is not yet in the archive, so every figure here covers the races held in the archive, and any driver who started that race is one short.

The top of the list

The seven drivers with the most starts:

- Richard Lietz: 97 - Sébastien Buemi: 97 - Mike Conway: 91 - James Calado: 89 - Christian Ried: 87 - Brendon Hartley: 86 - Kamui Kobayashi: 83

Buemi and Lietz have both started races in every WEC season from 2012 to 2026. Buemi's first start came for Toyota at the 2012 Le Mans. Lietz started earlier, at the 2012 Sebring season opener, in the GTE Pro class where he spent most of his WEC career.

Conway, on 91 starts, joined the WEC in 2013 and has been part of Toyota's No. 7 crew since 2017. Calado, on 89, made his WEC debut at Silverstone in 2014 and moved with Ferrari from GTE to the 499P. German amateur Christian Ried, who raced in GTE Am and then LMGT3, has 87.

Brendon Hartley has 86 starts and Kamui Kobayashi 83. Kobayashi started every race in the archive from 2016 to the 2026 Fuji round.

Starts versus wins

Longevity and success overlap at the top of the list, but not everywhere. Buemi has 29 overall wins from his 97 starts. Lietz, a GT specialist, has 15 class wins: 10 in GTE Pro and 5 in LMGT3.

Conway has 20 overall wins and Kobayashi 19, both driven by Toyota's long run at the front. Ried has 12 class wins, 12 of them in GTE Am. The full win list is in who has the most WEC overall race wins.

Who could take the record

Buemi, Lietz, Conway, Calado, Hartley and Kobayashi started every 2026 race up to the Fuji round, so the order can change at every round. Conway and Calado race full seasons in the same Hypercar field as Buemi.

Buemi and Lietz race in different classes, Buemi in Hypercar and Lietz in LMGT3, so they can add starts at the same rounds without ever meeting on track for position.