Sam Bird

Sam Bird
Bird in 2012.
Nationality	British
Born	9 January 1987 Roehampton, Greater London, England
World Endurance Championship career
Debut season	2014
Current team	AF Corse
Car no.	26
Former teams	G-Drive Racing
Starts	11
Wins	5
Poles	7
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	1st in 2015
Finished last season	1st (178 pts)
Formula E career
Debut season	2014–15
Current team	DS Virgin Racing
Car no.	2
Starts	18
Championships	0
Wins	3
Poles	3
Fastest laps	2
Best finish	5th in 2014–15
Finished last season	5th
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Participating years	2014–
Teams	AF Corse, G-Drive Racing
Best finish	10 (2015)
Class wins	0
Previous series
2010–2011, 2013 2012 2009–10–2011 2008–09 2007, 2009 2006 2004–05	GP2 Series Formula Renault 3.5 Series GP2 Asia Series Formula 3 Euro Series British Formula 3 Formula Renault 2.0 UK Formula BMW
Awards
2013 2006	Pirelli Trophy for Tyre Management Autosport Club Driver/Year

Sam Jamie Bird^[1] (born 9 January 1987) is a British professional racing driver who currently drives for Virgin Racing in Formula E and for AF Corse in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Career

Formula BMW

Bird made his name in single seater racing in the Formula BMW category, coming fourteenth overall in his debut season and second in the rookie cup. He came runner up in 2005, which was only his second season in the category and also came fourth in the Formula BMW world final, the race itself was won by German Marco Holzer.

Formula Renault

For 2006, Bird entered the British Formula Renault series, where he won four races and came fourth in the championship, 111 points behind series champion Sebastian Hohenthal.

Formula Three

Bird on the Formula 3 Euro Series at the Hockenheimring (2009)

In 2007, Bird raced in the British Formula 3 Championship with Carlin Motorsport, racing in a Mercedes powered Dallara. In March 2007, Bird secured sponsorship from BP, "The brand is already prominent in the World Rally Championship" Mark Reader, BP's UK Fuels Marketing Manager, commented, "Sam's an incredible prospect and we're excited to be getting into a relationship at this stage of his career" he added.^[2] Bird was elected to the Motor Sports Association Race Elite Scheme in April 2007, along with 5 other drivers in various British series and also participated in a series of aerodynamic tests with the AT&T Williams F1 Team.

Bird moved to the Manor Motorsport and the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2008 and had a testing year, finishing eleventh in the championship with 23 points – 16 of which came from second places during Saturday races at Catalunya and Le Mans and only picked up points from three other races. For 2009, he joined McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner Alexander Sims, 2008 Mücke driver Christian Vietoris and 2008 Formula BMW Europe runner-up Marco Wittmann at Mücke Motorsport. He earned his first pole position and fastest laps, but failed to win a race en route to eighth in the championship.

GP2 Series

Bird missed the final round of the F3 Euroseries season to join up with the ART Grand Prix team for a GP2 Asia Series test at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. He raced in the 2009–10 season for the team, where he finished seventh in the series, with a second place in the final round.

Bird contested the 2010 GP2 Series with ART, having long coveted a drive with the French team. He was fast but frequently unlucky, losing several potential results due to technical issues, engine failures and collisions for which he was not at fault. However, he managed to claim his maiden series win at the first race at Monza, as well as claiming his third fastest lap of the season.

Bird during the feature race at the Belgian round of the 2013 GP2 Series.

For 2011, Bird moved to the iSport International team alongside Marcus Ericsson. His GP2 Asia campaign resulted in three retirements from four races, but after a strong start to the main series season, he was second in the Drivers' Championship after four rounds, with the same number of points as leader Romain Grosjean. After this point, however, he gradually slipped back in the standings and finished sixth overall at the end of the season.

Bird competed for the new Russian Time squad in 2013 and enjoyed a hugely successful season. The Englishman took five wins on the way to second place in the championship, having taken the championship race down to the very last weekend. Bird's performances alongside teammate Tom Dillman secured Russian Time first place in the GP2 constructors' championship.

Formula Renault 3.5

Between his last two seasons in the GP2 series, Bird competed in the 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 season. He won two races and took five further podium positions to head into the final round at Catalunya in a three-way battle for the title with Robin Frijns and Jules Bianchi. He lost out on the title by just 10 points and ended up finishing third in the championship.

Formula One

On 16 November 2010 he took part in the young drivers test in Abu Dhabi driving for Mercedes GP.^[3]

World Endurance Championship

In 2014 Bird made two guest appearances for the Ferrari AF Corse team. The first was at his home race in Britain for the 6 hours of Silverstone where he came 3rd in the GTE Amateur class. His second appearance was at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. Bird took pole position in the GTE Am class, 2nd overall of all GT cars. He ran in the first stint of the race, holding the GTE Am lead until he collided with a pair of front-running LMP1 cars, the number 3 Audi and a Toyota, in wet conditions on the Mulsanne Straight putting him out of the race in the second hour.

Formula E

Bird racing in the 2014 Punta del Este ePrix

In the 2014–15 Formula E season, Bird began driving for Richard Branson's Virgin Racing alongside Jaime Alguersuari. He claimed third place in the first race, the Beijing ePrix, before dominating the second race of the season in Putrajaya to claim victory from second on the grid. At the following race in Punta del Este, he did not manage to qualify and so started from 18th place and soon retired from the race after a collision. The 2015 Long Beach ePrix was another race to forget for Bird: after starting 11th, he suffered a suspension failure on lap 11 and retired from the race. Bird managed to avoid the massive first lap collision at the 2015 Monaco ePrix and went from his qualifying position of 12th to finish fourth. The final round of the season was the 2015 London ePrix where Bird started from fourth and went on to cross the line second at his home ePrix. Race winner Stéphane Sarrazin received a 49-second penalty and so Bird was handed the win. He finished the season with 103 points and secured 5th place in the championship after his home win.

Personal life

He was educated at Millfield School in Somerset.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2004	Formula BMW UK	Carlin Motorsport	20	0	0	0	0	22	14th
2005	Formula BMW UK	Fortec Motorsport	20	6	9	3	12	218	2nd
	Formula BMW World Final		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	4th
2006	Formula Renault UK	Fortec Motorsport	20	4	7	5	7	373	4th
2007	British Formula 3	Carlin Motorsport	22	2	0	1	10	180	4th
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	6th
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	27th
2008	Formula 3 Euro Series	Manor Motorsport	20	0	0	0	2	23	11th
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	7th
2009	Formula 3 Euro Series	Mücke Motorsport	18	0	1	2	4	40	8th
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	8th
	British Formula 3	Fortec Motorsport	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
	Macau Grand Prix	ART Grand Prix	1	0	0	0	1	N/A	3rd
2009–10	GP2 Asia Series	ART Grand Prix	8	0	0	1	1	12	7th
2010	GP2 Series	ART Grand Prix	20	1	1	4	5	48	5th
2011	GP2 Asia Series	iSport International	4	0	0	0	0	2	12th
	GP2 Series	iSport International	18	0	1	3	3	45	6th
2012	Formula Renault 3.5 Series	ISR Racing	17	2	1	0	7	177	3rd
	Formula One	Mercedes AMG Petronas	Test driver
2013	GP2 Series	Russian Time	22	5	2	3	6	181	2nd
2014	FIA World Endurance Championship – GT Cup	AF Corse	2	0	0	0	0	1	34th
	FIA World Endurance Championship - LMGTE Am		2	0	2	1	1	17	16th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGTE Am		1	0	1	0	0	N/A	DNF
	United SportsCar Championship – PC	Starworks Motorsport	3	0	0	1	1	29	34th
2014–15	Formula E	Virgin Racing	11	2	0	2	3	103	5th
2015	FIA World Endurance Championship – LMP2	G-Drive Racing	8	4	4	0	7	178	1st
	24 Hours of Le Mans – LMP2		1	0	1	0	0	N/A	2nd
2015–16	Formula E	DS Virgin Racing	7	1	3	0	2	82	3rd*
2016	FIA World Endurance Championship - LMGTE Pro	AF Corse	1	1	1	0	1	26	1st*

^† As Bird was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.
^* Season still in progress.

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate 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	20	DC	Points
2008	Manor Motorsport	Dallara F308/036	Mercedes	HOC 1 10	HOC 2 6	MUG 1 14	MUG 2 8	PAU 1 Ret	PAU 2 11	NOR 1 14	NOR 2 8	ZAN 1 4	ZAN 2 6	NÜR 1 22	NÜR 2 19	BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 19	CAT 1 2	CAT 2 18	BUG 1 2	BUG 2 11	HOC 1 16	HOC 2 Ret	11th	23
2009	Mücke Motorsport	Dallara F308/042	Mercedes	HOC 1 3	HOC 2 6	LAU 1 5	LAU 2 3	NOR 1 8	NOR 2 Ret	ZAN 1 8	ZAN 2 2	OSC 1 12	OSC 2 20	NÜR 1 4	NÜR 2 8	BRH 1 6	BRH 2 3	CAT 1 Ret	CAT 2 Ret	DIJ 1 6	DIJ 2 5	HOC 1	HOC 2	8th	40

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
2010	ART Grand Prix	ESP FEA 9	ESP SPR 4	MON FEA 18	MON SPR 10	TUR FEA 3	TUR SPR 10	VAL FEA 3	VAL SPR 10	GBR FEA 4	GBR SPR DNS	GER FEA 14	GER SPR 5	HUN FEA 13	HUN SPR Ret	BEL FEA Ret	BEL SPR 12	ITA FEA 1	ITA SPR 3	ABU FEA 3	ABU SPR Ret			5th	48
2011	iSport International	TUR FEA 2	TUR SPR 3	ESP FEA 3	ESP SPR 5	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR 13	VAL FEA 5	VAL SPR 12	GBR FEA 5	GBR SPR 6	GER FEA 8	GER SPR 7	HUN FEA 17	HUN SPR 5	BEL FEA 12	BEL SPR 5	ITA FEA 4	ITA SPR 4					6th	45
2013	Russian Time	MYS FEA 7	MYS SPR Ret	BHR FEA 6	BHR SPR 1	ESP FEA 21†	ESP SPR 12	MON FEA 1	MON SPR 24	GBR FEA 1	GBR SPR 5	GER FEA 13	GER SPR 8	HUN FEA 10	HUN SPR 8	BEL FEA 1	BEL SPR 14	ITA FEA 2	ITA SPR 4	SGP FEA 8	SGP SPR 1	ABU FEA 10	ABU SPR 4	2nd	181

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	DC	Points
2009–10	ART Grand Prix	ABU1 FEA 18	ABU1 SPR 18	ABU2 FEA Ret	ABU2 SPR Ret	BHR1 FEA 13	BHR1 SPR 4	BHR2 FEA 6	BHR2 SPR 2	7th	12
2011	iSport International	ABU FEA 7	ABU SPR Ret	ITA FEA Ret	ITA SPR Ret					12th	2

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	ISR	ALC 1 9	ALC 2 2	MON 1 1	SPA 1 3	SPA 2 5	NÜR 1 8	NÜR 2 4	MSC 1 3	MSC 2 Ret	SIL 1 Ret	SIL 2 1	HUN 1 10	HUN 2 4	LEC 1 10	LEC 2 3	CAT 1 2	CAT 2 8	3rd	177

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

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

Year	Entrant	Class	Car	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Rank	Points
2014	AF Corse	LMGTE Am	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	Ferrari 4.5 L V8	SIL 3	SPA	LMS Ret	COA	FUJ	SHA	BHR	SÃO		16th	17
2015	G-Drive Racing	LMP2	Ligier JS P2	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL 1	SPA 9	LMS 2	NÜR 2	COA 1	FUJ 1	SHA 2	BHR 1		1st	178
2016	AF Corse	LMGTE Pro	Ferrari 488 GTE	Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8	SIL 1	SPA	LMS	NÜR	MEX	COA	FUJ	SHA	BHR	1st*	26*

^* Season still in progress.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2014	AF Corse	Stephen Wyatt Michele Rugolo	Ferrari 458 Italia GTC	GTE Am	22	DNF	DNF
2015	G-Drive Racing	Roman Rusinov Julien Canal	Ligier JS P2-Nissan	LMP2	358	10th	2nd

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	Virgin Racing	Spark-Renault SRT 01E	BEI 3	PUT 1	PDE Ret	BNA 7	MIA 8	LBH Ret	MON 4	BER 8	MOS Ret	LON 6	LON 1	5th	103
2015–16	DS Virgin Racing	Spark-Virgin DSV-01	BEI 7	PUT 2	PDE Ret	BNA 1	MEX 6	LBH 6	PAR 6	BER	MOS	LON	LON	3rd*	82*

^* Season still in progress.

References

1. Rowe, Callum (28 August 2013). "IN DEPTH Q&A – SAM BIRD". http://callumrowesgp2blog.wordpress.com/. Retrieved 30 August 2013. SB: My middle name is Jamie External link in |publisher= (help)
2. "BP Ultimate sponsors Sam Bird in Formula 3". BP Official Website. 15 March 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
3. Straw, Edd (16 November 2010). "Ricciardo tops day one of rookie test". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 17 November 2010.

External links

• Official website
• Sam Bird career summary at DriverDB.com
• Sam Bird's ESPNF1 column