Thierry Boutsen

Name: Thierry Boutsen

Nationality: Belgium

Date of birth: July 13, 1957 - Brussels

Cool and stylish Belgian driver who modeled his whole approach on that of his countryman Jacky Ickx who he counted as one of his heroes. Thierry began his racing career in 1975 as a student at the famous Pilette driving school at Zolder. He studied to become an engineer but gave this up when his racing career took over. In 1977 he prepared his own Hawke FF1600. The following year he switched to a Crossle and won the Benelux FF1600 title with 15 victories in 18 races. For 1979 he moved up to Formula 3 competing in German and European events. He joined the Martini team in 1980 and won three races in the European Championship (Nurburgring, Zolder and Magny-Cours). He finished runner-up to Michele Alboreto in the title. In 1981 he moved up to F2, driving a works March-BMW. He won his fourth race (Nurburgring) and followed up with a win at Enna. He was second in the championship to Geoff Lees. Staying in F2 in 1982 he joined Spirit-Honda as team mate to Stefan Johansson. He won at the Nurburgring, Spa and Enna to finish third in the championship. He tested the F1 Spirit-Honda, but lost out on the drive to Johansson. For 1983 he drove a variety of machinery including a BMW 635CSi in the ETCC and a Joest Porsche in World Sportscar races. He won at Monza, sharing with Bob Wollek. At the Belgian GP he made his debut with Arrows but really began to shine when he drove for Benetton from 1987. In 1989 Frank Williams signed him on a two year deal which he celebrated by winning both the rain soaked 1989 Canadian and Australian GPs in storming style. In 1990 he followed that up with a fine Hungarian GP victory over his friend Ayrton Senna's McLaren-Honda, keeping cool and not making any mistakes under considerable pressure from the relentless Brazilian ace. By 1991 Boutsen's Formula 1 career had peaked and he moved to the Ligier squad and thence to Jordan in 1993 after which he eventually quit F1 for good.He finally retired from racing altogether after a crash at Le Mans in 1999.

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