Sam Jamie Bird (born 9 January 1987) is a British professional racing driver who currently drives for Jaguar TCS Racing in the FIA Formula E World 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

In 2007, Bird raced in the British Formula 3 Championship with Carlin Motorsport, in a

Mercedes Mercedes may refer to: People * Mercedes (name), a Spanish feminine name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or last name Automobile-related * Mercedes (marque), the pre-1926 brand name of German automobile m ...

powered Dallara. In March 2007, Bird secured sponsorship from BP, "The brand is already prominent in the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. There are separate championships ...

" 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. Bird was elected to the

Motor Sports Association Motorsport UK, formerly known as the Motor Sports Association (MSA), is a national membership organisation and governing body for four-wheel motorsport in the United Kingdom. Legally, it is a not-for-profit private company limited by guarantee. ...

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 Manor Motorsport in 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 Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le ...

. He only picked up points from three other races. For 2009, he joined McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner Alexander Sims, 2008 Mücke Motorsport 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 The 2010 GP2 Series season was the forty-fourth season of the second-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also sixth season under the GP2 Series moniker. The season began on 8 May at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain and ended o ...

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 win in the series at the first race at

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label= Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the Province of M ...

, as well as claiming his third fastest lap of the season. GP2-Belgium-2013-Feature Race-Sam Bird

For 2011, Bird moved to the iSport International team alongside Marcus Ericsson. His

GP2 Asia The GP2 Asia Series was a form of open wheel motor racing as a result of a spin-off from the GP2 series. The series was officially announced during the weekend of the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix. GP2 series organiser Bruno Michel commented that "It i ...

campaign resulted in three retirements from the first four races but, after a strong start to the main series season, he was second in the Drivers' Championship - with the same number of points as leader Romain Grosjean. After this point, he gradually slipped back in the standings and finished sixth overall at the end of the season. Bird competed for the new

Russian Time Russian Time (previously known as RT Russian Time) was a Russian motor racing team founded by Igor Mazepa to compete in the GP2 Series, a category of open-wheel racing cars designed to prepare drivers for Formula One. From 2015 to 2018, the ...

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 fight right down to the last weekend. Bird's performances, alongside teammate Tom Dillmann, secured

first place in the GP2 Series 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 Jules Lucien André Bianchi (; 3 August 1989 – 17 July 2015) was a French motor racing driver who drove for the Marussia F1 Team in the FIA Formula One World Championship. Bianchi had previously raced in Formula Renault 3.5, GP2 and Form ...

. 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 at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, driving for Mercedes GP.

World Endurance Championship

AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Bird Silverstone 2018

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 The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose w ...

. 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 The Mulsanne Straight (''Ligne Droite des Hunaudières'' in French) is the name used in English for a formerly long straight of the Circuit de la Sarthe around which the 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race takes place. Since 1990, the straight is inte ...

Formula E

2014–15

In the 2014–15 Formula E season, Bird began driving for

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expresse ...

's Virgin Racing alongside Jaime Alguersuari. He claimed third place in the first race, the

Beijing ePrix The Beijing ePrix was an automobile race of the Formula E championship in Beijing, People's Republic of China. It was first raced in the 2014-15 season, of which the 2014 Beijing ePrix was the first Formula E race in history. Circuit The 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 crash in the early stages. Bird bounced back by scoring points in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the Capital city, capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata ...

and

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

. However, 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 making him the first-ever

Formula E Formula E, officially the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, is a single-seater motorsport championship for electric cars. The series was conceived in 2011 in Paris by FIA president Jean Todt and Spanish businessman Alejandro Agag, w ...

driver to win their home race. He finished the season with 103 points and secured 5th place in the championship.

2015–16

At the first race of the season in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, Bird only managed to finish 7th. In the next race in Putrajaya, Bird took 2nd place after Renault had a mechanical failure and the two Dragon cars of Loic Duval and

Jerome d'Ambrosio Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is comm ...

had suspension failure while running 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the next race at Punta del Este, Bird finished 2nd just behind Sebastien Buemi; in

, Bird won after fending off Buemi who started 18th and last. Further 6th places finishes were achieved in

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

, Long Beach and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

, before an 11th place finish in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

after contact in the race. At the first race of the double-season finale in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, Bird finished 7th. In next the next race, he was forced to retire due to a throttle failure. Bird eventually finished the season in 4th place with 88 points, after being overtaken by Nicolas Prost in the championship after he won the double-header in London.

2016–17

Bird started his season with a 13th place finish in Hong Kong after leading the race and losing more than a minute during the pit-stop sequence. He bounced back from that result by finishing second in the following round at

Marrakesh Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...

, after which Bird stated that "being on the podium aslike a victory". Following a collision with Jérôme d'Ambrosio on the final lap in

, the Brit returned to the podium with a solid drive in the Mexico City ePrix. At

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word ...

, Bird damaged his car's suspension after hitting the barriers in the early stages of the race - he was still able to set the fastest lap in his second car. Following three races in which he only managed to collect a total of 13 points, Bird became the first ever driver to win two back-to-back races in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. He would score two further top-five finishes at the races in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

and finished fourth in the drivers' standings, five positions ahead of teammate José María López.

2017–18

DS-PERFORMANCE-FORMULAE-2018-NEW-YORK-EPRIX-224-min

At the season opener in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, Bird started from 2nd on the grid after having nearly spun his car at the hairpin on his flying lap. During the race, he passed Jean-Éric Vergne for the lead but crashed in the pitlane when coming in for his stop and hit a mechanic. Subsequently, he was given a drive-through penalty but ultimately still came out in the race lead and went on to win and take the lead in the driver's championship for the first time in his Formula E career. Bird was given a 10-place grid penalty for the incident and started the second race from thirteenth. He would finish in 5th, following the post-race disqualification of Daniel Abt, and retain his lead of the championship. Bird would go on to finish in 3rd place in the championship with 143 points, just 1 point off 2nd place finisher Lucas di Grassi.

2018–19

Bird's first podium finish of the season came in the 2019 Marrakesh ePrix, finishing in 3rd after taking pole position. In 2019, he became the first Formula E driver to win a race in every Formula E season, after winning the 2019 Santiago ePrix. Ultimately, Bird finished the season in 9th place, amassing a total of 85 points over the season.

2019–20

Bird won the opening race of the season, the

2019 Diriyah ePrix The 2019 Diriyah ePrix (officially the 2019 ABB FIA Formula E Saudia Diriyah ePrix) was a pair Formula E electric car race held at the Riyadh Street Circuit in the town of Diriyah, north-west of Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia on 22 and 23 November 2 ...

, for Envision Virgin Racing. Unfortunately, his race ended in the second round after a collision with

Mitch Evans Mitchell William Evans (born 24 June 1994) is a New Zealand professional racing driver. He currently drives for the Jaguar TCS Racing team in Formula E. In 2012, he won the GP3 Series and he raced in the GP2 Series for four years, achieving ...

. In

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, who ...

, Bird stormed from 16th to 10th, achieving the fastest lap of the race. In the

2020 Mexico City ePrix The 2020 Mexico City ePrix (formally the 2020 CBMM Niobium Mexico City E-Prix) was a Formula E electric car race held at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in the center of Mexico City on 15 February 2020. It served as the fourth round of the ...

, he crashed out of 2nd place in the dying stages of the race. In

, he finished 10th again after starting 14th. The rest of the season was put on hold due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, during which Bird announced that he was leaving Virgin to join Jaguar Racing. The season 6 finale was held at

Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit The Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit is a street circuit located at the former Berlin Tempelhof Airport in Germany. It is home to the Formula E Berlin ePrix. It hosted its first race as round 8 of the 2014–15 Formula E season. After not hold ...

, between the 5th and 13th of August. Bird finished the first race in 3rd and the second race in 6th. He finished the next three races in 13th, 11th, and 20th after being caught in a pile-up on the first lap. In his last race for Virgin, Bird finished 5th after starting 14th and taking the fastest lap. He finished the season ranked 10th in the standings with 63 points.

2020–21

During the Summer of 2020, Bird announced that he would be driving for the Jaguar Racing team in the

2020–21 Formula E season The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

. In the second race of the campaign Bird continued his streak of being the only driver to win a race in every season of

, winning the second round of the Diriyah ePrix. A second place at the following race in

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meant he took over from

Nyck de Vries Hendrik Johannes Nicasius "Nyck" de Vries (; born 6 February 1995) is a Dutch racing driver who is currently serving as the reserve driver for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. He is confirmed to be driving full-time in Formula 1 at Scuderia ...

as championship leader ahead of former teammate Robin Frijns. After 6 DNFs (did not finish) and 1 DSQ (disqualification) during the season, he still managed to finish with 87 points in an impressive 6th place in the championship.

2021-22

After the 5th round of the championship, Bird had scored 22 points and was in 11th place after only scoring points in the first and fourth rounds. Bird had to miss both rounds of the Seoul ePrix after sustaining a broken hand during the London ePrix. His place was taken by Jaguar reserve driver Norman Nato. This was the first time in his

career that Bird had failed to score either a win or a podium. He finished the season 13th with 51 points.

Personal life

He was educated at

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

until

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private s ...

level, after which he attended Millfield School in

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. He successfully proposed to his partner, Hollie, after winning the GTE-Pro class race at the

2017 6 Hours of Bahrain The 2017 6 Hours of Bahrain was an endurance sports car racing event held at the Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain on 16–18 November 2017, and served as the ninth and last race of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship. Toyota's A ...

. Their wedding was held on 23 August 2018 in Lake Como,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Bird is a keen football fan and an avid supporter of Manchester United F.C.

Racing record

Career summary

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