Sam Bird

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the snooker player, see Sam Baird .

Sam Bird 2012

Bird at the Formula 3 Euro Series at the Hockenheimring 2009

Sam Bird at the main race of the GP2 series in Spa-Francorchamps 2013

Samuel Jamie "Sam" Bird (born January 9, 1987 in Roehampton ) is a British racing driver . He started from 2010 to 2013 - with a one-year break - in the GP2 series . He has been competing in the FIA Formula E Championship and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) since 2014 .

Career

Bird began his motorsport career in 1997 in karting , which he practiced until 2003. In 2004 he switched to the British Formula BMW for two years . After finishing 14th in the first season, Bird won the runner-up in 2005. In 2006, Bird started in the British Formula Renault and finished fourth in the overall standings. In 2007 he moved to Carlin Motorsport in the British Formula 3 Championship and was again fourth in the overall standings. In 2008 Bird switched to the Formula 3 Euro Series and started for Manor Motorsport . Bird remained without a win and finished eleventh overall at the end of the season. In 2009 he stayed in the Formula 3 Euro Series and competed for the German Mücke team. With four podium finishes, he finished eighth overall.

After Bird had initially only been signed by ART Grand Prix for the Macau Grand Prix and the first race weekend of the GP2 Asia Series season 2009/2010 , it was decided at the end of November that he would be for the rest of the season of the GP2 Asia Series and for the 2010 season of the GP2 main series. After a poor start to the season, he finished seventh overall with a second place as the best result at the end of the season in the GP2 Asia series. In the regular GP2 series, Bird impressed on his first race weekend. After his car was damaged at the start of the first race and had to be repaired, he started a chase from the end of the field that ended in ninth place. In the second race he finished fourth from ninth place. After finishing third twice on the podium, Bird managed to win his first GP2 race at the penultimate race weekend in Monza . At the end of the season he finished fifth overall behind his team mate Jules Bianchi .

Bird, who gained his first Formula 1 experience in aerodynamic tests for Williams F1 in 2007 , took part in two Formula 1 test days for Mercedes in November 2010 as part of the Young Driver Days . In 2011 he competed in the GP2 Asia and GP2 series for iSport International . In the GP2 Asia series , Bird, who was eliminated in three of four races due to accidents or collisions, came twelfth in the overall classification. In the GP2 series he started the season with a second and two third places from the first three races. In Monte Carlo , Bird was in pole position , but initially he did not start and fell back to the bottom of the field. After he had fought his way back to midfield, his race was finally ended by a collision with his teammate Marcus Ericsson . He finally finished the championship in sixth place overall. He also completed Formula 1 test drives for Mercedes this season.

In 2012 Bird switched to Formula Renault 3.5 for the Czech team ISR . Bird won one race each at Monte Carlo and Silverstone . With seven podium finishes, he finished the season in third place in the drivers' standings. He was also a test driver for the Mercedes Formula 1 team.

In 2013 Bird returned to the GP2 series and received a contract with Motopark Academy , who oversaw the newly founded Russian Time project . Already at the second race weekend in as-Sachir Bird achieved the first victory of Russian Time in the sprint race. In Monte Carlo, he won the main race. Another win at Silverstone followed a race weekend later. After remaining without a podium at the next two events, Bird decided the main race in Spa-Francorchamps from pole position for himself. In the following main race in Monza, Bird started again from pole position, drove the fastest race lap and finished second. The next race weekend in Singapore , Bird won the sprint race. With 181 to 201 points he was defeated by Fabio Leimer and finished the season as second overall in the GP2 series. Bird was the rider who had the most wins of the 2013 season with five wins. Together with his team mate Tom Dillmann , who finished tenth with 92 points, he won the team classification of the GP2 series with Russian Time. Bird also remained a Formula 1 test driver with Mercedes.

In 2014 Bird started out in endurance sports. For AF Corse he took part in two races of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in the LMGTE-Am. He made his debut in the Le Mans 24-hour race . He also competed in three races of the United SportsCar Championship for Starworks Motorsport . Here he achieved a podium placement. For the 2014/15 season , Bird received a cockpit at Virgin Racing in the newly established FIA Formula E Championship . In the first race, the Beijing ePrix , Bird achieved a podium finish with third place. In the second ePrix in Putrajaya , he achieved his first victory. He also won the last race of the season in London . Bird finished the season in fifth place overall. In 2015 , Bird received a cockpit in the LMP2 class of the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship with the G-Drive Racing team, which is supervised by OAK Racing . Already in the first race at Silverstone he achieved a class victory together with Julien Canal and Roman Russinow . The trio achieved a total of four class wins. The three drivers finished the season in tenth place in the world championship. He also competed for Virgin in the 2015/16 FIA Formula E Championship . He finished second at the Putrajaya ePrix and won in Buenos Aires . With 88 points he reached fourth place in the drivers' championship, while his teammate Jean-Éric Vergne was ninth with 56 points.

In 2016 , Bird switched from the LMP2 to a GT car in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship. As a Ferrari factory pilot, he was given a cockpit at AF Corse . Together with Davide Rigon he won the GT class in the first two races. The duo finished second in the GT drivers' World Cup. Bird also stayed with DS Virgin in the 2016/17 FIA Formula E Championship . He finished second in the Marrakech ePrix and third in Mexico City . He won the two races in New York City . At the end of the season, he finished fourth in the drivers' championship.

Bird also drove for DS Virgin in the FIA ​​Formula E Championship in 2017/18 . After victories in Hong Kong and Rome and four other podium finishes, he finished third in the drivers' championship at the end of the season, after being the only competitor of Jean-Éric Vergne with theoretical chances of winning the title before the season finale in New York City .

Bird stayed with Virgin in 2018/19 . After separating from DS, the team now started with Audi customer engines. With a win and another podium finish, he finished ninth in the drivers' championship with 85 points at the end of the season.

statistics

Career stations

1997-2003: karting 2004: British Formula BMW (14th place) 2005: British Formula BMW (2nd place) 2006: British Formula Renault (4th place) 2007: British Formula 3 (4th place) 2008 : Formula 3 Euro Series (11th place) 2009 : Formula 3 Euro Series (8th place) 2010 : GP2 Asia Series (7th place) 2010 : GP2 series (5th place)

2010 : Formula 1 (test driver) 2011 : GP2 Asia Series (12th place) 2011 : GP2 series (6th place) 2011 : Formula 1 (test driver) 2012 : Formula Renault 3.5 (3rd place) 2012 : Formula 1 (test driver) 2013 : GP2 series (2nd place) 2013 : Formula 1 (test driver) 2014 : WEC , GT (34th place)

2014 : United SportsCar Championship , PC (34th place) 2015 : Formula E (5th place) 2015 : WEC (10th place) 2016 : Formula E (4th place) 2016 : WEC, GT (2nd place) 2017 : Formula E (4th place) 2018 : Formula E (3rd place)

Individual results in the GP2 Asia series

year	team	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	Points	rank
2009/2010	ART Grand Prix	UAE		UAE		BRN		BRN		12	7th
		18th	18th	DNF	DNF	13	4th	6th	2
2011	iSport International	UAE		ITA						2	12.
		7th	DNF	DNF	DNF

Individual results in the GP2 series

year	team	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	Points	rank
2010	ART Grand Prix	ESP		MON		DOOR		ESP		GBR		GER		HUN		BEL		ITA		UAE				48	5.
		9	4th	18th	10	3	10	3	10	4th	DNS	14th	5	13	DNF	DNF	12	1	3	3	DNF
2011	iSport International	DOOR		ESP		MON		ESP		GBR		GER		HUN		BEL		ITA						45	6th
		2	3	3	5	DNF	13	5	12	5	6th	8th	7th	18th	5	12	5	4th	4th
2013	Russian time	MAS		BRN		ESP		MON		GBR		GER		HUN		BEL		ITA		SIN		UAE		181	2.
		7th	DNF	6th	1	21 *	12	1	24	1	5	13	8th	10	8th	1	14th	2	4th	8th	1	10	4th

Individual results in the FIA ​​Formula E Championship

year	team	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	Points	rank
2014/15	Virgin Racing	AT	PUT	PUN	BUE	MIA	LBH	MON	BER	MOS	LON							103	5.
		3	1	DNF	7th	8th	°DNF °	4th	8th	(DNF)	6th	1
2015/16	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	AT	PUT	PUN	BUE	MEX	LBH	PAR	BER	LON								88	4th
		°7 °	2	DNF °	°1 °	6th	6th	6th	11	7th	DNF
2016/17	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	HKG	MAR	BUE	MEX	MON	PAR	BER		NYC		MTR						122	4th
		13	2	DNF	3	DNF	16	7th	7th	1	1	5	4th
2017/18	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	HKG		MAR	SAN	MEX	PUN	ROME	PAR	BER	ZUR	NYC						143	3.
		1	5	3	5	17th	3	1	3	7th	2	9	10
2018/19	Envision Virgin Racing	TO YOU	MAR	SAN	MEX	HKG	SAY	ROME	PAR	MCO	BER	BRN	NYC					85	9.
		11	3	1	9	6th	DNF	11	11	*16 *	9	4th	8th	4th

( Legend )

Individual results in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship

Drivers world championship

year	team	vehicle	engine	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	Points	rank
2015	G-Drive Racing	Ligier JS P2	Nissan	SIL	SPA	LMS	ONLY	OUT	FUJ	SHA	BRN	33.5	10.
				6th	31	11	8th	5	9	10	7th

( Legend )

GT World Cup

year	team	vehicle	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	Points	rank
2014	AF Corse	Ferrari 458 Italia	SIL	SPA	LMS	OUT	FUJ	SHA	BRN	SAO		1	34.
			17th		DNF
2016	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE	SIL	SPA	LMS	ONLY	MEX	OUT	FUJ	SHA	BRN	134	2.
			17th	14th	DNF	19th	18th	18th	20th	21st	21st

( Legend )

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2014	AF Corse	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	Steve Wyatt	Michele Rugolo	failure	accident
2015	G-Drive Racing	Ligier JS P2	Roman Rusinov	Julien Canal	Rank 11
2016	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE	Davide Rigon	Andrea Bertolini	failure
2017	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE	Davide Rigon	Miguel Molina	Rank 21
2018	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE	Davide Rigon	Miguel Molina	Rank 24
2019	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE	Davide Rigon	Miguel Molina	failure	Engine failure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2014	Starworks Motorsport	Oreca FLM09	Renger van der Zande	Martin Fuentes	David Cheng	Rank 21

Web links

Commons : Sam Bird  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of Sam Bird
• Career Stats Sam Bird (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "ART brings Bird on board" (Motorsport-Total.com on November 30, 2009)
2. ↑ "Pic wins the GP2 prelude" (Motorsport-Total.com on May 8, 2010)
3. ↑ "Sam Bird gained first Formula 1 experience" (Motorsport-Total.com on November 6, 2007)
4. ↑ "Bird:" I am completely happy "" (Motorsport-Total.com on November 18, 2010)
5. ↑ "Bird ed Ericsson iSport piloti" ( Memento of 15 September 2011 at the Internet Archive ) (italiaracing.net on January 11, 2011)
6. ↑ "Valsecchi wins chaos race in Monaco" (Motorsport-Total.com on May 27, 2011)
7. ↑ "Bird with 2012 exhaust on the way" (Motorsport-Total.com on November 17, 2011)
8. ^ "WS by Renault - Bird comes out of the GP2" (Motorsport-Total.com on February 24, 2012)
9. ↑ Philipp Schajer: "GP2 - Sam Bird returns to GP2". Contract with Russian Time. Motorsport-Magazin.com, March 19, 2013, accessed March 19, 2013 . 
10. ^ Sönke Brederlow: "Formula 1 - Jaafar: demo drive in a Formula 1 racing car". Show event in Kuala Lumpur. Motorsport-Magazin.com, February 28, 2013, accessed February 28, 2013 . 
11. ↑ Timo Pape: "Virgin confirms Alguersuari and Bird". Motorsport-Total.com, May 13, 2014, accessed May 13, 2014 . 
12. ↑ Christian Nimmervoll: DS-Virgin: An ex-Red-Bull-Junior replaces the other. Motorsport-Total.com, August 8, 2015, accessed August 8, 2015 . 
13. ^ John Dagys: Bird Lands Ferrari Factory Drive with AF Corse in GTE-Pro. sportscar365.com, January 7, 2016, accessed January 7, 2016 . 
14. ↑ Markus Lüttgens: WTCC Champion Jose-Maria Lopez switches to Formula E. Motorsport-Total.com, July 7, 2016, accessed on July 7, 2016 .