Sam Bird

At 37 years old, Sam Bird has this physical status:

Career

Bird made his name in single seater racing in the Formula BMW class, finishing fourteenth overall in his debut season and second in second in the rookie series. In 2005, he finished second in his second season in the category and also placed fourth in the Formula BMW world final, and was also fourth.

Bird won four races and finished fourth in the championship in 2006, 111 points behind series champion Sebastian Hohenthal.

In 2007, Bird competed in the British Formula 3 Championship with Carlin Motorsport in a Mercedes-powered Dallara. Bird's sponsorship of the World Rally Championship started in March 2007, and Mark Reader, BP's UK Fuels Marketing Manager, commented, "Sam's an amazing prospect and we're excited to begin a friendship at this point in his career." Bird was elected to the Motor Sports Association Race Elite Scheme in April 2007, alongside 5 other pilots in various British series, and also participated in a string of aerodynamic experiments with the AT&T Williams F1 Team.

In 2008, Bird moved to Manor Motorsport in the Formula 3 Euro Series for the first time, finishing eleventh in the championship with 23 points – 16 of which came from second places in Saturday's Catalunya and Le Mans. He only gained points from three other races. 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 he failed to win a race en route to eighth in the championship.

Bird skipped the final round of the F3 Euroseries series to join the ART Grand Prix team in Abu Dhabi for a GP2 Asia Series test. He competed in the 2009–10 season for the team, finishing seventh in the series and in second place in the final round.

Bird also competed in the 2010 ART series, expressing long-awaited travel with the French team. He was quick but often unlucky, losing several potential results due to technological difficulties, engine failures, and accidents for which he was not at fault. However, he won his first race in the series, as well as his third fastest lap of the season.

Bird joined Marcus Ericsson on the iSport International team in 2011. His GP2 Asia campaign culminated in three retirements from the first four races, but after a good start to the main series season, he came in second second, with the same number of points as leader Romain Grosjean. Since this time, he gradually fell back in the standings and finished sixth overall at the end of the season.

In 2013, Bird was a member of the new Russian Time squad and had a fruitful season. On his way to second place in the championship, the Englishman won five out of a row, bringing the championship title right down to the last weekend. Russian Time took first place in the GP2 Series constructors' championship thanks to Bird's and teammate Tom Dillmann.

Bird appeared in the 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 season for his second season in the GP2 series. He won two races and took five further podium positions to advance to the final round at Catalunya in a three-way battle for the title with Robin Frijns and Jules Bianchi. He missed out on the title by just 10 points and ended up finishing third in the championship.

He participated in the young driver competition at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday, driving for Mercedes GP on November 16, 2010.

Bird made two guest appearances for the Ferrari AF Corse crew in 2014. The first time he was in the United Kingdom for the 6 hours of Silverstone, where he came 3rd in the GTE Amateur class. His second appearance at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans was his second appearance. Bird took pole position in the GTE Am class, finishing second overall of all GT cars. He rode in the first stint of the event, 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 weather on the Mulsanne Straight.

Bird, alongside Jaime Alguersuari, began racing for Richard Branson's Virgin Racing in the 2014-2015 Formula E season. He took third place in the first round, the Beijing ePrix, before winning in Putrajaya's second run of the season. He did not qualify and therefore started from 18th position and soon pulled out of the competition after a crash in the early stages of the race. In Buenos Aires and Miami, the bird returned to scoring points. However, the 2015 Long Beach ePrix was another run to forget for Bird: starting on lap 11th, he suffered a suspension and pulled out of the sport early. Bird managed to prevent a big first-lap crash at the 2015 Monaco ePrix, rising from 12th place to finish fourth in qualifying classes. Bird went from fourth to cross the line second in his home eprix in the final round of the season. Stéphane Sarrazin, the race winner, was awarded the victory, making him the first-ever Formula E racer to win their home race. He finished the season with 103 points and 5th place in the championship, finishing fifth.

Bird only finished seventh in the first race of the season in Beijing. Bird took second place in the upcoming race in Putrajaya after Renault suffered mechanical malfunction and Loic Duval and Jerome d'Ambrosio's two Dragon cars crashed while running 2nd and 3rd respectively. Bird finished second in the upcoming race at Punta del Este, just behind Sebastien Buemi; in Buenos Aires, Bird took home after battling Buemi who started 18th and last. In Mexico, Long Beach, and Paris, further 6th places were achieved before completing in Berlin in their 11th place finish. Bird finished seventh in the first race of the double-season finale in London. Due to a throttle failure in the upcoming race, he was forced to retire due to a throttle failure. After being overtaken by Nicolas Prost in the championship after winning the double-header in London, Bird eventually finished in 4th place with 88 points.

After leading the race and missing more than a minute during the pit-stop sequence, Bird started his season with a 13th place finish in Hong Kong. After that Bird said that being on the podium [was] like a win," he bounced back from that result by finishing second in the following round at Marrakesh. Following a collision with Jérôme d'Ambrosio on the final lap in Buenos Aires, the Brit returned to the podium with a strong push in the Mexico City ePrix. Bird, who suffered with the barriers in the early stages of the race, had a blast in Monaco, but he was still able to record the fastest lap in his second car. Following three races in which he only managed to obtain a total of 13 points, Bird became the first driver to win two back-to-back races in New York City. He will finish fourth in the drivers' standings in Montreal and his second top-five finishes, five places behind teammate José Mara López.

Bird started second on the grid at the season opener in Hong Kong after having just spun his car at the hairpin on his flying lap. During the run, he passed Jean-Éric Vergne for the lead but fell in the pitlane when approaching his stop and striking a mechanic. He was given a drive-through penalty but later came out in the race lead and went on to win and take the lead in the driver's championship for the first time in his Formula E career. The bird was given a 10-place grid penalty for the incident and took the second run from thirteenth. Following Daniel Abt's post-race disqualification, he will finish fifth in 5th and maintain his championship lead. Bird will finish in 3rd place in the championship with 143 points, just 1 point off 2nd place finisher Lucas di Grassi.

In the 2019 Marrakesh ePrix, the bird's first podium finish of the season took third place after taking pole position. After winning the 2019 Santiago ePrix, he became the first Formula E racer to win a race in any Formula E season. Overall, Bird finished the season in ninth place, amassing a total of 85 points over the course.

Envision Virgin Racing's bird won the inaugural race of the season, the 2019 Diriyah EPrix. Sadly, his race ended in the second round after a collision with Mitch Evans. Bird in Santiago soared from 16th to tenth in the race's fastest lap. He dropped out of second place in the dying stages of the competition in the 2020 Mexico City ePrix. He finished tenth in Marrakesh after starting 14th. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bird revealed that he was leaving Virgin to join Jaguar Racing. Between the 5th and the 13th of August, the season 6 finale was held at Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit. In 3rd, Bird ran the first time in 3rd and the second in 6th. After being trapped in a pile-up on the first lap, he completed the next three races in 13th, 11th, and 20th. Bird placed fifth in his last race for Virgin, finishing 14th and taking the fastest lap. With 63 points, he finished the season ranked 10th in the standings.

During the summer of 2020, Bird announced that he would be racing for the Jaguar Racing team in the 2020–21 Formula E season. In the second round of the Diriyah ePrix, the campaign Bird continued his run of being the only one to win a race in every season of Formula E. He took over Nyck de Vries as the championship leader after his former teammate Robin Frijns took second place in Rome after his second appearance in the following race. Despite 6 DNFs (did not finish) and 1 DSQ (disqualification) throughout the season, he still managed to finish with 87 points in an impressive 6th place in the championship.

After only scoring points in the first and fourth rounds in the 5th round of the championship, Bird had scored 22 points and was in 11th position in 11th place. Since suffering a broken hand during the London eprix, the bird was forced to miss both rounds of the Seoul ePrix. Norman Nato, the Jaguar reserve driver, took his place. This also meant that Bird would not win a race during the season for the first time in his Formula E career. With 51 points, he finished 13th in the standings for the 13th time in the season.

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