Bas Leinders

Last updated

Bas Leinders
NationalityFlag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgian
Born (1975-07-16) 16 July 1975 (age 48)
Bree, Belgium
Racing licence FIA Silver Driver.png FIA Silver

Bas Leinders (born 16 July 1975) is a retired professional racing driver from Belgium. He was a Formula One test and reserve driver in 2004 for the Minardi F1 team, taking part in the Friday practice sessions during Grand Prix weekends, making 17 appearances in all. He is also a former British Formula Ford and German Formula Three champion, winning the titles in 1995 and 1998 respectively.

Contents

Career

Born in Bree, Leinders was one of the most successful Belgian racing drivers of the nineties and the beginning of the 21st century. He started his career in karting, winning his very first race. At the age of 14 he was already a European Champion beating Jarno Trulli, Ralph Firman and others. In 1992 Leinders was an official works driver for the Italian Tony Kart outfit.

Leinders started his automobile career with the Formula Ford. He was not only crowned Benelux Champion but he also obtained the pole position at the prestigious Formula Ford Festival at his first participation, later becoming European and British Formula Ford Champion. Not being able to gather enough money to make the step to Formula Three, Leinders decided on the European Formula Opel Championship (for Van Amersfoort Racing). With a record of 8 wins he secured the Championship several races before the end.

With some more backing he graduated to the German Formula 3 series with VAR. The Belgian finished 2nd in his maiden F3 weekend just behind Nick Heidfeld. In his second year, he won the Championship and was invited by the McLaren Junior team to partner Nick Heidfeld in the last race of the Formula 3000 season. Leinders obtained his best F3000 results in 2001, finishing second twice behind Tomáš Enge and Justin Wilson respectively.

Leinders driving for Minardi during free practice for the 2004 United States Grand Prix Minardi usgp 2004.jpg
Leinders driving for Minardi during free practice for the 2004 United States Grand Prix

In 2002 and 2003 Leinders competed in the World Series by Nissan, he finished third in the Championship on both occasions. His good performance in this series and especially winning the last race of the season gave him the opportunity to test with the Jordan F1 Team which resulted in a contract with the Minardi F1 Team as an official Friday Test and reserve driver in the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Leinders was pre-selected several times by journalists for the title "Belgian Sportsman of the Year". Leinders was crowned "Champion of Belgium" in 2001 by the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, the award presented by Crown-prince of Belgium, Prince Philippe. The Belgian also won the Golden Helmet in 2004 for his performances in Formula One with the Minardi F1 Team.

From 2005, Leinders was a regular racer in the FIA GT Championship with Belgian Racing, driving a Belgian-built Gillet Vertigo. In 2011 he became the team principal of the rebranded Marc VDS Racing, which was also his last year as full-time driver.

In 2014, he ran the entire season of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series with Marc VDS Racing's Toyota Camry in the Elite 1 category. He finished the season in 14th place in the standings with two Top 5 finishes, one at Brands Hatch and one at Le Mans.

After Marc VDS's victory in the 2015 24 Hours of Spa, Leinders announced he parted ways with the team. [1]

In 2016, Leinders became sporting manager of the McLaren GT factory programme and team manager of Garage 59. In 2018 he joined Optimum Motorsport.

Leinders has also worked as color analyst at Formula One broadcasts on Telenet's Play Sports.

Racing record

Career summary

SeasonSeriesTeamRacesWinsPodiumsPole positionsF.LapsPointsPosition
1994European Formula FordMB Racing ? ? ? ? ?138th
Belgian Formula Ford Championship ? ? ? ? ? ?1st
1995British Formula Ford Championship Swift Racing Cars  ? ? ? ? ?1271st
European Formula Ford Championship ? ? ? ? ?551st
Formula Ford Festival10000N/ADNF
1996European Formula Opel Van Amersfoort Racing 16710 ?82391st
1997 German Formula Three Championship Van Amersfoort Racing 1804211007th
Masters of Formula 3 10000N/ADNF
Macau Grand Prix 10000N/ADNF
Monaco Grand Prix 10000N/A7th
1998 German Formula Three Championship Van Amersfoort Racing 20710942001st
Masters of Formula 3 10000N/ADNF
Macau Grand Prix 10001N/A8th
Belcar MW-Racing ? ? ? ? ?2127th
1999 International F3000 KTR 70000123rd
2000 International F3000 Kid Jensen Racing900000NC
Belgian ProcarMG Racing70111679th
Belcar GTBTeam Beliën ? ? ? ? ? ?1st
2001 International F3000 KTR 120200177th
2002 FIA GT Championship Carsport Holland100000NC
World Series by Nissan KTR 1828261843rd
2003 World Series by Nissan Racing Engineering 1824211283rd
2004 Formula One Minardi Test driver
2005 FIA GT Championship Belgian Racing 53332N/A
2006 FIA GT Championship - G2 Belgian Racing 9 ? ? ? ? ?1st
2007 FIA GT Championship - G2 Belgian Racing 8 ? ? ? ? ?1st
2008 FIA GT Championship - G2 Belgian Racing 856501001st
2009 FIA GT Championship - GT1 Marc VDS Racing Team 80000914th

Career highlights

Complete German Formula Three results

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

YearEntrantEngineClass1234567891011121314151617181920DCPts
1997 Van Amersfoort Racing Opel A HOC
1

4
HOC
2

2
NÜR
1

6
NÜR
2

6
SAC
1

3
SAC
2

2
NOR
1

16
NOR
2

Ret
WUN
1

8
WUN
2

Ret
ZWE
1

8
ZWE
2

Ret
SAL
1

6
SAL
2

Ret
LAH
1

4
LAH
2

3
NÜR
1

9
NÜR
2

11
7th100
1998 Van Amersfoort Racing Opel A HOC
1

1
HOC
2

1
NÜR
1

16
NÜR
2

7
SAC
1

1
SAC
2

1
NOR
1

2
NOR
2

6
LAH
1

7
LAH
2

7
WUN
1

Ret
WUN
2

Ret
ZWE
1

1
ZWE
2

2
SAL
1

14
SAL
2

3
OSC
1

1
OSC
2

1
NÜR
1

2
NÜR
2

Ret
1st200

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

YearEntrant123456789101112DCPoints
1998 West Competition OSC IMO CAT SIL MON PAU A1R HOC HUN SPA PER NÜR
DNS
NC0
1999 Witmeur KTR IMO
DNQ
MON
DNQ
CAT
Ret
MAG
6
SIL
16
A1R
Ret
HOC
Ret
HUN
Ret
SPA
DNQ
NÜR
Ret
23rd1
2000 Kid Jensen Racing IMO
16
SIL
Ret
CAT
13
NÜR
Ret
MON
Ret
MAG
10
A1R
11
HOC
DNQ
HUN
7
SPA
Ret
NC0
2001 KTR INT
10
IMO
9
CAT
2
A1R
2
MON
Ret
NÜR
11
MAG
Ret
SIL
8
HOC
6
HUN
6
SPA
7
MNZ
4
7th17

Complete Formula One participations

(key)

YearEntrantChassisEngine123456789101112131415161718WDCPoints
2004 Wilux Minardi Cosworth Minardi PS04B Cosworth V10 AUS
*
MAL
TD
BHR
TD
SMR
TD
ESP
TD
MON
TD
EUR
TD
CAN
TD
USA
TD
FRA
TD
GBR
TD
GER
TD
  
Minardi Cosworth HUN
TD
BEL
TD
ITA
TD
CHN
TD
JPN
TD
BRA
TD

* Leinders was entered as Third Driver for Australia '04 but was refused a superlicence until he completed the required mileage in an F1 car. He satisfied this requirement before the next race.

Complete GT1 World Championship results

YearTeamCar1234567891011121314151617181920PosPoints
2010 Marc VDS Racing Team Ford ABU
QR

6
ABU
CR

13
SIL
QR

19
SIL
CR

8
BRN
QR

16
BRN
CR

Ret
PRI
QR

20
PRI
CR

4
SPA
QR

9
SPA
CR

Ret
NÜR
QR

Ret
NÜR
CR

11
ALG
QR

Ret
ALG
CR

5
NAV
QR

3
NAV
CR

5
INT
QR

11
INT
CR

5
SAN
QR

3
SAN
CR

Ret
14th54
2011 Marc VDS Racing Team Ford ABU
QR

11
ABU
CR

DNS
ZOL
QR

Ret
ZOL
CR

10
ALG
QR

Ret
ALG
CR

10
SAC
QR

Ret
SAC
CR

8
SIL
QR

11
SIL
CR

6
NAV
QR

12
NAV
CR

10
PRI
QR

Ret
PRI
CR

12
ORD
QR

10
ORD
CR

10
BEI
QR

Ret
BEI
CR

Ret
SAN
QR

Ret
SAN
CR

9
22nd18

24 Hours of Le Mans results

YearTeamCo-DriversCarClassLapsPos.Class
Pos.
2010 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Marc VDS Racing Team Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Eric De Doncker
Flag of Finland.svg Markus Palttala
Ford GT1GT126DNFDNF
2011 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Kronos Racing
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Marc VDS Racing Team
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Vanina Ickx
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Maxime Martin
Lola-Aston Martin B09/60 LMP13287th7th
2012 Flag of France.svg OAK Racing Flag of Denmark.svg David Heinemeier Hansson
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Maxime Martin
Morgan LMP2-Nissan LMP234114th7th

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Whelen Euro Series – Elite 1

NASCAR Whelen Euro Series – Elite 1 results
YearTeamNo.Make123456789101112NWESPoints
2014 Racing Club Partners – Marc VDS 32 Toyota VAL
13
VAL
18
BRH
9
BRH
5
TOU
21
TOU
7
NUR
19
NUR
19
UMB
21
UMB
21
BUG
21
BUG
5
14th464

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References

  1. Dagys, John (30 July 2015). "Leinders, Marc VDS Part Ways". Sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media, LLC. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
Sporting positions
Preceded by British Formula Ford Champion
1995
Succeeded by
Preceded by German Formula Three Champion
1998
Succeeded by