1,000 Greatest Drivers: Frank Stippler
The best Audi driver to never race at Le Mans?
After baring my soul yesterday and ridiculously over-writing, I will not be doing that today. I went and saw my counselor today, so I let off a lot of steam that people here don’t need to hear, although I really didn’t talk much about any of the content from yesterday’s post. I don’t have much of anything to say about Stippler, who has a clearly worthy but not particularly exciting career. The only thing of particular interest here is that I actually surprisingly rated him as the #3 driver in the world once behind Scott Dixon (many people might find it weird that I put him at #1) and Michael Schumacher. I don’t think a lot of people will agree by that, but I thought about it again and I’m going to stand by that. Porsche Supercup champions tend to very well in my touring car model and I tend to think that series’s drivers are in general the most underrated in the world relative to the attention they get. I know I rate them higher than anyone else does and he was the first champion to also win Porsche Carrera Cup Germany simultaneously in 2003. Four other drivers eventually joined him on that list: Philipp Eng, Sven Müller, René Rast, and Larry ten Voorde, but none of those guys even did it until 2012, a year Stippler became the first driver to win the 24 Hours of Nürburgring and 24 Hours of Spa in the same year since Marc Duez in 1998. Although I find most of Stippler’s career to be pretty run of the mill and humdrum besides his two titles in one season and his four 24 hour wins, those accomplishments were enough to push him across the line and into lock status.
FRANK STIPPLER…………….GERMANY
Born: April 9, 1975
Best year: 2003
Best drive: 2012 24 Hours of Nürburgring
Stippler didn’t get as much hype as his fellow Audi sports car legends because he never drove for their juggernaut 24 Hours of Le Mans operation, but he proved himself repeatedly in other marquee sports car events, winning the 24 Hours of Nürburgring three times and the 24 Hours of Spa once. He took his first laps around Nürburgring as a four-year-old passenger of his Alfa Romeo engineer father in 1979 before commencing his own career in 1993.
After starting in historic racing, he received a mechanical engineering degree while simultaneously crossing over into sports car racing as a Porsche system driver. After winning a Porsche Carrera Cup Germany race in three consecutive even-numbered years from 1998-2002, he had a breakout season in 2003 by winning both that championship and its parent series, Porsche Supercup. Although Porsche Supercup is ostensibly a major league and Porsche Carrera Cup Germany is not, most of the top championship contenders simultaneously competed in both over the last 20 years. Stippler was the first of five drivers to win both championships simultaneously. In addition to 5 Porsche Supercup wins, he won 3 Porsche Carrera Cup Germany races, and 2 races in VLN, the sports car series that races exclusively at the Nürburgring.
For the rest of his career, Stippler was primarily a Nürburgring specialist. He won 15 VLN races through 2025 (including seasons after the series changed its name to NLS) and had a decent DTM season in 2005, but he’s most noted for his endurance sports car wins. In 2012, he won both the 24 Hours of Nürburgring and 24 Hours of Spa overall for Audi despite having a completely different set of teammates in both races, becoming the first driver to do so since Marc Duez in 1998. At the Nürburgring, he delivered Audi its first win. While running second directly behind Jeroen Bleekemolen, he pulled out to make a pass just before Bleekemolen blew a tire and crashed. Although debris from the tire carcass hit Stippler’s windscreen, they suffered no terminal damage and won. He added two more 24 Hours of Nürburgring wins in 2019 and 2024.
Although most people, probably including Stippler, consider his Nürburgring wins the centerpiece of his legacy, I think I am most impressed by his 2003 season, since he won 10 races (usually in solo drives), while he won no more than four in any other season. I had to ask myself whether I’m overrating that season, but I decided I wasn’t. He was the only driver that year to win 10 races, multiple titles, and at least one major league title, and he did so in what was a pretty weak year for elite-tier competition. Although my decision to include the Porsche series in my touring car model is certainly contentious, he has a very strong rating and record as a result of that. It’s a shame Audi never entered him at Le Mans, because he’d probably have a much stronger reputation now if they did.
Touring car model: #100 of 1676 (.265)
Teammate head-to-heads: 62-20 (3-4 vs. Christian Abt, 5-1 vs. Tim Bergmeister, 3-4 vs. Thed Bjork, 6-1 vs. Rinaldo Capello, 7-0 vs. Dominik Farnbacher, 6-1 vs. Alexander Grau, 10-2 vs. Pierre Kaffer, 15-2 vs. Nicole Luttecke, 1-0 vs. Marcus Marshall, 1-0 vs. Ronny Melkus, 1-0 vs. Dominik Neumeyr, 1-4 vs. Timo Scheider, 2-1 vs. Frank Schmickler, 1-0 vs. Marco Werner)
Year-by-year: 2000: C, 2002: C, 2003: 3, 2005: C, 2012: E, 2013: C-, 2015: C, 2019: C-