Björn Karl Mikael 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. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

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

karts Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using 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 full-size moto ...

, competing in his first race, at the age of 10. His main achievement to date is becoming the International Formula 3000 Champion in 2003.

Career

Born in

Växjö Växjö () is a city and the seat of Växjö Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden. It had 71,282 inhabitants (2020) out of a Municipalities of Sweden, municipal population of 97,349 (2024). It is the administrative, cultural, and industrial ce ...

, 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 have historically been an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...

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 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 ...

. 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 Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long configuration, built in the 1920s ...

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 ra ...

s including one at

Macau Grand Prix The Macau Grand Prix (; ) is an annual motorsport road racing event for automobiles and motorcycles held on the Guia Circuit in Macau. The event includes the Formula Regional and Motorcycle Grand Prix title races, with other races for Touri ...

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

Arden International Arden International, competing as Arden Motorsport, is a multiple formula racing team created and run by Christian Horner and Garry Horner. It currently competes in the GB4 Championship, and formerly ran in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, Formula ...

. 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 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

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, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

, when driving to an easy win on the streets of

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...

, Wirdheim slowed down to wave at his pit-crew believing he already had taken the chequered flag and was overtaken by Nicolas Kiesa, metres away from the actual finish line. At the end of 2003, Wirdheim had been noticed by several

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

team bosses, giving him opportunity to test with both

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

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

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

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., a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), ...

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 the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

F1 team boss Keith Wiggins, 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 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 sports car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is the top level of ...

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 in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship. 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 in a March 711.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

Complete Formula One participations

( key) * Was entered as third driver, but did not run due to bad weather.

Complete Champ Car results

( key)

Complete Formula Nippon results

( key) (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

( key) (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 Sportspeople from Växjö Dandelion Racing drivers Team LeMans drivers Kondō Racing drivers Greaves Motorsport drivers