Sam Bird

Sam Bird
Bird in 2015
Nationality	British
Born	(1987-01-09) 9 January 1987 Roehampton, Greater London, England
World Endurance Championship career
Debut season	2014
Current team	AF Corse
Car no.	71
Former teams	G-Drive Racing
Starts	19
Wins	6
Poles	8
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	1st in 2015
Finished last season	1st (178 pts)
Formula E career
Debut season	2014–15
Current team	DS Virgin Racing
Car no.	2
Starts	23
Championships	0
Wins	3
Poles	3
Fastest laps	2
Best finish	4th in 2015–16
Finished last season	4th
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Participating years	2014–
Teams	AF Corse, G-Drive Racing
Best finish	10 (2015)
Class wins	0
Previous series
2010–2011, 2013 2012 2009–10–2011 2008–09 2007, 2009 2006 2004–05	GP2 Series Formula Renault 3.5 Series GP2 Asia Series Formula 3 Euro Series British Formula 3 Formula Renault 2.0 UK Formula BMW
Awards
2013 2006	Pirelli Trophy for Tyre Management Autosport Club Driver/Year

Sam Jamie Bird^[1] (born 9 January 1987) is a British professional racing driver who currently drives for Virgin Racing in Formula E and for AF Corse in the FIA World Endurance 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

Bird on the Formula 3 Euro Series at the Hockenheimring (2009)

In 2007, Bird raced in the British Formula 3 Championship with Carlin Motorsport, racing in a Mercedes powered Dallara. In March 2007, Bird secured sponsorship from BP, "The brand is already prominent in the World Rally Championship" 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.^[2] Bird was elected to the Motor Sports Association 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 the Manor Motorsport and 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 and only picked up points from three other races. For 2009, he joined McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner Alexander Sims, 2008 Mücke 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 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 series win at the first race at Monza, as well as claiming his third fastest lap of the season.

Bird during the feature race at the Belgian round of the 2013 GP2 Series

For 2011, Bird moved to the iSport International team alongside Marcus Ericsson. His GP2 Asia campaign resulted in three retirements from four races, but after a strong start to the main series season, he was second in the Drivers' Championship after four rounds, with the same number of points as leader Romain Grosjean. After this point, however, he gradually slipped back in the standings and finished sixth overall at the end of the season.

Bird competed for the new Russian Time 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 race down to the very last weekend. Bird's performances alongside teammate Tom Dillman secured Russian Time first place in the GP2 constructors' championship.

Formula Renault 3.5

Bird while at ISR Racing in 2012

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. 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 in Abu Dhabi driving for Mercedes GP.^[3]

World Endurance Championship

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. 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 putting him out of the race in the second hour.

Formula E

Bird racing in the 2014 Punta del Este ePrix

In the 2014–15 Formula E season, Bird began driving for Richard Branson's Virgin Racing alongside Jaime Alguersuari. He claimed third place in the first race, the Beijing 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 collision. 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. He finished the season with 103 points and secured 5th place in the championship after his home win.

Personal life

He was educated at Millfield School in Somerset.

Racing record

Career summary

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

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

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

Complete GP2 Series results

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

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

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

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

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

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

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

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2014	AF Corse	Stephen Wyatt Michele Rugolo	Ferrari 458 Italia GTC	GTE Am	22	DNF	DNF
2015	G-Drive Racing	Roman Rusinov Julien Canal	Ligier JS P2-Nissan	LMP2	358	10th	3rd
2016	AF Corse	Andrea Bertolini Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE	GTE Pro	143	DNF	DNF

Complete Formula E results

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

^* Season still in progress.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sam Bird.

• Official website
• Sam Bird career summary at DriverDB.com
• Sam Bird's ESPNF1 column

DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team
Personnel Richard Branson (founder) Alex Tai (team principal) Race Drivers 2. Sam Bird 37. José María López Former Drivers Jaime Alguersuari Fabio Leimer Jean-Éric Vergne Formula E Powertrains Virgin DSV-01 Virgin DSV-02 Related Virgin Racing SRT 01E Citroën