Michaël Benyahia (born July 21, 2000, in Miami) is a Moroccan racing driver.

Career

Early career

Benyahia was born in Miami of a Moroccan father and a Belgian mother. His father, Karim Benyahia is a businessman in hands-free technologies. His mother, Pascale Van Cleemput was

Honorary consul A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

of Belgium in Miami between 2002 and 2005. Benyahia began karting in 2007 at the age of seven, claiming numerous titles in his career. In November 2013, he took part in the

Rotax Max Challenge The Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals (RMC) is a kart racing series owned and organized worldwide by Rotax, BRP-Powertrain and its distributors, approved and in compliance with Commission Internationale de Karting, CIK-FIA. Competition takes ...

Grand Finals held in New Orleans where he finished sixth of the Mini Max category.

Lower formulae

In 2015, Benyahia graduated to single-seaters in the

French F4 Championship French F4 Championship, formerly known as Formula Renault Campus France, Formula Campus, Formul'Academy Euro Series, F4 Eurocup 1.6 is a form of open wheel racing founded in 1993 by Louis Drouet. It is based in France and aims at karting graduate ...

, where he earned nine points and finished 17th. The following year he repeated this series, finishing 3rd and claiming a victory and six podiums.

Formula Renault

Michael signed with the R-ace GP Team and became 2017 Formula Renault FR 2.0 NEC Champion. As part of his prize for becoming the 2017 champion at Hockenheim, Michael Benyahia paid a visit to Renault Sport's F1 facility at Enstone.

Formula 3

Between June and October 2019, he joined the development program of the British team

Carlin Motorsport Carlin, formerly Carlin Motorsport, is a motor racing team based in the United Kingdom. It currently competes in five championships: FIA Formula 2 Championship, FIA Formula 3 Championship, F4 British Championship, BRDC British Formula 3 and ...

to prepare for a serie in F3.

Formula E

In September 2017, Benyahia joined Venturi Formula E Team as Development Driver, one month later he took part in the pre-season test session in Valencia, then in January 2018 at the Rookie Test of the

Marrakesh ePrix The Marrakesh ePrix is a race of the single-seater, electrically powered Formula E championship, held in Marrakesh, Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North ...

where he was the youngest among the twenty participants, in which he finished 19th in the first session and 18th in the second.

British GT

Benyahia is one of four confirmed drivers that will drive two McLaren 570S GT4s for Tolman Motorsport for the 2020 season, after he, Katie Milner, Harry Hayek and Alain Valente were the top 4 drivers in an 18-driver selection at

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 201 people living in 74 h ...

Racing record

Career summary

^† As Benyahia was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete British GT Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position in class) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap in class)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Benyahia, Michael 2000 births Living people Moroccan racing drivers French F4 Championship drivers Formula Renault 2.0 NEC drivers American people of Moroccan descent Euroformula Open Championship drivers British GT Championship drivers Formula Renault Eurocup drivers Auto Sport Academy drivers R-ace GP drivers RP Motorsport drivers International GT Open drivers Racing drivers from Miami FIA Motorsport Games drivers GT4 European Series drivers Racing drivers from Florida