Björn Karl Michael Wirdheim (born 4 April 1980) is a Swedish professional

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

. He is the son of Örnulf Wirdheim, also a racing driver. Björn began racing

karts Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on f ...

, competing in his first race, at the age of 10. His main achievement to date is becoming the

International Formula 3000 The Formula 3000 International Championship was a motor racing series created by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) in 1985 to become the final preparatory step for drivers hoping to enter Formula One. Formula Two had become t ...

Champion in 2003.

Career

Born in

Växjö Växjö ( ) is a city and the seat of Växjö Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden. It had 70,489 inhabitants (2019) out of a municipal population of 95,995 (2021). It is the administrative, cultural, and industrial centre of Kronoberg County ...

, Wirdheim began racing karts at age ten, until the age of fifteen, winning the Southern Swedish Karting Championship. In 1996, he progressed to single-seaters in Swedish

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. Formula For ...

1600 Junior Championship where he took the championship title in 1997 with 17 wins. In 1998 and 1999 he raced in the

Formula Palmer Audi Formula Palmer Audi, officially abbreviated to FPA, and sometimes informally abbreviated to Palmer Audi, was a one-make class of open wheel Formula racing founded in 1998 by former Formula One driver, Jonathan Palmer. It was based in the United ...

Championship, achieving two podium finishes.

International Formula 3000

In 2000, he switched to the

German Formula Three Championship The German Formula Three Championship was the national Formula Three championship of Germany, and the former West Germany, from 1950 to 2002, then as Formel 3 until 2014. In 2003, the series had merged with the French Formula Three Championship to ...

. Then, during 2001 in addition to winning at

Nürburgring The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...

and A1-Ring, he took three

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

s including one at

Macau Grand Prix The Macau Grand Prix ( pt, Grande Prémio de Macau; ) is a motorsport road race for automobiles and motorcycles held annually in Macau. It is the only street circuit racing event in which both cars and motorcycles participate, and one of onl ...

. For the season of 2002 Wirdheim switched, this time to International Formula 3000, joining

Arden International Arden International is a multiple formula racing team created and run by Christian Horner and Garry Horner. It currently runs teams in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and F4 British Championship, and formerly ran in the FIA Formula 2 Championship ...

. He finished fourth overall, in addition to being named Rookie of the Year, and helping Arden to win the team title in the championship. Wirdheim stayed with Arden in the following season of

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

that would prove successful both for the team and driver. He dominated the championship so much that an obligatory pit stop for tire change was introduced at the end of the season in an attempt to level the advantage, but Arden managed to do better pit-stops overall than other teams and still came out on top. Wirdheim became the first Swede to win the championship in its 19-year history, breaking Justin Wilson's previous record of most points won in one season of the series. However, at

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

, when driving to an easy win on the streets of

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...

, Wirdheim slowed down to wave at his pit-crew believing he already had taken the chequered flag and was overtaken by

Nicolas Kiesa Nicolas Kiesa (born 3 March 1978) is a Danish racing driver. He participated in five Formula One Grands Prix in the 2003 season, scoring no championship points, but finishing every race. Previously, he had won the 2003 Formula 3000 race at Monac ...

, metres away from the actual finish line. At the end of 2003, Wirdheim had been noticed by several

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

team bosses, giving him opportunity to test with both

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

and

BAR Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

. After turning down an offer to drive Champ Car, Wirdheim signed with

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

as third driver performing the Friday testing for the team at Formula One Grand Prix weekends during the 2004 season.

Champ Car

For the 2005 season, Wirdheim turned to the

Champ Car World Series Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams ...

to join the HVM racing team. Run by former

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

F1 team boss

Keith Wiggins Keith Wiggins (born 1 July 1958) is a motor racing team owner born in Great Britain and one of only three people ever to have owned a Formula One team, an IndyCar and a ChampCar team. Early career Born in London, England on 1 July 1958, Wiggins b ...

, the team was underfunded after losing its previous Herdez backing, and a lack of testing made it difficult for the team to be competitive. After mediocre results, Wirdheim and the team decided to part ways after 11 races into the season.

Recent career

Wirdheim has since competed in the Japanese

Formula Nippon The Japanese Super Formula Championship is a formula racing series. It is considered as being the top level of single-seater racing in Japan and regional motorsports in Asia. The series is sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and ...

series. Driving for Team Dandelion, a team with two constructors' championships and one drivers' title, Wirdheim finished 6th in the 2006 championship, with one second place as best and continued with the team in 2007. He has raced in

Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is ...

since 2006, finishing 2nd in the championship in 2013 and 2014. In 2016 he will dovetail his Super GT commitments with a drive for

Flash Engineering Flash Engineering is a Swedish motorsport team based in Karlstad founded and owned by Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC) winner Jan "Flash" Nilsson. The most recent time the team won the STCC-title was in 2008 with driver Richard Göransso ...

in the

Scandinavian Touring Car Championship The Scandinavian Touring Car Championship (STCC) is a touring car racing series based in Scandinavia. The series took over from the Danish Touringcar Championship and Swedish Touring Car Championship, with its first season in 2011. The Scandina ...

. While taking up a new challenge in 2018 as a Formula 1 TV-commentator for Viasat, Wirdheim has made guest appearances in Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia. In 2018 Wirdheim also won the 1966-1972 class of the

Historic Grand Prix of Monaco The Historic Grand Prix of Monaco (also called the Monaco Historic Grand Prix depending upon the source) is a series of automotive races focussed on historic motorsport. The event is typically held biennially two weeks before the Formula One Grand ...

in a

March 711 The March 711 was a Formula One racing car, designed by Robin Herd and Geoff Ferris Geoff Ferris is a Northern Ireland football manager. He is the current Assistant Manager of Coleraine FC Coleraine Football Club is a semi-professional N ...

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

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

Complete Formula One participations

(

) * Was entered as Third Driver, but did not run due to bad weather.

Complete Champ Car results

(

)

Complete Formula Nippon results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Complete Super GT results

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Complete European Le Mans Series results

Complete Scandinavian Touring Car Championship results

(

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

References

External links

Official Björn Wirdheim site

Forix

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wirdheim, Bjorn 1980 births Living people Champ Car drivers International Formula 3000 Champions Formula Nippon drivers German Formula Three Championship drivers Super GT drivers Swedish racing drivers International Formula 3000 drivers Formula Palmer Audi drivers FIA World Endurance Championship drivers European Le Mans Series drivers Asian Le Mans Series drivers Prema Powerteam drivers Arden International drivers HVM Racing drivers People from Växjö Sportspeople from Kronoberg County Dandelion Racing drivers Team LeMans drivers Kondō Racing drivers Greaves Motorsport drivers