“From zero to a hundred” in just nine years, to compete at the top levels of GT racing. It’s just a third of Matteo Cairoli’s life, born in 1996. A quick career, started with single-seaters.

He debuted in F.Renault in 2012. Then he completed the German F3 championship with two podiums. In 2014, he appeared a few more times in F4 to switch to GT, immediately conquering the Carrera Cup Italia title: six wins, seven podiums, and four pole positions say a lot about his first year on covered wheels, which was simply amazing, also due to the fact that he was also the best in the Porsche Italia Scholarship Programme and won the Porsche Motorsport International Shootout. This incredible curriculum at his age made him burn some bridges and immediately become a Porsche Junior driver.

In 2015, he made his debut in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, where he won the Rookie title. The following year was even better, as he became vice champion of the series after winning the races in Barcelona, on the exclusive track of Monte Carlo, and even the ones in Hockenheim and Monza.

In 2017, he became a Young Professional Driver for Porsche and debuted in both the FIA WEC (where he finished second with two class wins) and the European Le Mans Series, which saw him conquer the third place of the championship with a win.

In the same year, Cairoli raced for the very first time in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Dempsey-Proton Racing. Now he can boast of completing six races at La Sarthe up until now, with two LMGTE pole positions snatched in 2018 and 2019. He continued racing in WEC and ELMS during both years.

In the meantime, Matteo also took part in the 24 Hours at the Nürburgring four consecutive times, winning in the Pro-Am class back in 2019 and finishing fifth overall. 

In a pretty challenging 2020 season where the world was hit by the pandemic, Cairoli ended the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Series in third place with the Porsche of Dinamic Motorsport, with a win on the modern Nürburgring circuit and a brilliant podium at the 24h of Spa.

In 2021, he won the 24 Hours at the Nürburgring with Manthey Racing, collecting one of the most impressive wins in endurance racing. Matteo continued his campaign in the World Endurance Championship, where he jumped thrice on the podium during the season, and in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance, where he ultimately won the 3 Hours at the Nürburgring.

The following year, Cairoli kept the participation in the traditional endurance championship going, as he was able to win the 8 Hours of Bahrain in the FIA WEC and the 3 Hours of Barcelona in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance. The driver from Como also participated in the 24 Hours of Daytona for the fourth time in his career, crossing the checkered flag eighth.

2023 was a thrilling year for Matteo, full of success and achievements: the driver from Como continued to race in the World Endurance Championship with Project 1 – AO, where he snatched a fifth place in Le Mans, as well as going back to the grid of the European Le Mans Series, where he finished third in the LMGTE class with Iron Lynx’s Porsche. However, the most important achievement arrived at the 24 Hours of Spa: Matteo conquered the overall pole position and the win in the Bronze Cup category with Huber Motorsport, adding his name to the list of the most competitive GT drivers. He also made a great debut in the International GT Open, winning his first race there in Spa with the same German team.

On the other hand, 2024 will represent a huge shift in the Italian’s career, who will leave Porsche after 10 years of collaboration to take on another challenge. Matteo will enter the Lamborghini LMDh program, where he will be able to take the wheel of the new Lamborghini SC63 and race in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with Andrea Caldarelli and Romain Grosjean.