Devlin DeFrancesco (born January 17, 2000) is a Canadian auto racing driver who last competed in the IndyCar Series for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. In January 2022, DeFrancesco won the sixtieth running of the Daytona 24, alongside his teammates Eric Lux, Patricio O'Ward and Colton Herta, in the LMP2 class.
DeFrancesco was born fifteen weeks premature on January 17, 2000, to Andrew and Cathy DeFrancesco. Weighing only a pound at birth, he was cared for at Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre until he was nursed back to health.
In 2014, DeFrancesco placed second overall in the Italian Championship and third overall in the CIK FIA European Championship. In 2014, he sustained an injury to his wrist that required two surgeries and that kept him out of a full racing series for roughly year. As part of his rehabilitation, Devlin attended the Carlin Academy, where he used a combination of simulators and on-track testing to prepare for FIA Formula 4-style racing.
In 2015, DeFrancesco was selected to be a part of the Generation Ganassi Driver Identification Program, a mentoring and talent development program sponsored by Chip Ganassi Racing aiming to identify and assist up to ten North American drivers between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.
Graduating from karts in 2015, DeFrancesco competed in the 2015 Ginetta Junior Championship with HHC Motorsports. He finished 23rd in the standings with 66 points.
In early 2016, DeFrancesco competed in New Zealand's Toyota Racing Series with Giles Motorsport. He finished the season tenth overall with a total of 465 points.
DeFrancesco joined Carlin Motorsports for the 2016 MSA Formula season, taking three wins and finishing fifth in the points standings.
DeFrancesco continued his collaboration with Carlin Motorsport in the Euroformula Open and Spanish Formula 3 Championships in 2017. A strong campaign saw him end the season as Spanish Formula 3 champion with three wins and five podiums. He also won a victory and seven podiums in the Euroformula Open championship, netting third in the championship standings.
FIA Formula 3 European Championship
DeFrancesco joined the FIA Formula 3 European Championship for the final two rounds of the 2017 season. He once again teamed up with Carlin in 2018, competing in the opening two races. He was forced to withdraw from the following round to undergo dental surgery, and subsequently made the switch to join GP3 Series for the remainder of the 2018 season, teaming up with MP Motorsport.
Joining MP Motorsport, DeFrancesco finished the year in 21st place without scoring points.
In 2019, DeFrancesco contested the inaugural FIA F3 championship, with Trident Racing. He did not score throughout the year and finished 25th.
In February 2020, it was announced that DeFrancesco would rejoin Trident Racing for a second year in the championship, but he was forced to withdraw from the season amongst fears of COVID-19, DeFrancesco being immunocompromised.
DeFrancesco took part in a partial 2019/20 F3 Asian Championship certified by FIA campaign with Absolute Racing, finishing seventh in the championship with three podiums.
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
DeFrancesco raced in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, joining the grid for the 2018 24 Hours of Daytona. He finished sixth on debut, and returned for the ‘Petit Le Mans’ event at Road Atlanta in October, finishing in ninth place.
2019 saw DeFrancesco return to the Daytona 24 with JDC MotorSports. Alongside teammates Misha Goikhberg, Tristan Vautier and Rubens Barrichello, the race ended early ahead of the 22nd hour of racing due to heavy rainfall, which placed the car in fifth place at the flag.
In 2020, DeFrancesco joined Steinbrenner Racing and Andretti Autosport to compete the 2020 Indy Pro 2000 Championship. He scored two wins and was runner-up to Sting Ray Robb.