Sam Bird

Sam Jamie Bird (born 9 January 1987) is a British professional racing driver who is currently driving for NEOM McLaren in Formula E.

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.

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.

In 2007, Bird raced in the British Formula 3 Championship with Carlin Motorsport, 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.

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 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.

He only picked up points from three other races.

For 2009, he joined McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner Alexander Sims, 2008 Mücke Motorsport 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.

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 win in the series at the first race at Monza, as well as claiming his third fastest lap of the season.

On 16 November 2010 he took part in the young drivers test at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, driving for Mercedes GP.

He finished the season with 103 points and secured 5th place in the championship.

At the first race of the season in Beijing, Bird only managed to finish 7th.

In the next race in Putrajaya, Bird took 2nd place after Renault had a mechanical failure and the two Dragon cars of Loic Duval and Jerome d'Ambrosio had suspension failure while running 2nd and 3rd respectively.

For 2011, Bird moved to the iSport International team alongside Marcus Ericsson.

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.

After this point, he gradually slipped back in the standings and finished sixth overall at the end of the season.

Between his last two seasons in the GP2 series, Bird competed in the 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 season.

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.

He lost out on the title by just 10 points and ended up finishing third in the championship.

Bird competed for the new Motopark-run 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 fight right down to the last weekend.

Bird's performances, alongside teammate Tom Dillmann, secured Russian Time first place in the GP2 Series constructors' championship.

In the 2014–15 Formula E season, Bird began driving for Richard Branson's Virgin Racing alongside Jaime Alguersuari.

He claimed third place in the first race, the Beijing ePrix, before dominating the second race of the season in Putrajaya to claim victory from second on the grid.

He won the LMP2 title at the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, and was runner-up at the 2013 GP2 Series and the LMGTE Pro class at the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship.

However, the 2015 Long Beach ePrix was another race to forget for Bird: after starting 11th, he suffered a suspension failure on lap 11 and retired from the race.

Bird managed to avoid the massive first-lap collision at the 2015 Monaco ePrix and went from his qualifying position of 12th to finish fourth.

The final round of the season was the 2015 London ePrix where Bird started from fourth and went on to cross the line second at his home ePrix.

Race winner Stéphane Sarrazin received a 49-second penalty and so Bird was handed the win making him the first-ever Formula E driver to win their home race.

Bird has also claimed 11 wins in Formula E, with a best season result of third in 2017–18.

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.

At the following race in Punta del Este, he did not manage to qualify and so started from 18th place and soon retired from the race after a crash in the early stages.

Bird bounced back by scoring points in Buenos Aires and Miami.

In the next race at Punta del Este, Bird finished 2nd just behind Sebastien Buemi; in Buenos Aires, Bird won after fending off Buemi who started 18th and last.