Thierry Marc Boutsen (born 13 July 1957) is a Belgian former
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 ...
who raced for the
Arrows,
Benetton,
Williams,
Ligier and
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 ...
teams in
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, ...
. He competed in 164 World Championship Grands Prix (163 starts), winning three races, achieving 15 podiums and scoring 132 career points. His best finish in the
World Drivers' Championship was fourth in whilst driving for Benetton. He also twice finished second in the
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 ...
sportscar race (in in a
Peugeot 905 and in in a
Porsche 911 GT1).
Career
Junior formulae and sportscars
After winning the "Volant V" in 1977 at the André Pilette Racing School, Zolder, Boutsen entered the Belgian
Formula Ford 1600 championship and won it in 1978 with 15 victories in 18 races.
He also entered the 1978 Spa 24 Hours race, the last auto race on the old 14 km (8.7 mi) Spa-Francorchamps circuit- driving a Toyota Trueno. For 1979 he moved to
Formula 3
Formula Three, also called Formula 3, abbreviated as F3, is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...
, winning three races in 1980 and second place in the
European title race, behind
Michele Alboreto
Michele Alboreto (; 23 December 1956 – 25 April 2001) was an Italian racing driver. He was runner up to Alain Prost in the 1985 Formula One World Championship, as well as winning the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans and 2001 12 Hours of Sebring sports ...
.
In 1981 he moved to
Formula 2 and was again second in the
European championship, including winning at the 14-mile
Nürburgring
The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around the village a ...
- this time behind
Geoff Lees.
He also entered the
1981 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 1981 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 49th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 13 and 14 June 1981. It was also the eighth round of the World Endurance Championship of Drivers, and the fifth round of the World Championship for Makes.
De ...
. The race started at 3pm in unusually hot weather – one hour earlier than usual due to the
Parliamentary elections
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
held on the same weekend. At 4:06pm Boutsen suffered a massive accident just after the Hunaudières kink, some before the
Mulsanne bosse (the "hump") when his WM P81-Peugeot was travelling at some . A suspension piece had failed and the car hit the guard-rail losing the entire rear end. Boutsen was untouched, but the debris field of hurled parts and bodywork was spread over . Three marshals and a
gendarme
Wrong info! -->
A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to "Man-at-arms, men-at-arms" ...
were struck by the debris. One of them, Thierry Mabilat, was killed - struck in the chest by a detached piece of the guard rail. The other two marshals, Claude Hertault and Serge David (who lost an arm), and the gendarme were all seriously injured.
In 1983 Boutsen drove in the
European Touring Car Championship and in
World Sportscar races,
where he won the very first Group C race, the Monza 1000 km with
Bob Wollek driving a Porsche 956. He also won the famous
Daytona 24-hour race in 1985, co-driving the
Porsche 956
The Porsche 956 was a Group C sports-prototype racing car designed by Norbert Singer and built by Porsche in 1982 for the FIA World Sportscar Championship. It was later upgraded to the 956B in 1984. In 1983, driven by Stefan Bellof, this ca ...
from the Preston Henn Racing with
Bob Wollek,
A. J. Foyt and
Al Unser Sr.
Formula One
Arrows
Boutsen was considered a promising driver, testing for
McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formu ...
and
Brabham
Brabham () is the common name for Motor Racing Developments Ltd., a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. Founded in 1960 by Australian driver Jack Brabham and British-Australian designer Ron Tauranac, the team won fo ...
. He was briefly attached to the
Spirit Honda F1 project before losing out to his
Formula Two teammate
Stefan Johansson
Stefan Nils Edwin Johansson (born 8 September 1956) is a Swedish racing driver who drove in Formula One for both Ferrari and McLaren, among other teams. Since leaving Formula One he has won the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans and raced in a number o ...
.
left, Boutsen driving for Arrows at the
.">1984 Dallas Grand Prix.In 1983 he paid $500,000 for a drive in Formula One and made his debut with
Arrows at his home race, the
1983 Belgian Grand Prix at the shortened 7 km (4.3 mi)
Spa.
While he scored no points in 1983 his careful handling and close performance compared to experienced teammate
Marc Surer
Marc Surer (born 18 September 1951 in Arisdorf) is a former racing driver from Switzerland currently working as TV commentator and racing school instructor. He participated in 88 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 9 Septemb ...
allowed him to foster a positive reputation within the team. With backing from
Barclay cigarettes he remained with Arrows for a further three seasons. The first saw Arrows struggle with their difficult
first turbocharged
In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pr ...
car, with powerful
BMW turbo engines but poor handling. Boutsen scored points twice in the old
Cosworth DFV powered
A6 and once in the turbo machine. His second season saw several notable results, including 2nd place at
Imola. Boutsen crossed the line third, behind
Alain Prost and
Elio de Angelis but after the race, Prost was disqualified because his car was 2 kg underweight. Three more points scores saw him 11th overall in the standings. A final season with Arrows saw no points for Boutsen in an uncompetitive car, but in parallel to F1 he drove for the
Walter Brun team in
Group C and clinched the World Championship title with them in 1986, winning that year's
Spa 1000 km.
Benetton
Boutsen driving for Benetton at the
.">1988 Canadian Grand Prix.
Boutsen got his big chance when he switched to the works
Ford Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
F1 team,
Benetton, for the season as teammate to
Teo Fabi. While the package wasn't a race winner, it did allow him to run regularly in the top 6. He scored points in six races, his best being awarded 3rd place in
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
after the disqualification of
Ayrton Senna's
Lotus and moved to 8th overall. At the
Australian Grand Prix
The Australian Grand Prix is an annual motor racing event which is under contract to host Formula One until 2035. One of the oldest surviving motorsport competitions held in Australia, the Grand Prix has moved frequently with 23 different venu ...
, Boutsen was furious with Fabi when the Italian refused to let his teammate lap him for a number of laps. When Boutsen confronted Fabi about this after the race, a frustrated Fabi (who had been unable to find an F1 drive for ), told the Belgian to "come back and see me when you have a pole position". Fabi scored no wins in his F1 career but did have 3 poles to his name while at that stage Boutsen could only boast his 2nd place at Imola in 1985.
saw Boutsen with a new teammate, the Italian
Alessandro Nannini. When
Cosworth
Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream Automotive industry, ...
stopped development of their turbocharged V6 engine, Benetton were forced to switch to normally aspirated
Ford DFR V8 engine
A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and u ...
s in anticipation of the banning of turbos in 1989. Boutsen's consistency, mechanical sympathy and speed in the
Rory Byrne designed
Benetton B188 saw him score points in 10 of the 16 races, including five 3rd-place finishes (all behind the all-conquering
McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formu ...
-
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...
cars), and place 4th overall as the best non-turbo driver in the field.
Williams
Frank Williams signed Boutsen in the summer of 1988 to replace
Nigel Mansell
Nigel Ernest James Mansell, (; born 8 August 1953) is a British retired racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship ( 1992) and the CART Indy Car World Series (1993 CART World Series Season, 1993). Mansell was the reigning ...
for 1989 as Mansell had signed to move to Ferrari. Boutsen's reputation as a reliable, fast driver with good development skills saw Williams sign him on a two-year contract.
For 1989, he drove the new
V10 Renault
Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...
powered
Williams FW12C. began with Boutsen on the back foot due to a heavy pre-season testing crash in
Rio
Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil.
Rio or Río may also refer to:
Geography Brazil
* Rio de Janeiro
* Rio do Sul, a ...
and because veteran teammate
Riccardo Patrese had a major resurgence in form. However at the
Canadian Grand Prix, Boutsen drove well in wet conditions and took his maiden victory after Senna suffered a late engine failure. Although it was a welcome win (Boutsen became the first new winner in F1 since former Arrows teammate
Gerhard Berger had won the
1986 Mexican Grand Prix for Benetton), it was considered a lucky win for the Belgian as he had been last at one stage and had a full 360° spin, though luckily he managed to keep his car off the walls. He managed to catch and pass Patrese who was suffering with a loose undertray and took the lead 3 laps from the end when the Honda V10 engine in Senna's
McLaren MP4/5 seized. Three more podium finishes came before Boutsen rounded the year off with a second victory at the rain-soaked
Australian Grand Prix
The Australian Grand Prix is an annual motor racing event which is under contract to host Formula One until 2035. One of the oldest surviving motorsport competitions held in Australia, the Grand Prix has moved frequently with 23 different venu ...
. Ironically Boutsen had been one of the drivers protesting about the conditions at the circuit before the race.
saw more consistent points scoring drives, including his third and final Grand Prix victory - a lights-to-flag victory in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...
where he took his first pole position and held off sustained pressure from Alessandro Nannini (Benetton) and Ayrton Senna (McLaren) to win. However, with Nigel Mansell available in 1991, Williams felt they needed a 'star' driver to put together a championship bid. Despite Boutsen winning three races in two years to Patrese's one, the team felt that Patrese had been more consistent (and had worked well with Mansell in 1988) and decided to keep the Italian to drive alongside Mansell.
Ligier
With no vacancies among the top teams Boutsen had to drop down to the
Ligier team. Despite having a sizeable budget and
Lamborghini V12 engines, the
JS35 was an uncompetitive car and Boutsen was frequently unable to disguise his disgust with the machinery given to him. The arrival of Renault engines in 1992 improved matters a little and in his
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...
race for the team he scored 5th place, his first points since leaving Williams.
Jordan
Initially he was unable to find a drive for 1993 but Barclay secured him a slot at
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 ...
, replacing
Ivan Capelli. Boutsen was too tall for the car and largely outpaced by young teammate
Rubens Barrichello, failing to score any points in ten races. With
Eddie Jordan keen to bring in younger, well-sponsored drivers to the seat the decision was taken to turn Boutsen's
home race into a farewell event, though he retired on the first lap.
Touring cars
For 1994, Boutsen was hired by Ford Motorsport to lead their works challenge on the newly created
Super Tourenwagen Cup in Germany. Driving a factory prepared
Ford Mondeo built by
Eggenberger Motorsport, that first season was a learning year for both Boutsen and the team.
The following year, Boutsen was joined by his old Williams teammate Riccardo Patrese, but the season was a disaster. Attempting to follow Audi's lead by developing a four-wheel drive car, the Mondeo was totally uncompetitive.
Boutsen started in only the first four races in 1996 before leaving the team and turning his attention to sports car racing. After three years of limited success, Ford pulled the plug on the project at the end of that season to focus solely on the
British series.
Sportscars
Boutsen then drove sports cars in the US, driving for Champion Racing in a Porsche 911 GT1, alongside
Bill Adam and
Hans Stuck
Hans Stuck (pronounced ''"shtook"''; sometimes called Hans Stuck von Villiez; 27 December 1900 – 9 February 1978) was a German motor racing driver. Both his son Hans-Joachim Stuck (born 1951) and his grandsons Johannes and Ferdinand Stuck be ...
. The trio finished 2nd in class at the
24 Hours of Daytona in 1997, Boutsen won the GT-One US Championship with the Champion Racing in 1998. After a crash at Le Mans in 1999 at the wheel of a
Toyota GT-One he retired from racing altogether.
Helmet
Boutsen's helmet on display at the Williams team's museum
Boutsen's helmet was black with a red, orange and yellow ribbon design surrounding the visor and the rear area. The colours used are the colours of the
Belgian flag (except for orange).
Business
Today Boutsen runs his own company,
Boutsen Aviation, in
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 ...
.
Its business is the "Sale and Acquisition of Business Jets". He founded the company in 1997 with his wife Daniela and up to May 2011, the company had sold 205 aircraft, ranging from Airbus Corporate Jets to Cessna Citation. He is also co-owner of Boutsen Energy Racing alongside his brother-in-law Olivier Lainé and Georges Kaczka. The team competes in the
Formula Le Mans
The Le Mans Prototype Challenge (shortened to LMP Challenge or LMPC) was a spec sports prototype formula created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), organisers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and sports car constructor Oreca. The formula is inte ...
class in the
Le Mans Series. Boutsen also runs cars in
Formula Renault
Formula Renault are classes of formula racing popular in Europe and elsewhere. Regarded as an entry-level series to motor racing, it was founded in 1971, and was a respected series where drivers can learn advanced racecraft before moving on to hig ...
and
Eurocup Mégane Trophy
The Renault Eurocup Mégane Trophy was a one-make racing series created and managed by Renault Sport. The series has raced with the Renault Mégane Renault Sport since 2005 as part of the World Series by Renault. The Renault Eurocup has run w ...
.
Racing record
Career summary
Complete European Formula Two Championship results
(
key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
Complete Formula One results
(
key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
Complete Super Tourenwagen Cup results
(
key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
Complete FIA GT Championship results
(
key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
References
External links
Boutsen Aviation official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boutsen, Thierry
Belgian racing drivers
Belgian Formula One drivers
Arrows Formula One drivers
Benetton Formula One drivers
Williams Formula One drivers
Ligier Formula One drivers
Jordan Formula One drivers
Formula One race winners
European Formula Two Championship drivers
FIA European Formula 3 Championship drivers
German Formula Three Championship drivers
24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
1957 births
Living people
Racing drivers from Brussels
24 Hours of Daytona drivers
American Le Mans Series drivers
World Sportscar Championship drivers
24 Hours of Spa drivers
Sports car racing team owners
Porsche Motorsports drivers
Peugeot Sport drivers
Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers
Team Joest drivers