🇫🇷 Hugo Valente

Hugo Valente is a professional driver who raced single-seaters and touring cars across nine seasons from 2009 to 2022. He spent the majority of his career in the World Touring Car Championship, where he drove for LADA Sport Rosneft between 2012 and 2016. He held an FIA Silver grading for endurance racing, placing him below the two full-professional grades but still among graded drivers in those fields. His indexed racing took him through Formula Renault, the WTCC, GT World Challenge Europe, and endurance competition in the 24H Series.[1]

Valente accumulated 109 starts across his career with eight podiums and one win. That win came in a 24H Series endurance race in 2022 shared among multiple drivers in the TG class. His primary focus was touring car racing, where he contested 82 WTCC starts from 2012 onward, finishing 12th in the 2016 championship standings. His Formula Renault Eurocup campaign in 2009 and 2010 yielded one podium across 21 starts. He retired from racing in 2017 while competing in TCR International Series, citing family life as his reason for stepping away from the sport.[2]

In the WTCC, Valente regularly faced Tom Chilton and Robert Huff, the 2012 WTCC champion, with whom he was closely matched. He finished ahead of Nico Müller, an established Platinum-graded professional, twice across their meetings, and beat Charles Weerts, a three-time GT World Challenge Europe champion, once in their single shared race in 2022. Most of Valente's WTCC starts came for Campos Racing, a team that has fielded drivers ranging from Lando Norris to a larger roster of touring car and junior single-seater competitors.