Jérôme d'Ambrosio

Jérôme d'Ambrosio
Jérôme d'Ambrosio in Melbourne, March 2012
Nationality	Belgian
Born	27 December 1985 Etterbeek, Belgium
Formula E career
Debut season	2014–15
Current team	Dragon Racing
Car no.	6
Starts	18
Championships	0
Wins	2
Poles	2
Fastest laps	2
Best finish	4th in 2014–15
Finished last season	4th
Formula One World Championship career
Active years	2011–2012
Teams	Virgin, Lotus
Entries	20 (20 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	2011 Australian Grand Prix
Last entry	2012 Italian Grand Prix
2012 position	23rd (0 pts)

Jérôme d'Ambrosio (born 27 December 1985) is a Belgian professional racing driver of Italian descent. He drove for Marussia Virgin Racing during the 2011 Formula One World Championship. As a result of the one-race ban given to Romain Grosjean for actions at the start of the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix, d'Ambrosio replaced the Frenchman for the 2012 Italian Grand Prix. He is currently competing in Formula E driving for Dragon Racing. D'Ambrosio achieved his first Formula E victory in 2015 at the 2015 Berlin ePrix, and a second at the 2016 Mexican ePrix, both as a result of Lucas Di Grassi's disqualification

Career

Karting

Born in Etterbeek, Belgium, d'Ambrosio began his career in karting, between 1997 and 2002. He was a three-time Belgian champion, winning the Mini class in 1999, Junior in 2000, and Formula A in 2002. He won the Junior Monaco Kart Cup in 2000, and won World Cup Formula A in 2002.

Formula Renault

D'Ambrosio moved into single-seaters in 2003, winning the Belgian Formula Renault (1.6 litre) championship, driving for former Formula One driver and compatriot Thierry Boutsen's team. Also in 2003, d'Ambrosio drove in the German-based Formula König championship finishing fourth in the season standings. He also took part in a test for the Renault F1 Driver Development Programme, which he won, earning him a place on the programme for 2004, although he was not retained for further seasons. He moved into the French Formula Renault 2-litre series for 2004 where he finished fourth in the final standings and was top rookie. He also started seven races in the Eurocup. He switched to the Italian Formula Renault Championship in 2005, finishing fourth, also starting six Eurocup races. In 2006, he drove at the highest level in the Formula Renault hierarchy, the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, for Tech 1 Racing, but left the series after four rounds having not scored any points.

Euroseries 3000

He switched to the Euroseries 3000, driving for Euronova Racing, taking three podium finishes and ending up fifth in the final standings despite missing the first half of the season. He also took part in a single race meeting of the FIA GT Championship, driving a Gillet Vertigo in the GT2 class.

Formula Master

For 2007, d'Ambrosio took part in the inaugural season of the International Formula Master series with the Cram Competition team. He won five races, scored 100 points and became the category's first champion.

GP2 Series

D'Ambrosio driving for DAMS at the Turkish round of the 2009 GP2 Series season.

D'Ambrosio driving for Virgin Racing as the team's third driver at the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix.

For 2008, d'Ambrosio competed in both the GP2 Series and the new GP2 Asia Series for the DAMS team, alongside Kamui Kobayashi. He finished eleventh in the GP2 drivers' championship, with a best finish of two second places. He continued with the team into the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season, and despite not taking a single victory, d'Ambrosio managed to finish runner-up to team-mate Kobayashi. He continued with DAMS into the 2009 season, and finished ninth despite failing to achieve a victory. He remained with the team for the 2010 season, as part of DAMS's co-operation with the Renault Formula One team.^[1] He took his first series victory at Monaco, but was later rested for two races in favour of Romain Grosjean.^[2] He took his first series pole position for his home round, but retired from the feature race whilst leading. Following a podium finish at Monza, he finished twelfth in the drivers' championship.

Formula One

In January 2010, d'Ambrosio was announced as a reserve driver for Renault F1, rejoining the team's driver programme thanks to its newly formed links with the Gravity Sport Management company that looks after d'Ambrosio.^[1]

It was announced on 16 September that d'Ambrosio would replace Lucas di Grassi at Virgin on four occasions during Friday practice: at the Singapore, Japanese, Korean and Brazilian Grands Prix. He broke the news to Belgian TV channel RTBF.^[3] At his first Friday Practice in Singapore, he finished 21st, two-tenths behind teammate Timo Glock.

Virgin (2011)

D'Ambrosio at the 2011 Spanish Grand Prix.

On 21 December 2010, Virgin Racing confirmed that d'Ambrosio would race for the team in 2011.^[4] In his first 13 races for the team, d'Ambrosio finished 11 of them with his only retirements coming in Malaysia due to a problem with his car's electronics and in Italy due to gearbox problems. His best finishes have been two 14th places, in Australia and Canada. In his home race, the Belgian Grand Prix, he finished 17th, beating his team-mate Timo Glock.

D'Ambrosio at the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix

In the Virgin garage, d'Ambrosio was affectionately known as 'Custard', with the word pasted on his cockpit when he began testing for the 2011 season at Valencia. Ambrosia is a well-known UK brand of custard and rice pudding.^[5]

D'Ambrosio finished the season 24th in the Drivers' Championship, ahead of Glock (whose best finishes were a pair of 15th places), but was replaced by Charles Pic for the 2012 season.^[6]

Lotus (2012–2013)

On 24 January 2012 it was announced that d'Ambrosio would act as reserve driver for Lotus F1 ahead of the 2012 season and be present at all of the season's races along with drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean. He is also doing co-commentary work for Sky Sports F1 for F1 practice sessions, GP2 and GP3 races and for Belgian French-speaking channel RTBF for F1 races.

D'Ambrosio made his race début for Lotus at the 2012 Italian Grand Prix; he replaced Grosjean, who was banned for one race for causing a multiple collision at the previous round in Belgium.^[7] He qualified in 16th place, and started in 15th place due to a 10-place grid drop penalty applied to Pastor Maldonado.^[8] He finished in 13th place, on the lead lap, 76 seconds behind.^[9]

Blancpain Endurance Series

For 2014, d'Ambrosio switched from single seaters to GTs, joining Bentley to race a Continental GT3 in the Blancpain Endurance Series alongside Duncan Tappy and Antoine Leclerc.^[10]

Formula E (2014–present)

In 2014–15, d'Ambrosio contested the inaugural season of the FIA Formula E Championship for the Dragon Racing team.

2014–15

D'Ambrosio at the 2014 Punta del Este ePrix

D'Ambrosio finished fourth in the drivers' championship standings, taking a victory at the Berlin ePrix after initial race winner Lucas di Grassi was disqualified for violating technical regulations. D'Ambrosio's late season form resulted in him taking three top two finishes in the final four races. D'Ambrosio was the only driver on the grid to finish every race, completing every racing lap in Formula E's inaugural season. D'Ambrosio achieved 113 points in 2014–15, 61 of which were collected in three of the last four races. Dragon Racing finished 2nd in the Teams' Championship having surpassed the Abt team in the final round with a double podium finish. D'Ambrosio out-raced his teammates, Oriol Servià and Loïc Duval in all but one race during the season, when he finished 14th in Buenos Aires.

2015–16

D'Ambrosio finished third at the 2015 Punta del Este ePrix

D'Ambrosio started the season well with 5th in Beijing but struggled in qualifying in the opening two rounds against Duval, only managing 10th and 8th places respectively. In Punta del Este he achieved his first Formula E pole position, with Duval joining him on the front row. He ended the race in third position, one place ahead of Duval. The result moved him into third place in the drivers' championship, behind Sébastien Buemi and di Grassi.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums	Points	Position
2003	Formula Renault 1.6 Belgium	Thierry Boutsen Racing	?	?	?	?	?	1st
	Formula König	?	?	?	?	?	240	4th
2004	Championnat de France Formula Renault 2.0	Graff Racing	14	0	0	?	156	4th
	Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0		7	0	0	2	28	16th
2005	Formula Renault 2.0 Italia	Euronova Racing	17	1	1	4	199	4th
	Formula Renault 2.0 Italia Winter Series		2	?	2	?	40	3rd
	Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0		6	0	0	?	22	15th
	Italian Formula 3000 Light		1	0	0	?	9	6th
2006	Euroseries 3000	Euronova Racing	10	0	0	3	39	5th
	Formula Renault 3.5 Series	Tech 1 Racing	7	0	0	0	0	36th
	FIA GT Championship	Belgian Racing (GT2)	1	0	0	0	0	NC
2007	International Formula Master	Cram Competition	16	1	5	11	100	1st
2008	GP2 Series	DAMS	20	0	0	2	21	11th
	GP2 Asia Series		10	0	0	2	12	11th
2008–09	GP2 Asia Series	DAMS	11	1	0	4	36	2nd
2009	GP2 Series	DAMS	20	0	0	3	29	9th
2010	GP2 Series	DAMS	18	1	1	2	21	12th
	Formula One	Renault F1 Team	Test driver
		Virgin Racing
2011	Formula One	Marussia Virgin Racing	19	0	0	0	0	24th
2012	Formula One	Lotus F1 Team	1	0	0	0	0	23rd
2013	Formula One	Lotus F1 Team	Test driver
2014	Blancpain Endurance Series	M-Sport (Pro Cup)	5	0	0	0	15	17th
2014–15	Formula E	Dragon Racing	11	0	1	3	113	4th
2015–16	Formula E	Dragon Racing	7	2	1	2	64*	4th*

^* Season still in progress.

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

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

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Pos	Points
2006	Tech 1 Racing	ZOL 1 19	ZOL 2 19†	MON 1 12	IST 1 14	IST 2 22	MIS 1 16	MIS 2 19	SPA 1	SPA 2	NÜR 1	NÜR 2	DON 1	DON 2	LMS 1	LMS 2	CAT 1	CAT 2	36th	0

^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2008	DAMS	ESP FEA Ret	ESP SPR 15	TUR FEA Ret	TUR SPR Ret	MON FEA 9	MON SPR 7	FRA FEA 6	FRA SPR Ret	GBR FEA 9	GBR SPR 12	GER FEA Ret	GER SPR 11	HUN FEA 9	HUN SPR Ret	EUR FEA 5	EUR SPR 2	BEL FEA 8	BEL SPR 2	ITA FEA 7	ITA SPR 6	11th	21
2009	DAMS	ESP FEA 3	ESP SPR 3	MON FEA 6	MON SPR 2	TUR FEA Ret	TUR SPR 15	GBR FEA 19	GBR SPR 12	GER FEA 10	GER SPR 7	HUN FEA 16	HUN SPR Ret	VAL FEA 9	VAL SPR 4	BEL FEA Ret	BEL SPR Ret	ITA FEA 4	ITA SPR 4	POR FEA Ret	POR SPR 10	9th	29
2010	DAMS	ESP FEA Ret	ESP SPR 10	MON FEA 8	MON SPR 1	TUR FEA 10	TUR SPR 8	VAL FEA Ret	VAL SPR 8	GBR FEA 11	GBR SPR 11	GER FEA	GER SPR	HUN FEA 6	HUN SPR Ret	BEL FEA Ret	BEL SPR Ret	ITA FEA 5	ITA SPR 2	ABU FEA 14	ABU SPR 8	12th	21

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
2008	DAMS	DUB1 FEA 11	DUB1 SPR 8	IDN FEA Ret	IDN SPR Ret	MYS FEA 3	MYS SPR Ret	BHR FEA 11	BHR SPR 12	DUB2 FEA 7	DUB2 SPR 3			11th	12
2008–09	DAMS	CHN FEA 9	CHN SPR 5	DUB FEA 7	DUB SPR C	BHR1 FEA 2	BHR1 SPR 3	QAT FEA 5	QAT SPR 7	MYS FEA Ret	MYS SPR DSQ	BHR2 FEA 3	BHR2 SPR 2	2nd	36

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	WDC	Points
2010	Virgin Racing	Virgin VR-01	Cosworth CA2010 2.4 V8	BHR	AUS	MAL	CHN	ESP	MON	TUR	CAN	EUR	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	SIN TD	JPN TD	KOR TD	BRA TD	ABU		–	–
2011	Marussia Virgin Racing	Virgin MVR-02	Cosworth CA2011 2.4 V8	AUS 14	MAL Ret	CHN 20	TUR 20	ESP 20	MON 15	CAN 14	EUR 22	GBR 17	GER 18	HUN 19	BEL 17	ITA Ret	SIN 18	JPN 21	KOR 20	IND 16	ABU Ret	BRA 19		24th	0
2012	Lotus F1 Team	Lotus E20	Renault RS27-2012 2.4 V8	AUS	MAL	CHN	BHR	ESP	MON	CAN	EUR	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA 13	SIN	JPN	KOR	IND	ABU	USA	BRA	23rd	0

Complete Formula E results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos	Points
2014–15	Dragon Racing	Spark-Renault SRT 01E	BEI 6	PUT 5	PDE 8	BNA 14	MIA 4	LBH 6	MON 5	BER 1	MOS 11	LON 2	LON 2	4th	113
2015–16	Dragon Racing	Spark-Venturi VM200-FE-01	BEI 5	PUT 14†	PDE 3	BNA 16	MEX 1	LBH 7	PAR 11	BER	MOS	LON	LON	4th*	64*

^* Season still in progress.
^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.

References

1. English, Steven (1 February 2010). "Renault's d'Ambrosio, Tung join DAMS". autosport.com. Haymarket Publishing. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
2. Beer, Matt (20 July 2010). "Grosjean returns to GP2 in Germany". autosport.com (Haymarket Publishing). Retrieved 2010-07-25.
3. Wood, Ryan (19 September 2010). "D'Ambrosio to replace Di Grassi on Fridays". thef1times.com. The F1 Times. Archived from the original on 23 September 2010.
4. "Virgin give Jerome D'Ambrosio a racing seat for 2011". BBC News. 21 December 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-21.
6. "Marussia Virgin Racing Completes 2012 Race Driver Line-up". Virgin Racing. 27 November 2011. Archived from the original on 29 November 2011. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
7. "D'Ambrosio to replace Grosjean". planet-f1.com (TEAMtalk media). 4 September 2012. Archived from the original on 15 December 2012. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
8. "2012 Italian Grand Prix grid". F1Fanatic. Retrieved 2012-09-09.
9. "Formula 1 Gran Premio Sandander d'Italia 2012". Formula1.com. 9 September 2012. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 2012-09-09.
10. Watkins, Gary (28 March 2014). "Ex-F1 man Jerome D'Ambrosio gets Bentley Blancpain GT drive". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 16 April 2014.

External links

• Jérôme d'Ambrosio career summary at DriverDB.com