René Binder (born 1 January 1992) is an Austrian racing driver. He is the nephew of former Formula One driver Hans Binder, and his father, Franz, was also a racing driver.[1]
Binder was born in Innsbruck. He began his racing career in karting 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.
Binder made his GP2 Series début in the tenth round of the 2012 season, held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. He replaced Giancarlo Serenelli in the Lazarus team, where he partnered Sergio Canamasas.[4] He did not score any championship points. The following year, Binder would remain at Lazarus for a full-time assault at GP2.[5] Taking three points finishes, including a season-best sixth at Monte Carlo, the Austrian would end up 23rd in the standings.
A switch to Arden International was in order for the 2014 season, where Binder teamed up with Brazilian André 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 the 2015 season, the Austrian partnered Ferrari Academy driver Raffaele Marciello at Trident Racing.[7] Following a scoreless opening half of the season and after missing the round at Spa due to a streptococcus infection, Binder moved to MP 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 the Charouz Racing System-run Lotus team in the rebranded Formula V8 3.5 Series.[10] Even though Binder was beaten in the standings by fellow Lotus driver Roy Nissany, his results progressed, as five podiums throughout the campaign earned him seventh place in the drivers' standings. Remaining with Lotus in 2017, he secured his first podium at Spa-Francorchamps and subsequently won both races at Monza, 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 in Austin, winning his third race after taking pole position.[11] He won the very last race of the year in Bahrain 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 champion Pietro Fittipaldi.[13][14]
In 2018, he signed a contract with Juncos Racing to run the no. 32 car in six races of the IndyCar 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 an LMP1 car for ByKolles Racing at the 6 Hours of Silverstone.[17] However, the Austrian failed to see the checkered flag, as he spun out during full-course yellow conditions.[18]
At the start of 2021, Binder partook in the Asian Le Mans Series alongside Yifei Ye and Ferdinand Habsburg with Algarve Pro-run G-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 in Dubai.[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 rivals Jota at Yas Marina, second and fourth-placed finishes were enough for Binder, Ye and Habsburg to claim the title.[25][26]
In the ELMS, the Austrian moved teams once again, this time entering as part of the Duqueine Team.[27] He, Tristan Gommendy, and Memo Rojas ran in the upper midfield for the majority of the season, with a highlight coming at Spa-Francorchamps, where the team finished second.[28] Fifth place overall would end up being Duqueine's final result.
Following a driver ranking upgrade from silver to gold in 2023, Binder returned to the European Le Mans Series with Duqueine, this time teamed up with Neel Jani and Nico Pino.[35][36] The team began the season with a class win at Barcelona, missing out on overall victory to the Pro-Am Racing Team Turkey entry of Louis Delétraz.[37] A second place overall in Le 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 the Portimão 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 the 24 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 the WEC rookie test at the end of the season, driving a Porsche 963 with Proton Competition.[42] He returned to the team in December, as he partnered GT star Julien Andlauer and bronze driver Giorgio Roda in the Asian Le Mans Series.[43] The trio scored three podiums in a campaign which went into early 2024, leaving Proton second in the standings.[44]
2024
Binder remained at Proton for the 2024 ELMS season, being part of the team's Pro-Am lineup alongside Bent Viscaal and Giorgio Roda. After a fifth place in class at Barcelona, the trio managed to score a second place at Le Castellet.
Personal life
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]
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