Sam Bird

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.Bird moved to Manor Motorsport in 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.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 was fast but frequently unlucky, losing several potential results due to technical issues, engine failures and collisions for which he was not at fault.His GP2 Asia campaign resulted in three retirements from the first four races but, after a strong start to the main series season, he was second in the Drivers' Championship - with the same number of points as leader Romain Grosjean.Bird's performances, alongside teammate Tom Dillmann, secured Russian Time first place in the GP2 Series constructors' championship.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.On 16 November 2010 he took part in the young drivers test at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, driving for Mercedes GP.Bird eventually finished the season in 4th place with 88 points, after being overtaken by Nicolas Prost in the championship after he won the double-header in London.Bird started his season with a 13th place finish in Hong Kong after leading the race and losing more than a minute during the pit-stop sequence.Following a collision with Jérôme d'Ambrosio on the final lap in Buenos Aires, the Brit returned to the podium with a solid drive in the Mexico City ePrix.The rest of the season was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Bird announced that he was leaving Virgin to join Jaguar Racing.A second place at the following race in Rome meant he took over from Nyck de Vries as championship leader ahead of former teammate Robin Frijns.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.