Miguel Molina

Miguel Molina is a Spanish racing driver who currently competes in sports car races as Ferrari factory driver. Most recently, he finished second in GTLM class at 2019 Daytona 24 Hours and raced in many different championships in 2018.

Prior to joining Ferrari in 2017, Molina spent seven seasons, from 2010 to 2016, in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) with Audi. Earlier in a career, while racing in single-seaters, he spent three and a half seasons in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series.

Miguel Molina

Start of the formula racing career

He was born on February 17, 1989, in Girona. As a boy, Miguel was very successful in karting and in 1999 and 2000 he won national Cadet Championships. In 2001, Molina was Catalonian Junior Championship, and finally, in 2003, his last year in karting, Molina became Spanish Junior champion.

Miguel’s first step in the world of formula racing was in 2004 when he has competed in the Spanish Formula Junior 1600 and finished 6th overall. In 2005, Miguel moved to Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 driving for Pons Racing but failed to impress and scored just 3 points out of 16 races.

Miguel Molina at the beginning of his career

In 2006, Molina moved to Spanish Formula 3, driving for Racing Engineering team, and scored one win and a total of six podiums before finishing 6th in the standings. The same year he also debuted in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, driving in 6 races for GD Racing, and scored 1 point. That experience was very helpful for the following season.

Winning the races in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series

From 2007 to 2009 Molina competed in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with a considerable success. In his first full season in the series, driving for Pons Racing, Miguel scored 2 wins, other 2 podiums and 1 fastest lap before finishing 7th overall.

Miguel Molina, Prema Powerteam, Formula Renault 3.5 Series

The season of 2008 was pretty much the same for Miguel. Now as a driver of Prema Powerteam, he again scored 2 wins and a total of 4 podiums but moved up to the 4th place in the Drivers’ championship, behind Giedo van der Garde, Julien Jousse, and Fabio Carbone.

In his final year in the series Spanish driver was a member of Ultimate Motorsport team. He raced in only 7 of 9 rounds that year and scored 3 podiums and 2 fastest laps eventually taking the 8th place in the final classification.

DTM was the next stop in Miguel’s career

After leaving the single-seaters, Molina in 2010 switched to the sports cars racing and by the end of 2016, he competed in DTM as an Audi driver. Miguel’s rookie season was a solid one and he was able to finish 10th overall, with the 4th place at Brands Hatch as the highlight of the season. Next year, he scored his first podium finish by taking the 3rd place at Hockenheim but dropped to the 11th position overall.

Miguel Molina

In 2012 and 2013 Molina’s results weren’t so good. In 2012, he retired from 4 races and dropped to the 18th place overall but slightly recovered in the next season when he was able to pick some points in four consecutive races in the second half of the year, eventually finishing 17th in the championship.

Miguel Molina was driving a DTM Audi from 2010 to 2016

Molina left Phoenix Racing and returned to Abt Sportsline in 2014 and the results improved. After two years he scored a podium finish by taking the 2nd place at Hungaroring. Despite scoring significantly more points than in the previous campaign, Miguel again finished 17th overall.

Maiden victory after six years

Molina scored his maiden DTM victory in 2015. He was the fastest in the race 2 at Nurburgring and finally broke the ice. That year he also finished 3rd in the race 2 at Lausitzring but the rest of the season wasn’t so good and for the third year in a row he was 17th overall.

Molina celebrates his maiden DTM victory at Nurburgring in 2015

The season of 2016 was Molina’s last in DTM. He won the races at Lausitzring and Hockenheim and finished 3rd at Hungaroring. His form again was very inconsistent and he finished 13th in the final classification, so Audi decided that Molina is not needed anymore.

Switch to sports car racing with Ferrari in 2017

In 2017, Molina found a new engagement in other championships. He drove the Spirit of Race's Ferrari in the FIA World Endurance Championship LMGTE-Am class and also in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup with SMP Racing. With one FIA WEC class victory, at Fuji 6 Hours, he finished fifth in the final standings. At Le Mans, he joined AF Corse in GTE Pro class, finishing fifth. In the Blancpain GT Series, he finished fourth in the Endurance Cup.

He stayed with Ferrari in 2018, racing all over the world with different customer teams. His greatest success was the championship title in the Pirelli World Challenge SprintX category with R.Ferri Motorsport. He was also among the front-runners in the European Le Mans Series, finishing second in the GTE class with JMW Motorsport.

In 2019, he started a season by reaching a podium at Daytona 24 Hours, sharing the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE with James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Toni Vilander.

Miguel Molina (left) and his SMP Racing teammates in 2017

Photo: miguelmolina.net, ocio.net, fourtitude.com, audi-mediacenter.com