Thierry Boutsen

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Thierry Boutsen
Born	13 1957 (1957-Template:Pad2digit-Template:Pad2digit) Brussels, Belgium
Died	{{{death_date}}} {{{death_place}}}
Formula One career
Nationality	{{{nationality}}}
Years	1983–1993

Thierry Marc Boutsen (born 13 July 1957 in Brussels, Belgium) is a former racing driver who raced for the Arrows, Benetton, Williams, Ligier and Jordan teams in Formula One.

Career

Junior Formulae & Sportscars

After winning the "Volant V" in 1977 at the André Pilette Racing School, Zolder, Boutsen entered the Belgian Formula Ford 1600 championship and won it in 1978 with 15 victories in 18 races. He also entered the 1978 Spa 24 Hours race, the very last auto race on the old 14 km (8.7 mi) Spa-Francorchamps circuit- driving a Toyota Trueno. For 1979 he moved to Formula 3, winning three races in 1980 and second place in the European title race, behind Michele Alboreto. In 1981 he moved to Formula 2 and was again second in the European championship, including winning at the 14-mile Nürburgring- this time behind Geoff Lees.

He also entered the 1981 24 Hours of Le Mans. The race started at 3pm – one hour earlier than usual due to the Parliamentary elections held on the same weekend. At 4:06pm Boutsen suffered a massive accident just after the Hunaudières kink, some 400 metres ( mi) before the Mulsanne bosse (the "hump") when his WM P81-Peugeot was travelling at some 350 km/h (Template:Convert/mi/h). A suspension piece had failed and the car hit the guard-rail losing the entire rear end. Boutsen was untouched, but the debris field of hurled parts and bodywork was spread over 150 metres ( ft). Three marshals were struck by the debris. One of them, Thierry Mabillat, was killed - struck in the chest by a detached piece of the guard rail. Two of his colleagues, Claude Hertault and Serge David (who lost an arm), were seriously injured.

In 1983 Boutsen drove in the European Touring Car Championship and in World Sportscar races, where he won the very first Group C race, the Monza 1000 km with Bob Wollek driving a Porsche 956. He also won the famous Daytona 24 hour race in 1985, co-driving the Porsche 956 from the Preston Henn Racing with Bob Wollek, AJ Foyt and Al Unser Sr.

Formula One

Boutsen was considered a promising driver, testing for McLaren and Brabham. He was briefly attached to the Spirit Honda F1 project before losing out to his Formula Two team-mate Stefan Johansson.

Boutsen driving for Arrows at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix.

In 1983 he paid $500,000 for a drive in Formula One and made his debut with Arrows at his home race, the 1983 Belgian Grand Prix at the shortened 7 km (4.3 mi) Spa.. While he scored no points in 1983 his careful handling and close performance compared to experienced team-mate Marc Surer. With backing from Barclay cigarettes he remained with the team for a further three seasons. The first saw Arrows struggle with their difficult first turbocharged car, with powerful BMW turbo engines but poor handling. Boutsen scored points twice in the old Cosworth DFV powered A6 and once in the turbo machine. His second season saw several notable results, including 2nd place at Imola. Boutsen crossed the line third, behind Alain Prost and Elio de Angelis but after the race, Prost and de Angelis were disqualified because their cars were 2 kg underweight, meaning that Boutsen won for the first time in his Formula One career. This also gave the Arrows team their first ever win. But later, de Angelis was reinstated, and was given the race win. Boutsen dropped to second place and Arrows were denied their first race win. Three more points scores saw him 11th overall in the standings. A final season with Arrows saw no points for Boutsen in an uncompetitive car, but in parallel to F1 he drove for the Walter Brun team in Group C and clinched the World Championship title with them in 1986, winning Spa 1000 km.

Boutsen driving for Benetton at the 1988 Canadian Grand Prix.

He got his big chance when he switched to the works Ford F1 team, Benetton, for the 1987 season. While the package wasn't a race winner it did allow him to run regularly in the top 6. He scored points in six races, his best being awarded 3rd place in Adelaide after the disqualification of Ayrton Senna's Lotus and moved to 8th overall. For 1988 Benetton switched to normally aspirated Cosworth engines in anticipation of the banning of turbos in 1989. Boutsen's consistency, mechanical sympathy and speed saw him score points in 10 of the 16 races - with five 3rd place finishes - and place 4th overall as the best non-turbo driver in the table.

His reputation as a reliable, fast driver with good development skills saw Frank Williams sign him on a two-year contract to drive the new Williams Renault car. 1989 began with Boutsen on the back foot as veteran team-mate Riccardo Patrese had a major resurgence in form, but at the Canadian Grand Prix Boutsen drove well in wet conditions and took his maiden victory after Senna suffered a late engine failure. Three more podium finishes came before Boutsen rounded the year off with a second victory at the rain-soaked Australian Grand Prix. Boutsen had been one of the drivers protesting about the conditions at the circuit before the race.

1990 saw more consistent points scoring drives, including his third and final Grand Prix victory - a lights-to-flag victory in Hungarian Grand Prix where he took his first pole position and held off sustained pressure from Alessando Nannini and Ayrton Senna to win. However, Nigel Mansell was available in 1991 and Williams Renault felt they needed a 'star' driver to put together a championship bid. Despite Boutsen winning three races in two years to Patrese's one they decided to keep the Italian to drive alongside Mansell.

With no vacancies among the top teams Boutsen had to drop down to the Ligier team. Despite having a sizeable budget and Lamborghini V12 engines the car was uncompetitive and Boutsen was frequently unable to disguise his disgust with the machinery given to him. The arrival of Renault engines in 1992 improved matters a little and in his final race for the team he scored 5th place, his first points since leaving Williams.

Initially he was unable to find a drive for 1993 but Barclay secured him a slot at Jordan, replacing Ivan Capelli. Boutsen was rusty, too tall for the car and largely outpaced by young team-mate Rubens Barrichello, failing to score any points in ten races. With Eddie Jordan keen to bring in younger, well-sponsored drivers to the seat the decision was taken to turn Boutsen's home race into a farewell event, though he retired on the first lap.

Sportscars

Boutsen then drove sports cars in the US, driving for Champion Racing in a Porsche GT-One, alongside Bill Adam and Hans Stuck. The trio finished 2nd in class at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1997, Boutsen won the GT-One US Championship with the Champion Racing in 1998. After a crash at Le Mans in 1999 at the wheel of a Toyota Gt-one he retired from racing altogether.

Business

Today Boutsen runs his own company, Boutsen Aviation, in Monaco. Its business is the "Sale and Acquisition of Business Jets". He founded the company in 1997 with his wife Daniela and up to May 2011, the company had sold 205 aircraft, ranging from Airbus Corporate Jets to Cessna Citation. He is also co-owner of Boutsen Energy Racing alongside his brother-in-law Olivier Lainé and Georges Kaczka. The team competes in the Formula Le Mans class in the Le Mans Series. Boutsen also runs cars in Formula Renault and Eurocup Mégane Trophy.

Helmet

Boutsen's helmet was black with a red, orange and yellow ribbon design surrounding the visor and the rear area. The colours used are the colours of the Belgian flag (except for orange).

Racing record

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(key) (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	Pos	Pts
1981	March Racing Ltd.	March/812	BMW	SIL Ret	HOC Ret	THR Ret	NÜR 1	VAL 3	MUG Ret	PAU 2	PER 1	SPA 2	DON 12	MIS 8	MAN 4		2nd	37
1982	Marlboro Team Spirit	Spirit/201	Honda	SIL 12	HOC 2	THR 3	NÜR 1	MUG 4	VAL 6	PAU 2	SPA 1	HOC Ret	DON 9	MAN 4	PER 1	MIS 6	3rd	50

Complete Formula One results

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

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1983	Arrows Racing Team	Arrows A6	Cosworth V8	BRA	USW	FRA	SMR	MON	BEL Ret	DET 7	CAN 7	GBR 15	GER 9	AUT 13	NED 14	ITA Ret	EUR 11	RSA 9		NC	0
1984	Barclay Nordica Arrows BMW	Arrows A6	Cosworth V8	BRA 6	RSA 12		SMR 5													15th	5
		Arrows A7	BMW Str-4 (t/c)			BEL Ret		FRA 11	MON DNQ	CAN Ret	DET Ret	DAL Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	AUT 5	NED Ret	ITA 10	EUR 9	POR Ret
1985	Barclay Arrows BMW	Arrows A8	BMW Straight-4 (t/c)	BRA 11	POR Ret	SMR 2	MON 9	CAN 9	DET 7	FRA 9	GBR Ret	GER 4	AUT 8	NED Ret	ITA 9	BEL 10	EUR 6	RSA 6	AUS Ret	11th	11
1986	Barclay Arrows BMW	Arrows A8	BMW Straight-4 (t/c)	BRA Ret	ESP 7	SMR 7	MON 8	BEL Ret	CAN Ret	DET Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret		HUN Ret		ITA 7	POR 10	MEX 7	AUS Ret	NC	0
		Arrows A9											GER Ret		AUT Ret
1987	Benetton Formula Ltd.	Benetton B187	Cosworth V6 (t/c)	BRA 5	SMR Ret	BEL Ret	MON Ret	DET Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 7	GER Ret	HUN 4	AUT 4	ITA 5	POR 14	ESP 16	MEX Ret	JPN 5	AUS 3	8th	16
1988	Benetton Formula Ltd.	Benetton B188	Cosworth V8	BRA 7	SMR 4	MON 8	MEX 8	CAN 3	DET 3	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 6	HUN 3	BEL DSQ	ITA 6	POR 3	ESP 9	JPN 3	AUS 5	4th	27
1989	Canon Williams Team	Williams FW12C	Renault V10	BRA Ret	SMR 4	MON 10	MEX Ret	USA 6	CAN 1	FRA Ret	GBR 10	GER Ret	HUN 3	BEL 4	ITA 3					5th	37
		Williams FW13														POR Ret	ESP Ret	JPN 3	AUS 1
1990	Canon Williams Renault	Williams FW13B	Renault V10	USA 3	BRA 5	SMR Ret	MON 4	CAN Ret	MEX 5	FRA Ret	GBR 2	GER 6	HUN 1	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	ESP 4	JPN 5	AUS 5	6th	34
1991	Ligier Gitanes	Ligier JS35	Lamborghini V12	USA Ret	BRA 10	SMR 7	MON 7	CAN Ret	MEX 8											NC	0
		Ligier JS35B								FRA 12	GBR Ret	GER 9	HUN 17	BEL 11	ITA Ret	POR 16	ESP Ret	JPN 9	AUS Ret
1992	Ligier Gitanes Blondes	Ligier JS37	Renault V10	RSA Ret	MEX 10	BRA Ret	ESP Ret	SMR Ret	MON 12	CAN 10	FRA Ret	GBR 10	GER 7	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR 8	JPN Ret	AUS 5	14th	2
1993	Sasol Jordan	Jordan 193	Hart V10	RSA	BRA	EUR Ret	SMR Ret	ESP 11	MON Ret	CAN 12	FRA 11	GBR Ret	GER 13	HUN 9	BEL Ret	ITA	POR	JPN	AUS	NC	0

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Class	No	Tyres	Car	Team	Co-Drivers	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1981	C	82	M	WM P81 Peugeot PRV 2.7L Turbo V6	WM A.E.R.E.M.	Serge Saulnier Michel Pignard	15	DNF	DNF
1983	C	24	M	Rondeau M482 Ford Cosworth DFL 4.0L V8	Ford France	Henri Pescarolo	174	DNF	DNF
1986	C1	19	M	Porsche 956 Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6	Brun Motorsport	Didier Theys Alain Ferté	89	DNF	DNF
1993	C1	1	M	Peugeot 905 Evo 1B Peugeot SA35 3.5L V10	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Yannick Dalmas Teo Fabi	374	2nd	2nd
1994	GT1	35	G	Dauer 962 Le Mans Porsche Type-935 3.0 L Turbo Flat-6	Le Mans Porsche Team Joest Racing	Hans Joachim Stuck Danny Sullivan	343	3rd	2nd
1995	WSC	4	G	Kremer K8 Spyder Porsche Type-935 3.0L Turbo Flat-6	Porsche Kremer Racing	Hans Joachim Stuck Christophe Bouchut	289	6th	2nd
1996	GT1	25	M	Porsche 911 GT1 Porsche 3.2L Turbo Flat-6	Porsche AG	Hans Joachim Stuck Bob Wollek	353	2nd	1st
1997	GT1	25	G	Porsche 911 GT1 Porsche 3.2L Turbo Flat-6	Porsche AG	Hans Joachim Stuck Bob Wollek	238	DNF	DNF
1998	GT1	29	M	Toyota GT-One Toyota R36V 3.6L Turbo V8	Toyota Motorsports Toyota Team Europe	Ralf Kelleners Geoff Lees	330	DNF	DNF
1999	LMGTP	2	M	Toyota GT-One Toyota R36V 3.6L Turbo V8	Toyota Motorsports Toyota Team Europe	Ralf Kelleners Allan McNish	173	DNF	DNF

External links

• Boutsen Aviation official website

Template:24 Hours of Daytona winners Template:Belgian Sportsperson of the Year

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Thierry Boutsen. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.