Jérôme d'Ambrosio

He placed 21st in his first FP1 appearance at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, finishing two-tenths behind experienced team-mate Timo Glock.

He finished the season 24th in the Drivers' Championship with a best of two 14th-place finishes in Australia and Canada.

Jérôme d’Ambrosio (born 27 December 1985) is a Belgian former professional racing driver, motorsport executive and Driver Development Director at Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team.

He was formerly the Team Principal of Venturi Racing in Formula E.

D’Ambrosio became the first Belgian driver to compete at the Belgian Grand Prix since Thierry Boutsen in 1993 and finished 17th, beating team-mate Glock.

Born in Etterbeek, Belgium, D’Ambrosio began his career in karting in 1999.

Alongside national success, he won the acclaimed Junior Monaco Kart Cup in 2000 and was the winner of the World Cup Formula A championship in 2002.

By 2002, he was a three-time Belgian champion after winning the Mini class in 1999, Junior class in 2000 and Formula A in 2002.

D’Ambrosio graduated to single-seater competition in 2003 and tasted immediate success by winning the Belgian Formula Renault championship with five wins, driving for Thierry Boutsen Racing.

He also contested the German-based Formula König series where he finished fourth in the standings.

For 2004, D’Ambrosio earned a place on the prestigious Renault F1 Driver Development Programme and moved into the French Formula Renault 2.0 series where he finished fourth in the Drivers' Championship as the highest-placed rookie.

He also contested seven races in Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup.

In 2005, he switched to Italian Formula Renault and finished third in the championship's Winter Series and fourth overall in the regular season, recording three wins and six podiums across both.

He also started six races in the Eurocup, taking two podiums.

D’Ambrosio graduated to the highest category of Formula Renault in 2006, racing in the 3.5 Series for Tech 1 Racing but left the championship after seven races.

After leaving the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, D’Ambrosio switched to Euroseries 3000 with Euronova Racing and drove an impressive campaign to finish fifth in the final standings, despite missing the first half of the season.

He also participated in one round of the FIA GT Championship, driving a Gillet Vertigo in the GT2 class.

In 2007, D’Ambrosio participated in the inaugural season of the International Formula Master series.

Racing for Cram Competition, he secured five wins, 11 podiums and seven fastest laps in 16 races to win the championship.

D’Ambrosio joined Formula One feeder championship, the GP2 Series, in 2008 and also raced in the newly created GP2 Asia Series, both for the DAMS team.

He extended his relationship with DAMS in 2009 and finished as the vice-champion in the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series with four podiums.

D’Ambrosio started the 2009 GP2 Series well and recorded three podiums in the first four races and finished ninth in the final standings.

In 2010, D’Ambrosio experienced a breakout season with DAMS and secured his first victory in the championship at Monaco.

He later took his first series pole position at his home event at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps but retired from the race when leading.

In January 2010, D’Ambrosio was named as the Reserve Driver of the Renault F1 Team after rejoining the outfit's young driver programme.

Later in the year on 16 September, it was announced that D’Ambrosio would make his Formula One race weekend debut, making four practice appearances with Virgin Racing at the Singapore, Japanese, Korean and Brazilian Grands Prix.

On 21 December 2010, it was officially announced that D’Ambrosio would race for Virgin Racing in the 2011 Formula One World Championship, replacing Lucas di Grassi and partnering Glock.

He has previously driven for Marussia Virgin Racing and Lotus F1 in the 2011 and 2012 Formula One World Championships.

He finished 11th in both championships, with two podiums in each series.

In the Virgin garage, D’Ambrosio was affectionately known as 'Custard', with the word pasted on his cockpit when he began testing for the 2011 season at Valencia.

Ambrosia is a well-known UK brand of custard and rice pudding.

Driving the largely uncompetitive Virgin MVR-02, D’Ambrosio finished 16 of the season's 19 races and retired from the Malaysian, Italian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix due to poor reliability with problems with his electronics, gearbox and brakes.

He took one further podium at Monza and finished 12th in the standings.

Despite beating Glock, D’Ambrosio was replaced by Charles Pic for the 2012 season.

On 24 January 2012, D’Ambrosio was named as the official Reserve Driver for Lotus F1 for the 2012 season, supporting full-time drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean.

Throughout the season, he did co-commentary work for Sky Sports F1 for Formula One practice sessions, GP2 and GP3 races, and also commentated for the Belgian French-speaking channel, RTBF.

D’Ambrosio replaced Grosjean at the 2012 Italian Grand Prix to make his debut for Lotus after the Frenchman received a one-race ban for causing a multi-car collision at the previous round in Belgium.

From 2014 to 2020, he competed in Formula E driving for Dragon Racing and Mahindra Racing.

D’Ambrosio achieved three victories in the series, winning the 2015 Berlin ePrix, 2016 Mexico City ePrix and 2019 Marrakesh ePrix.

He qualified 16th for the race and started in 15th due to a 10-place grid penalty for Pastor Maldonado.