Robin Frijns

Robin Frijns
Frijns in 2012.
Nationality	Dutch
Born	7 August 1991 Maastricht, Netherlands
Blancpain Sprint Series career
Debut season	2015
Current team	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT
Car no.	4
Starts	16
Wins	5
Poles	2
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	2nd in 2015
Previous series
2013 2012 2011 2010–11 2009–10	GP2 Series Formula Renault 3.5 Series Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC Formula BMW Europe
Championship titles
2012 2011 2010	Formula Renault 3.5 Series Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Formula BMW Europe
Formula E career
Debut season	2015–16
Current team	Amlin Andretti
Car no.	27
Starts	7
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0

Robin Frijns (born 7 August 1991 in Maastricht, Netherlands) is a Dutch auto racing driver, but lives in Belgium. He is the 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion, and the first driver to have won the series in his debut season since Robert Kubica in 2005.^[1] Frijns is currently competing in Formula E driving for Amlin Andretti. Frijns achieved his first Formula E podium finish in his second outing in the category.

Career

Karting

Frijns has been an active kart racer in Belgium and France. In 2008, he finished third in the KF2 European Championship category and runner-up in the French Championship, at the same level.

Formula BMW

Frijns began his formula racing career in the 2009 Formula BMW Europe season with Josef Kaufmann Racing.^[2] He finished third overall in the championship, with a win at Silverstone and six podiums. He also finished as the highest-placed rookie in the championship.

Formula Renault

Formula Renault 2.0

Frijns made his first attempt at Formula Renault 2.0, racing at the Spa-Francorchamps round of the 2010 Northern European Cup. Driving for Josef Kaufman Racing once more, Frijns finished second in the first race of the meeting, fifth in the second race, and won the third.

In 2011, Frijns joined the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championship full-time, continuing to drive for Josef Kaufman Racing.^[3] He won the title on his first attempt, winning five races over the course of the season – including both races at Silverstone – and finishing forty-five points ahead of his nearest rival, Carlos Sainz Jr..

Frijns also competed in the Northern European Cup, finishing the season fourth overall, despite missing the Oschersleben, Most and Monza rounds of the championship. Over the course of the season, he won one race and finished on the podium seven times.

Formula Renault 3.5

In 2012, Frijns made the transition to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series – the highest tier of the World Series by Renault – this time racing for British team Fortec Motorsports.^[4] As in 2011, Frijns won the title on his first attempt,^[5] winning races at Motorland Aragón, the Moscow Raceway and the Hungaroring, and scoring five podiums and four poles over the course of the season.

Frijns' title came amidst controversy when he was involved in a collision with rival driver Jules Bianchi in the final race of the season in Barcelona.^[1] Bianchi passed Frijns at the start of lap 21, and he quickly came under more pressure from Carlin driver Kevin Magnussen. Magnussen made an attempt to pass Frijns at the Repsol corner, but Frijns moved to block him. The move forced Bianchi wide, and he skirted across the gravel trap and into the wall and retirement. Frijns went on to finish the race in seventh place, but race stewards decided that he had caused an avoidable collision and twenty-five seconds were added to his race time, demoting him to fourteenth place.^[6] As Bianchi had failed to score, and fellow title rival Sam Bird had failed to score enough points, Frijns' title remained intact. In the days following the meeting, Bianchi accused Frijns of intentionally running him off the road,^[7] a charge which Frijns denied.^[8]

GP2 Series

After the end of 2012, Frijns announced that he would not compete in Formula Renault 3.5 in 2013 and after his announcement at Sauber as test driver, his new team expressed their desire for Frijns to be racing in 2013 as he would not be testing for them full-time in 2013.

After an impressive test with Mercedes' DTM team, Frijns was not offered a drive with the manufacturer. Frijns instead opted to try for a GP2 seat, and tested with veteran team Trident Racing and new team Russian Time. Frijns showed impressive pace and Trident's team principal Maurizio Salvadori praised him and stated his intentions to have Frijns race for the team. However a lack of funding put him on the sidelines for the start of 2013 in Malaysia.

Before the second race in Bahrain, Frijns announced that he would race with new-for-2013 team Hilmer for the second event of the season, replacing Conor Daly and partnering Pål Varhaug. Frijns qualified in a very respectable 10th position ahead of pre-season favourite James Calado, but struggled to adapt to the new Pirelli tyres in the races, before a collision in the first race with Stéphane Richelmi whilst in a points-scoring position compromised his weekend. Team principal Franz Hilmer however was impressed with Frijns and hoped he could compete full-time with the team in 2013.

In only his second weekend, Frijns took a win and a second place at Circuit de Catalunya supporting the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.

Formula One

On 18 October 2012, Sauber announced that Frijns will be driving their car during the third round of Young Drivers Test in Abu Dhabi alongside the team's testing and reserve driver Esteban Gutiérrez.^[9] As the highest-placed Formula Renault driver not attached to any established Formula One team, Frijns was also added to Red Bull Racing's line-up for the test.^[10]

Reflecting on Frijns' 2012 season, ESPN commentator Ben Evans opined that "anything less than a Formula One race seat next year would be a travesty".^[11]

On 23 November 2012, it was announced that Robin Frijns would become part of Sauber, and would serve as test and reserve driver in 2013.^[12]

On 21 January 2014, Frijns confirmed that he will be a reserve driver for Caterham in the 2014 season.

Sports car racing

In 2015, Frijns joined Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT to drive an Audi R8 at the Blancpain GT Series, partnering with Laurens Vanthoor and Jean-Karl Vernay.

Formula E

On 24 August 2015, it was announced that Frijns would partner fellow former Sauber test driver Simona de Silvestro at Andretti for the 2015–16 Formula E season. He came 10th in his first race and scored a podium in Putrajaya. Frijns finished in the points in the following two races making him the first Formula E rookie to finish his first four races in the top 10. After four races, Frijns had scored all of Andretti's points tally of 21.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	FLaps	Podiums	Points	Position
2009	Formula BMW Europe	Josef Kaufmann Racing	16	1	1	1	6	265	3rd
2010	Formula BMW Europe	Josef Kaufmann Racing	16	6	3	3	13	383	1st
	Formula Renault 2.0 NEC		3	1	0	1	2	70	14th
2011	Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0	Josef Kaufmann Racing	14	5	1	0	9	245	1st
	Formula Renault 2.0 NEC		12	1	1	2	7	238	4th
2012	Formula Renault 3.5 Series	Fortec Motorsport	17	3	4	1	8	189	1st
2013	GP2 Series	Hilmer Motorsport	10	1	0	0	2	47	15th
	Formula One	Sauber F1 Team	Test driver
2014	Formula One	Caterham F1 Team	Test driver
2015	Blancpain Sprint Series	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	14	5	2	0	7	127	2nd
	Blancpain Endurance Series		5	0	0	0	2	48	6th
2015–16	Formula E	Amlin Andretti	7	0	0	0	1	37	9th*
2016	Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	2	0	0	0	0	3	10th*
	Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup		1	0	0	0	0	0	NC*

^* 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
2012	Fortec Motorsports	ALC 1 3	ALC 2 1	MON 1 Ret	SPA 1 7	SPA 2 3	NÜR 1 3	NÜR 2 5	MSC 1 1	MSC 2 17	SIL 1 2	SIL 2 9	HUN 1 1	HUN 2 5	LEC 1 7	LEC 2 9	CAT 1 3	CAT 2 14	1st	189

Complete GP2 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	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2013	Hilmer Motorsport	MYS FEA	MYS SPR	BHR FEA 21	BHR SPR 23	ESP FEA 1	ESP SPR 2	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR 15	GBR FEA 13	GBR SPR Ret	GER FEA 6	GER SPR Ret	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	BEL FEA 9	BEL SPR Ret	ITA FEA	ITA SPR	SGP FEA	SGP SPR	ABU FEA	ABU SPR	15th	47

Complete Formula One participations

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

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2014	Caterham F1 Team	Caterham CT05	Renault Energy F1‑2014 1.6 V6 T	AUS	MAL	BHR TD	CHN	ESP	MON	CAN	AUT	GBR TD	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	SIN	JPN	RUS	USA	BRA	ABU	-	-

Complete Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup results

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Pos.	Points
2015	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi R8 LMS ultra	Pro	NOG QR DNS	NOG CR DNS	BRH QR 1	BRH CR 1	ZOL QR 1	ZOL CR 1	MOS QR Ret	MOS CR 5	ALG QR 2	ALG CR 1	MIS QR Ret	MIS CR DNS	ZAN QR 15	ZAN CR 2	2nd	127
2016	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi R8 LMS	Pro	MIS QR 4	MIS CR 22	BRH QR	BRH CR	NÜR QR	NÜR CR	HUN QR	HUN CR	CAT QR	CAT CR					10th*	3*

^* Season still in progress.

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
2015–16	Amlin Andretti	Spark-Renault SRT 01E	BEI 10	PUT 3	PDE 10	BNA 8	MEX 5	LBH 15	PAR 7	BER	MOS	LON	LON	9th*	37*

^* Season still in progress.

References

1. "Frijns gets title in clash, da Costa wins". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). 21 October 2012. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
2. "Josef Kaufmann Racing — Formula BMW Europe Season 2009". jk-racing.de (Josef Kaufmann Racing). 9 January 2009. Retrieved 18 September 2009. Josef Kaufman Racing will compete in the 2009 Formula BMW Europe Championship with the drivers Robin Frijns, Kazeem Manzur and Facu Regalia
3. "Frijns e Tunjo si affidano a Kaufmann" [Frijns and Tunjo join Kaufmann]. ItaliaRacing.net (in Italian) (Inpagina). 26 January 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
4. "Frijns completes Fortec Formula Renault 3.5 line-up". Fortec Motorsports (Fortec Motorsport Ltd.). 30 January 2012. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
5. Collantine, Keith (21 October 2012). "One to Watch — Robin Frijns". F1 Fanatic (Keith Collantine). Retrieved 22 October 2012.
6. "Frijns penalised but keeps title". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). 21 October 2012. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
7. "Bianchi says Frijns pushed him out". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). 22 October 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
8. "Frijns: Bianchi clash a racing incident". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). 22 October 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
9. Collantine, Keith (18 October 2012). "Frijns gets Sauber test chance". F1 Fanatic (Keith Collantine). Retrieved 22 October 2012.
10. Freeman, Glenn (19 October 2012). "Robin Frijns says Sauber Formula 1 test crucial for career". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 22 October 2012.
11. Evans, Ben (19 October 2012). "F1 hopefuls battle for Formula Renault 3.5 title". F1 Fanatic (Keith Collatine). Retrieved 22 October 2012.
12. "Sauber F1 Team signs Esteban Gutiérrez as its race driver, Robin Frijns becomes test and reserve driver". Sauber F1 Team. 23 November 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2012.

External links

• Official website
• Robin Frijns career summary at DriverDB.com