Thierry Boutsen

Interesting facts

On his first appearance at Le Mans in 1981 he survived a horrific accident: his WM P81-Peugeot broke apart at roughly 350 km/h on the Mulsanne Straight after a suspension failure, and the debris killed a marshal and seriously injured two others. He paid $500,000 of his own money for his Arrows drive, making his debut at his home race in Spa-Francorchamps in 1983. His maiden win came at the wet 1989 Canadian Grand Prix, where he was running last at one point and survived a full 360-degree spin, ultimately inheriting the lead when Ayrton Senna's engine seized three laps from the flag. His third win, and only pole position, came at the 1990 Hungarian Grand Prix with Williams - despite winning three races in two seasons to teammate Riccardo Patrese's one, the team kept Patrese for 1991 to partner Nigel Mansell in a title bid. A severe Le Mans crash in a Toyota GT-One ended his racing career in 1999; back in 1997 he had already founded the business-jet brokerage Boutsen Aviation, which sold 205 aircraft by 2011. Thierry Boutsen raced in Formula 1 from 1983 to 1993, across 11 seasons as a Belgian driver. He scored a total of 132 championship points over his career.