Sam Bird

Information

Sam Bird appeared on the karting scene in 2002, racing competitively in events across Europe, including the ICA Garda Cup and the Federation Cup.

Following his stint in karting, Bird won a scholarship to race in the inaugural season of Formula BMW with Carlin Motorsport. He ended the year with three wins and finished as one of the top rookie drivers.

Bird remained in Formula BMW for a second season and finished as eventual championship runner-up. His name also appeared on the shortlist for the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award.

After a number of years progressing through Formula Renault and British F3, Bird held testing duties for Williams F1 focussing on straight-line aero development. He eventually joined forces with Mercedes for the Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi.

Recently, Bird has competed in GP2 where he narrowly missed out on the championship with Russian Time, claiming five wins en route to second in the standings.

Career Highlights

2013 - Finished as runner-up in GP2 for Russian Time with 5 wins. Test and Reserve Driver for Mercedes AMG F1 Team.

2012 - Finished 3rd in the World Series by Renault. Test and Reserve Driver for Mercedes AMG F1 Team.

2011 - Continued in GP2 and GP2 Asia Series and became Test and Reserve Driver for Mercedes AMG F1 Team.

2010 - Moved up to GP2, taking a pole, a feature race win and 6 podiums in his rookie season to finish 5th overall. Took part in the Young Driver Test for Mercedes at Abu Dhabi.

2009 - Continued in Formula 3 Euro Series and carried on testing duties for Williams F1.

2008 - Joined Formula 3 Euro Series with Manor Motorsport. Qualified on the front row at Macau GP.

2007 - Progressed to British F3 International Series with Carlin. 4th overall and Best Rookie. Selected to join MSA Race Elite and joined Williams F1 for aero testing.

2006 - Moved to Formula Renault with Fortec Motorsport. Finished 4th overall and ended year as the top rookie.

2005 - Remained in Formula BMW with Fortec Motorsport. Finished runner-up in the standings with 6 wins and 12 podiums. Selected as a finalist for McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award.

2004 - Won scholarship from BMW to compete in the first season of Formula BMW UK with Carlin Motorsport. Finished 2nd in the rookie championship with 3 wins.

Early career - Started karting competitively in 2002 racing across Europe in the ICA Garda Cup and the Federation Cup.

Website: http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/drivers-club/sam-bird.aspx
Location: England
Members: 1
Latest Activity: Jul 24, 2014

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Sam Bird Biography

Sam Jamie Bird (born 9 January 1987 in Roehampton) is a British racing driver; he was educated at Millfield School in Somerset.

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 Three 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.

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 One

On 16 November 2010 he took part in the young drivers test in Abu Dhabi driving for Mercedes GP.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2004	Formula BMW UK	Carlin Motorsport	20	0	0	0	0	22	14th
2005	Formula BMW UK	Fortec Motorsport	20	6	9	3	12	218	2nd
2005	Formula BMW World Final	Fortec Motorsport	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	4th
2006	Formula Renault UK	Fortec Motorsport	20	4	7	5	7	373	4th
2007	British Formula Three	Carlin Motorsport	22	2	0	1	10	180	4th
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	6th
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	27th
2008	Formula 3 Euro Series	Manor Motorsport	20	0	0	0	2	23	11th
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	7th
2009	Formula 3 Euro Series	Mücke Motorsport	18	0	1	2	4	40	8th
	Masters of Formula 3	Mücke Motorsport	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	8th
	British Formula Three	Fortec Motorsport	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
	Macau Grand Prix	ART Grand Prix	1	0	0	0	1	N/A	3rd
2009–10	GP2 Asia Series	ART Grand Prix	8	0	0	1	1	12	7th
2010	GP2 Series	ART Grand Prix	20	1	1	4	5	48	5th
2011	GP2 Asia Series	iSport International	4	0	0	0	0	2	12th
2011	GP2 Series	iSport International	18	0	1	3	3	45	6th
2012	Formula Renault 3.5 Series	ISR Racing	17	2	1	0	7	177	3rd
2012	Formula One	Mercedes AMG Petronas	Test driver
2013	GP2 Series	Russian Time	22	5	2	3	6	181	2nd

† – As Bird was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2008	Manor Motorsport	Dallara F308/036	Mercedes	HOC1 1 10	HOC1 2 6	MUG 1 14	MUG 2 8	PAU 1 Ret	PAU 2 11	NOR 1 14	NOR 2 8	ZAN 1 4	ZAN 2 6	NÜR 1 22	NÜR 2 19	BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 19	CAT 1 2	CAT 2 18	BUG 1 2	BUG 2 11	HOC2 1 16	HOC2 2 Ret	11th	23
2009	Mücke Motorsport	Dallara F308	Mercedes	HOC1 1 3	HOC1 2 6	LAU 1 5	LAU 2 3	NOR 1 8	NOR 2 Ret	ZAN 1 8	ZAN 2 2	OSC 1 12	OSC 2 20	NÜR 1 4	NÜR 2 8	BRH 1 6	BRH 2 3	CAT 1 Ret	CAT 2 Ret	DIJ 1 6	DIJ 2 5			8th	40

Complete GP2 Series results (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2010	ART Grand Prix	ESP FEA 9	ESP SPR 4	MON FEA 18	MON SPR 10	TUR FEA 3	TUR SPR 10	VAL FEA 3	VAL SPR 10	GBR FEA 4	GBR SPR DNS	GER FEA 14	GER SPR 5	HUN FEA 13	HUN SPR Ret	BEL FEA Ret	BEL SPR 12	ITA FEA 1	ITA SPR 3	ABU FEA 3	ABU SPR Ret			5th	48
2011	iSport International	TUR FEA 2	TUR SPR 3	ESP FEA 3	ESP SPR 5	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR 13	VAL FEA 5	VAL SPR 12	GBR FEA 5	GBR SPR 6	GER FEA 8	GER SPR 7	HUN FEA 17	HUN SPR 5	BEL FEA 12	BEL SPR 5	ITA FEA 4	ITA SPR 4					6th	45
2013	Russian Time	MYS FEA 7	MYS SPR Ret	BHR FEA 6	BHR SPR 1	ESP FEA 21†	ESP SPR 12	MON FEA 1	MON SPR 24	GBR FEA 1	GBR SPR 5	GER FEA 13	GER SPR 8	HUN FEA 10	HUN SPR 8	BEL FEA 1	BEL SPR 14	ITA FEA 2	ITA SPR 4	SGP FEA 8	SGP SPR 1	ABU FEA 10	ABU SPR 4	2nd	181

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	DC	Points
2009–10	ART Grand Prix	ABU1 FEA 18	ABU1 SPR 18	ABU2 FEA Ret	ABU2 SPR Ret	BHR1 FEA 13	BHR1 SPR 4	BHR2 FEA 6	BHR2 SPR 2	7th	12
2011	iSport International	ABU FEA 7	ABU SPR Ret	ITA FEA Ret	ITA SPR Ret					12th	2

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Pos	Points
2012	ISR	ALC 1 9	ALC 2 2	MON 1 1	SPA 1 3	SPA 2 5	NÜR 1 8	NÜR 2 4	MSC 1 3	MSC 2 Ret	SIL 1 Ret	SIL 2 1	HUN 1 10	HUN 2 4	LEC 1 10	LEC 2 3	CAT 1 2	CAT 2 8	3rd	177

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

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

Year	Entrant	Class	Car	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Rank	Points
2014	AF Corse	LMGTE Am	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	Ferrari 4.5 L V8	SIL 3	SPA	LMS Ret	COA	FUJ	SHA	BHR	SÃO	11th*	17*

* Season in progress

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	LMGTE Am	22	DNF	DNF

References

Jump up ^ Rowe, Callum (28 August 2013). "IN DEPTH Q&A – SAM BIRD". http://callumrowesgp2blog.wordpress.com/. Retrieved 30 August 2013. "SB: My middle name is Jamie"
Jump up ^ "BP Ultimate sponsors Sam Bird in Formula 3". BP Official Website. 15 March 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
Jump up ^ Straw, Edd (16 November 2010). "Ricciardo tops day one of rookie test". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 17 November 2010.

External links

Awards
Preceded by Andrew Kirkaldy	Autosport British Club Driver of the Year 2006	Succeeded by Duncan Tappy
Preceded by Esteban Gutiérrez	Pirelli Trophy for Tyre Management Champion 2013	Succeeded by Incumbent