Björn Wirdheim

Björn Wirdheim
180px Wirdheim in April 2016
Nationality	Swedish
Born	(1980-04-04) 4 April 1980 Växjö, Sweden
Super GT career
Debut season	2006
Current team	Gainer
Car no.	11
Former teams	Team LeMans, Kondo Racing
Starts	77
Wins	3
Poles	1
Fastest laps	5
Best finish	2nd in 2013, 2014
Previous series
1996 1996–97 1998 1998–99 2000–01 2002–03 2003–04 2005 2006 2006–07	Formula Ford Sweden SSK Sweden Formula Ford 1600 Formula Three Nordic Formula Palmer Audi German Formula Three Championship International Formula 3000 Formula One testing Champ Car World Series Camaro Cup Sweden Formula Nippon
Championship titles
1997 2003	Swedish Formula Ford 1600 International Formula 3000

Björn Karl Michael Wirdheim (born 4 April 1980) is a Swedish professional racing driver. He is the son of Örnulf Wirdheim, also a racing driver. Björn began racing karts, competing in his first race, at the age of 10. His main achievement to date is becoming the International Formula 3000 Champion in 2003.

Career

Born in Växjö, Wirdheim began racing karts at age ten, until the age of fifteen, winning the Southern Swedish Karting Championship. In 1996, he progressed to single-seaters in Swedish Formula Ford 1600 Junior Championship where he took the championship title in 1997 with a staggering 17 wins. In 1998 and 1999 he raced in the Formula Palmer Audi Championship, but they were two disappointing seasons with only two visits to the podium in total.

International Formula 3000

File:Bjorn Wirdheim 2003 F3000 Hungary.jpg

Wirdheim driving for Arden at the Hungary round of the 2003 International Formula 3000 season.

In 2000, he switched to the German Formula Three Championship. Then, during 2001 in addition to winning at Nürburgring and A1-Ring, he took three pole positions including one at Macau Grand Prix. For the season of 2002 Wirdheim switched, this time to International Formula 3000, joining Arden International. He finished fourth overall, in addition to being named Rookie of the Year, and helping Arden to win the team title in the championship.

Wirdheim stayed with Arden in the following season of 2003 that would prove successful both for the team and driver. He dominated the championship so much that an obligatory pit stop for tire change was introduced at the end of the season in an attempt to level the advantage, but Arden managed to do better pit-stops overall than other teams and still came out on top. Wirdheim became the first Swede to win the championship in its 19-year history, breaking Justin Wilson's previous record of most points won in one season of the series. Wirdheim's season was marred by an embarrassing incident at Monaco when, driving to an easy win on the streets of Monte Carlo, Wirdheim slowed down to wave at his pit-crew believing he already had taken the checkered flag and thus gave away the win to Nicolas Kiesa, metres away from the actual finish line.

File:Wirdheim Jaguar R5 2004.jpg

Wirdheim as Jaguar's third driver at the 2004 French Grand Prix.

At the end of 2003, the young Swede had been noticed by several Formula One team bosses giving him opportunity to test with both Jordan and BAR. After turning down an offer to drive Champ Car, Wirdheim signed with Jaguar as third-driver performing the Friday-testing for the team at Formula One Grand Prix week-ends during the 2004 season. The team was then bought by Red Bull, effectively ending Wirdheim's chance of remaining with the team, as the soft drinks company had not sponsored him before.

Champ Car

For the 2005 season, Wirdheim turned to the Champ Car World Series to join the HVM racing team. Run by former Pacific F1 team boss Keith Wiggins, the team was underfunded after losing its previous Herdez backing, and a lack of testing made it difficult for the team to be competitive. After mediocre results, Wirdheim and the team decided to part ways after 11 races into the season.

Recent career

Wirdheim has since competed in the Japanese Formula Nippon series. Driving for Team Dandelion, a team with two constructors' championships and one drivers' title, Wirdheim finished 6th in the 2006 championship, with one second place as best and continued with the team in 2007. He has raced in Super GT since 2006, finishing 2nd in the championship in 2013 and 2014. In 2016 he will dovetail his Super GT commitments with a drive for Flash Engineering in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
2002	Arden Team Russia	INT 5	IMO 7	CAT 8	A1R 2	MON Ret	NÜR 6	SIL 6	MAG Ret	HOC 2	HUN 4	SPA Ret	MNZ 1	4th	29
2003	Arden International	IMO 1	CAT 2	A1R 2	MON 2	NÜR 13	MAG 2	SIL 1	HOC 2	HUN 2	MNZ 1			1st	78

Complete Formula One participations

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	WDC	Points
2003	Jordan Ford	Jordan EJ13	Ford V10	AUS	MAL	BRA	SMR	ESP	AUT	MON	CAN	EUR	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	ITA TD	USA TD	JPN			-	-
2004	Jaguar Racing	Jaguar R5	Cosworth V10	AUS TD	MAL TD	BHR TD	SMR TD	ESP TD	MON TD	EUR TD	CAN TD	USA TD	FRA TD	GBR TD	GER TD	HUN TD	BEL TD	ITA TD	CHN TD	JPN TD*	BRA TD	-	-

* did not actually run due to bad weather

Complete Champ Car results

(key)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Rank	Points
2005	HVM Racing	LBH 12	MTY 8	MIL 15	POR 9	CLE 15	TOR 15	EDM 15	SJO 8	DEN 11	MTL 13	LVG 6	SRF	MXC	14th	115

Complete Formula Nippon results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	DC	Points
2006	Dandelion Racing	FUJ 4	SUZ 2	MOT 4	SUZ Ret	AUT 6	FUJ 6	SUG 6	MOT 11	SUZ 9	6th	13.5
2007	Dandelion Racing	FUJ 4	SUZ 13	MOT 11	OKA 11	SUZ 2	FUJ 8	SUG Ret	MOT 7	SUZ 8	9th	17

Complete Super GT results

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	DC	Points
2006	Team LeMans	Lexus SC430	GT500	SUZ	OKA	FUJ	SEP	SUG	SUZ Ret	MOT	AUT	FUJ	23rd	11
2007	Team LeMans	Lexus SC430	GT500	SUZ 4	OKA 14	FUJ 3	SEP 9	SUG DNS	SUZ 9	MOT 3	AUT 8	FUJ 16	9th	38
2008	Team LeMans	Lexus SC430	GT500	SUZ 9	OKA 13	FUJ 6	SEP 8	SUG 7	SUZ 6	MOT 4	AUT 14	FUJ 3	13th	39
2009	Team LeMans	Lexus SC430	GT500	OKA 10	SUZ 4	FUJ 6	SEP 14	SUG 5	SUZ Ret	FUJ 5	AUT 10	MOT 4	12th	35
2010	Team LeMans	Lexus SC430	GT500	SUZ 2	OKA 5	FUJ 3	SEP 4	SUG 3	SUZ 11	FUJ C	MOT 12		4th	51
2011	Kondo Racing	Nissan GT-R	GT500	OKA 9	FUJ 7	SEP 4	SUG 4	SUZ 10	FUJ 11	AUT 5	MOT 12		10th	29
2012	Kondo Racing	Nissan GT-R	GT500	OKA 11	FUJ 14	SEP Ret	SUG 10	SUZ 3	FUJ 13	AUT 4	MOT 11		15th	22
2013	Gainer	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	GT300	OKA 1	FUJ 6	SEP 3	SUG 13	SUZ 6	FUJ 7	FUJ 2	AUT 4	MOT 1	2nd	80
2014	Gainer	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	GT300	OKA 3	FUJ 2	AUT 3	SUG Ret	FUJ 2	SUZ 10	BUR 8	MOT 1		2nd	78
2015	Gainer	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	GT300	OKA 12	FUJ 3	CHA 4	FUJ 3	SUZ 11	SUG 3	AUT Ret	MOT 3		5th	52
2016	Gainer	Mercedes-AMG GT	GT300	OKA 4	FUJ Ret	SUG	FUJ	SUZ	CHA	MOT	MOT		10th*	8*

^* Season still in progress.

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Year	Entrant	Class	Car	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Rank	Points
2013	Greaves Motorsport	LMP2	Zytek Z11SN	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL	SPA	LMS	SÃO 4	COA		SHA 5	BHR 3	17th	18
	GAINER International									FUJ 3

Complete European Le Mans Series results

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	Rank	Points
2015	Greaves Motorsport	LMP2	Gibson 015S	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL 1	IMO 4	RBR 4	LEC 1	EST 2	1st	93

External links

• Official Björn Wirdheim site
• Forix
• Wirdheim racing statistics

Sporting positions
Preceded by Sébastien Bourdais	International Formula 3000 Champion 2003	Succeeded by Vitantonio Liuzzi
Preceded by Oliver Webb Nelson Panciatici Paul-Loup Chatin	European Le Mans Series Champion 2015 with: Jon Lancaster Gary Hirsch	Succeeded by Incumbent