Alexander Wurz
BMX
Wurz first tasted competition in the BMX World Championship and won it outright in 1986. This gave him an underlying physical fitness suitable for motor racing. In 2000, Wurz returned somewhat to his cycling roots, starting an MTB team with countryman Markus Rainer. The team, Rainer-Wurz.com, is currently sponsored by McLaren sponsors Siemens and Cannondale, amongst others. They are multiple World Cup winners.Early career
Like most Formula One drivers, Wurz's motorsport career began with karting. In 1991, Wurz drove in Formula Ford. In 1993, he switched to the German Formula Three Championship. From 1996, Wurz drove an Opel Calibra for the Joest Racing touring car team in the DTM. Also in 1996, Wurz, together with Davy Jones and Manuel Reuter, won the Le Mans 24 Hours and in so doing became (at that time) the youngest ever winner of the 24-hour race.Benetton
Wurz's Formula One debut was on June 15, 1997 at Montreal for Benetton filling in for fellow Austrian Gerhard Berger, who couldn't race due to illness. Wurz impressed with a podium position in his third race before returning to being a test driver upon Berger's return to the cockpit at the German Grand Prix, which Berger won.
However, Wurz was rewarded with a full-time race seat for the 1998 season with Benetton and spent three more seasons at the team, partnered each year by Giancarlo Fisichella. A strong start to 1998 suggested a bright future, and even attracted the interest of Ferrari , but the three-season stint at Benetton turned out to be a disappointment. Toward the end of his Benetton time, Fisichella produced better results.
Racer to tester
Unable to find a race seat at a leading team for 2001, he took on the role of third (i.e., test) driver for McLaren.
In April 2005, with Juan Pablo Montoya injured, Wurz drove for McLaren in the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix, finishing fourth in the race, but taking third place after both BAR-Honda drivers were disqualified. This gave him a unique record. No other driver has had such a long gap between podiums. Wurz went eight years. His drive at Imola was all the more notable because he was still not comfortable in the car, and at times had to drive with one hand.
Since his signing to McLaren as test driver, Wurz had been eager to return to racing. At various times during this time he was linked in rumours to a return to a full race seat. His large size for a Formula One driver (186 cm/6'1) has perhaps been a factor that has not helped. In fact, because they were so sure he would be driving for Austrian-owned Red Bull Racing in , the designers at McLaren neglected to allow for his size, meaning he could not physically fit in the car. In he was strongly linked to a race seat at Jaguar, where the under-fire Antônio Pizzonia was struggling. However, McLaren were struggling with their abortive new car and blocked the move to retain Alex's excellent technical and development skills. Jaguar then decided to give Pizzonia more time to prove himself, before drafting in Justin Wilson.
Williams
Alexander Wurz signed a deal with Williams F1 to become the team's official test and reserve driver at the beginning of 2006. He drove the third car at all Grand Prix Fridays in 2006. It was announced on 3 August 2006 that Wurz would replace Mark Webber as a race driver at Williams for the 2007 season. This was Wurz's first full time race drive since 2000, and his team mate was Nico Rosberg. At the Monaco GP on 27 May 2007, Wurz scored his first points for the Williams F1 team, finishing in 7th place after qualifying 11th. He came 3rd for the 3rd time in his F1 career at the Canadian GP on 10 June 2007, staying out of trouble from 19th on the grid in an action packed race. He actually damaged his rear wing early on in the race, but battled against it and finished on the podium. He nearly repeated this at the European Grand Prix, but just didn't make it past Mark Webber at the final chicane. On October 8 2007, Wurz announced his immediate retirement from Formula One, meaning that the 2007 Chinese Grand Prix was his final race.
On October 8, 2007 the official Formula One website announced that "Williams driver Alexander Wurz has confirmed that he is to retire from Formula One racing with immediate effect". Wurz himself also released a statement saying "I would like to thank my family and fans, everyone at AT&T Williams and my previous teams, as well as the media, for all of their support during my Formula One racing career. I may race again, perhaps in Le Mans or other categories and certainly some of my time will now be committed to the very important subject of road safety." The 33-year old cited doubts over his own commitment as the main reason for his departure despite having a relatively successful season racing with Williams.
He was replaced by Williams test driver Kazuki Nakajima for the final race of the 2007 season in Brazil.
Honda and Peugeot
On the 10th January 2008, it was announced that Wurz had signed as Honda F1 Test driver for the 2008 Formula One Season. Wurz also signed with Peugeot to be part of their driving squad for the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans and he also participated 1000km of Spa in the Le Mans Series. Wurz will also drive the Peugeot 908 at Petit Le Mans in the American Le Mans Series in October.
Personal life
Wurz is married to Julia and has three sons, Charlie, Felix and Oscar (b. September 30, 2007). He used to race with different coloured boots on each foot, but since his return to racing in 2007, he wears matching pairs.Racing record
Career summary
Complete Formula One results
(F1 driver results legend 2) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) 2001 to 2004 : Test driver for Team McLaren, but not a part of the race weekends.References
External links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Sunday October 05, 2008 at 03:00:24 PDT (GMT -0700)
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