Alexander Wurz
Nation: | Austria | ||||||||
Formula 1 world championship | |||||||||
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First start: | 1997 Canadian Grand Prix | ||||||||
Last start: | 2007 Chinese Grand Prix | ||||||||
Constructors | |||||||||
1997–2000 Benetton • 2005 McLaren • 2007 Williams | |||||||||
statistics | |||||||||
World Cup balance: | World Cup eighth ( 1998 ) | ||||||||
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World Cup points : | 45 | ||||||||
Podiums : | 3 | ||||||||
Leadership laps : | - |
Alexander Wurz (born February 15, 1974 in Waidhofen an der Thaya ) is a former Austrian automobile racing driver and BMX world champion of 1986. Between 1997 and 2007 he took part in 69 Grand Prix of the Formula 1 world championship. From 2008 to 2011 he drove selected races of the international Le Mans Cup with Peugeot Sport. From 2012 to 2015 he drove the FIA-WEC (FIA World Endurance Championship) with the Toyota works team. He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, in 1996 and 2009. His victory in 1996 made him the youngest winner in the history of the famous Le Mans sports car classic. Wurz continues to work in Formula 1 as a consultant, television and media expert, is President of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association and has also established himself as a road safety expert .
Career
Alexander Wurz is the second son of the former Müller Master and later road safety experts and head of ÖAMTC - driving technique centers Franz Wurz , which u in motorsport. a. made a name for himself as a three-time European Rallycross Champion (1974, 1976 and 1982). Even Alexander's grandfather, the Waldviertel mill owner Franz Wurz senior, was a well-known car racing driver in the Alpine republic with his BMW 328 in the 1950s.
Cycling
Even before Wurz discovered his passion for motorsport, he was active in cycling. Particularly noteworthy are his BMX world and vice European championship titles, which he won in 1986. Together with ex- mountain biker Markus Rainer, Wurz had his own mountain bike team Siemens Cannondale Mountain Bike Racing , which was able to achieve several World Cup victories.
Racing driver
Wurz's motorsport career began with karting , from 1991 he drove in the Austrian Formula Ford 1600, which he won right away. In 1992 the double followed in Austria and Germany before he dared to climb into Formula 3. There, too, he immediately became Austrian champion, and in 1994 he was runner-up in German Formula 3. From 1996 he drove partly in the ITC , where he drove an Opel Calibra for Team Joest . In addition, he took part in the Le Mans 24-hour race for the first time in 1996 on a Porsche driven by Joest , and after winning the overall with Davy Jones and Manuel Reuter, he was the youngest winner to date. For 1997 , Wurz received a test contract in Formula 1 with the Benetton team , in which Gerhard Berger , another Austrian, was involved at the time. When he had to take a break for three races due to illness, Wurz made his debut in the motorsport premier class as a substitute driver and made it onto the podium for the first time in third at Silverstone . From 1998 he became a regular driver of the Benetton Playlife Team.
After three years at Benetton Renault, he joined the McLaren Mercedes Team in 2001 as the official test and reserve driver. During this time, Wurz received a number of offers for racing, e. B. at Prost GP and Jaguar Racing, but stayed with McLaren until 2005. During this time he was a substitute for Juan Pablo Montoya third in the Imola Grand Prix .
For 2006 , Wurz switched to the traditional British team Williams as a test and reserve driver , where he replaced the Australian Mark Webber, who had migrated to Red Bull Racing, as a regular driver in 2007 and thus got a regular cockpit in Formula 1 for the first time in six years.
On the day of the 2007 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, Wurz announced that he would retire from active Formula 1 racing with immediate effect, but would continue to work with the Williams team. Williams test driver Kazuki Nakajima took over the cockpit for the last race in Brazil . In January 2008, Wurz signed a test driver and consultant contract with the Honda team for the 2008 season . This contract was taken over by the successor Team Brawn GP , today's Mercedes Grand Prix . After the regular medical car driver fell ill, Wurz took over his role at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
In 2009 he won the Le Mans 24-hour race again in a Peugeot . Together with Marc Gené and David Brabham , he was the first to cross the finish line ahead of another Peugeot. With his victory in the 12-hour race at Sebring in 2010 with Gené and Anthony Davidson and victory in the Petit Le Mans with Stéphane Sarrazin and Franck Montagny , Wurz won the three great classic sports cars in his Peugeot 908. In the 2012 season he moved to Toyota in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). There he was involved in the development of the Toyota TS030 Hybrid , which was not used until the Le Mans season round. In the following five races, he finished three as the overall winner.
In November 2015, he announced his retirement as a professional racing driver with the end of the year.
On January 30, 2016, he took part again in the Daytona 24-hour race together with Brendon Hartley , Andy Priaulx and Lance Stroll . They finished the race in fifth place overall, eleven laps behind the winner.
further activities
Wurz showed his first commercial activities at an early age when he became Austria's first indoor kart operator with his company "Alexander's Kart-o-Mania". Together with his friend Toto Wolff , Wurz imported alcohol testers to Austria in 1996.
Wurz is also involved in road safety and road education. Together with his father, he founded the company Test & Training International in 2006 , which deals with the education and training of road users. He is a close confidante of the FIA Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile and holds the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy .
Wurz was planned as team boss for the F1 project of Superfund founder Christian Baha , which had applied for the 2010 season. However, the project was never finally implemented.
Wurz has also worked as a TV and media expert in Formula 1 since 2008, primarily as a co-commentator on ORF Sport . As a duo with Ernst Hausleitner , he received the Romy TV Prize in 2014 for his outstanding performance in the category Most Popular Presenter - Information .
In addition, Wurz works as a route designer and consultant, whereby he attaches great importance to incorporating natural route barriers. Among other things, he was involved in the implementation of the KymiRing in Finland.
Alexander Wurz has been Chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA) since October 2014 . He thus succeeded Pedro de la Rosa .
family
Wurz is married to the former Benetton press spokeswoman Julia Horden and has three sons with her. The family lives in Monaco.
Trivia
Alexander Wurz always wore two different colored shoes at races as a lucky charm at the beginning of his career, one was red and one blue. After joining McLaren Mercedes, he used uniform pairs. In 2009 he returned to the Red and Blue.
Wurz designed and painted his helmets himself using the airbrush process. He learned the process from the artist Knud Tiroch .
Alexander Wurz bought back the Lancia Stratos HF in 2013, with which his father Franz became the first FIA European Rallycross Champion in 1976. The car was owned by then team colleague Andy Bentza for 35 years , who also became European Rallycross Champion (GT Division) with it in 1978. Over several years of work, the world's only 3-liter Stratos was painstakingly taken apart and completely restored. It is now being driven alternately by Wurz senior and junior in demonstration runs, such as at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2016.
statistics
Career stations
|
Statistics in the Formula 1 World Championship
general overview
season | team | chassis | engine | run | Victories | Second | Third | Poles | nice Round |
Points | WM-Pos. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1997 | Mild Seven Benetton Renault | Benetton B197 | Renault 3.0 V10 | 3 | - | - | 1 | - | - | 4th | 14th |
1998 | Mild Seven Benetton Playlife | Benetton B198 | Playlife 3.0 V10 | 16 | - | - | - | - | 1 | 17th | 8th. |
1999 | Mild Seven Benetton Playlife | Benetton B199 | Playlife 3.0 V10 | 16 | - | - | - | - | - | 3 | 13. |
2000 | Mild Seven Benetton Playlife | Benetton B200 | Playlife 3.0 V10 | 17th | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 15th |
2005 | West McLaren Mercedes | McLaren MP4-20 | Mercedes 3.0 V10 | 1 | - | - | 1 | - | - | 6th | 17th |
2007 | AT&T Williams | Williams FW29 | Toyota 2.4 V8 | 16 | - | - | 1 | - | - | 13 | 11. |
total | 69 | - | - | 3 | - | 1 | 45 |
Single results
season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14th | 15th | 16 | 17th | 18th | 19th |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1997 | |||||||||||||||||||
DNF | DNF | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
1998 | |||||||||||||||||||
7th | 4th | 4th | DNF | 4th | DNF | 4th | 5 | 4th | 9 | 11 | 16 | DNF | DNF | 7th | 9 | ||||
1999 | |||||||||||||||||||
DNF | 7th | DNF | 6th | 10 | DNF | DNF | 10 | 5 | 7th | 7th | 14th | DNF | DNF | 8th | 10 | ||||
2000 | |||||||||||||||||||
7th | DNF | 9 | 9 | 10 | 12 | DNF | 9 | DNF | 10 | DNF | 11 | 13 | 5 | 10 | DNF | 7th | |||
2005 | |||||||||||||||||||
3 | |||||||||||||||||||
2007 | |||||||||||||||||||
DNF | 9 | 11 | DNF | 7th | 3 | 10 | 14th | 13 | 4th | 14th | 11 | 13 | DNF | DNF | 12 |
Legend | ||
---|---|---|
colour | abbreviation | meaning |
gold | - | victory |
silver | - | 2nd place |
bronze | - | 3rd place |
green | - | Placement in the points |
blue | - | Classified outside the point ranks |
violet | DNF | Race not finished (did not finish) |
NC | not classified | |
red | DNQ | did not qualify |
DNPQ | failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify) | |
black | DSQ | disqualified |
White | DNS | not at the start (did not start) |
WD | withdrawn | |
Light Blue | PO | only participated in the training (practiced only) |
TD | Friday test driver | |
without | DNP | did not participate in the training (did not practice) |
INJ | injured or sick | |
EX | excluded | |
DNA | did not arrive | |
C. | Race canceled | |
no participation in the World Cup | ||
other | P / bold | Pole position |
SR / italic | Fastest race lap | |
* | not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered |
|
() | Streak results | |
underlined | Leader in the overall standings |
Le Mans results
year | team | vehicle | Teammate | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1996 | Joest Racing | TWR-Porsche WSC-95 | Davy Jones | Manuel Reuter | Overall victory | |
2008 | Team Peugeot Total | Peugeot 908 HDi FAP | Stéphane Sarrazin | Pedro Lamy | Rank 5 | |
2009 | Peugeot Sport Total | Peugeot 908 HDi FAP | Marc Gené | David Brabham | Overall victory | |
2010 | Peugeot Sport Total | Peugeot 908 HDi FAP | Marc Gené | Anthony Davidson | failure | Engine failure |
2011 | Peugeot Sport Total | Peugeot 908 | Marc Gené | Anthony Davidson | Rank 4 | |
2012 | Toyota Racing | Toyota TS030 | Nicolas Lapierre | Kazuki Nakajima | failure | Engine failure |
2013 | Toyota Racing | Toyota TS030 | Nicolas Lapierre | Kazuki Nakajima | Rank 4 | |
2014 | Toyota Racing | Toyota TS040 Hybrid | Stéphane Sarrazin | Kazuki Nakajima | failure | Electrics |
2015 | Toyota Racing | Toyota TS040 Hybrid | Stéphane Sarrazin | Mike Conway | Rank 6 |
Sebring results
year | team | vehicle | Teammate | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | Team Peugeot Total | Peugeot 908 HDi FAP | Marc Gené | Anthony Davidson | Overall victory | |
2011 | Team Peugeot Total | Peugeot 908 | Marc Gené | Anthony Davidson | Rank 8 |
Web links
- Literature by and about Alexander Wurz in the catalog of the German National Library
- Official website
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Motorsport-Total - Website: Alexander Wurz. At: www.motorsport-total.com , accessed on April 17, 2014 .
- ↑ Wurz drove F1 medical car in Singapore. July 31, 2013, accessed December 13, 2019 .
- ↑ Motorsport magazine - website: Toyota wants to fight for victories with Audi. From: www.motorsport-magazin.com , August 29, 2012, accessed on April 17, 2014 .
- ↑ Alexander Wurz resigns
- ↑ [1]
- ^ WeatherTech Championship Race
- ↑ 26 03 2010 at 11:34 am: Formula 1: Superfund excludes application. Retrieved December 13, 2019 .
- ^ Motorsport magazine - website: It was a cool time. From: www.motorsport-magazin.com , February 15, 2014, accessed on April 17, 2014 .
- ↑ Ernst Hausleitner / Alexander Wurz Ernst Hausleitner and Alexander Wurz make a pit stop at ROMY. kurier.at, March 4, 2014.
- ↑ New Finnish track designed to thwart track limit abuse. Retrieved December 13, 2019 .
- ^ "Root new GPDA chairman" , Motorsport-Magazin.com, accessed on October 3, 2014.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Wurz, Alexander |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wurz, Alex |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian Formula 1 racing driver |
DATE OF BIRTH | February 15, 1974 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Waidhofen an der Thaya |