Jack Christopherson

Jack Christopherson (born 2 January, 1968) is a British Formula 1 driver born in Birmingham, England. He was noted for being a Formula 1 driver with a career beginning in 1991 for the midfield Dallara team where his results attracted attention, especially his 2nd place at his home race at Silverstone, then moving onto Tyrrell, Sauber, Williams and Jordan.

= Formula One =

Dallara (1991)
Christopherson's 1990 F3000 season caught the eye of the Dallara team, especially his dominant win at the Birmingham Superprix, a circuit located just over 3 miles from his home. Dallara signed Christopherson in 1991 to replace Andrea De Cesaris who had recently joined the Jordan team. He would partner Emmanuele Pirro. Because of only 11 teams signing the agreement for the 1991 championship, both Christopherson and Pirro were spared of pre-qualifying. In his first race at Phoenix, he qualified a sensational 3rd only behind the Williams cars of Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese. Unfortunately a bad start and Prost running into him halfway through the race costing him any chance of debut points or an unlikely podium. Despite this, he came home in 11th and impressed on his debut. He repeated his 11th place in Interlagos before going into a small slump before scoring his maiden point at the 1991 Austrian Grand Prix, a late replacement for the Mexican Grand Prix. At the first ever race at Magny-Cours, he repeated this feat. The following race at Silverstone, he once again qualified 3rd, but a poor start cost him. He did however drive solidly to score his first ever podium, with 2nd place to bring his and the team's tally to 8 points. The second half of the season was less successful with many retirements but a sensational drive in Adelaide, capitalising on other driver's misfortunes rewarded him with 4th place and an extra 3 world championship points. He finished the season 10th in the championship with 11 points. Dallara finished 7th out of the 11 teams that took part, as Pirro failed to score despite showing some promise.

1992
Ken Tyrrell was eager to sign Christopherson for 1992 to partner Andrea De Cesaris. The team had finished 5th for the past three seasons and were looking to improve, facing some fierce competition. Initially, things looked bad as Christopherson could only qualify 25th for Kyalami and retired during the race. Things improved slightly in Mexico with 19th in qualifying and reaching the finish with 10th place. However, his season ended very abruptly as he was injured in a horrific crash at Interlagos and was replaced for the rest of the season by Tyrrell test driver Olivier Grouillard.

1993
Almost a year out of a Formula 1 car showed, as Christopherson struggled early on in the season, he was not earning a good reputation at Kyalami. Interlagos was somewhat better as he at least brought the car home. The car seemed to have obvious understeer problems and Christopherson really couldn't extract as much out of the car as he did back at Dallara. Donnington was a considerable step in the right direction for the Brummie, considerably quicker than De Cesaris in qualifying and 7th in the race, just missing out on the points. Monaco was a complete disaster, he failed to set a time due to a crash, and failed to qualify for the first time in his career. Canada was the only other high point of the season. Qualifying an incredible 6th and finishing in the points in 5th. A point for De Cesaris in France suggested an upturn in fortunes for the Tyrrell team, this however was not the case, as the team slipped further down the grid, sometimes being the slowest cars on the grid with the exception of the awfully slow Lola cars. The only other race that showed promise was Hockenheim where Christopherson qualified 9th but threw away any chance of points with an amateurish mistake. He notably finished 8th at Estoril out of 10 finishers. Christopherson rounded off an awful season by causing a 5 car collision at the start of the final round at Adelaide. He caused Andrea De Cesaris, Philippe Alliot, Mika Hakkinen and Michele Alboreto to retire. An awful season finally over for the Englishman.

1994
Christopherson once again remained with Tyrrell for 1994, believing that he could not attract a better team at this point in time. Mark Blundell joined the team from Ligier after a succesful 1993 season. Initially, the two drivers were very evenly matched and the new car proved to be competitive, if unreliable. The two drivers constantly qualified in the top half, despite race results initially not coming. In the fourth round at Monaco, Christopherson scored his first ever pole position in treacherous conditions when a switch to monsoon tyres, with aggressive driving paid off, unfortunately a coming together with Gerhard Berger put pay to any chance of victory or a podium. He however did not finish any of the first 4 rounds. He finally saw the chequered flag at Barcelona, albeit last, whilst Blundell took 2nd position. Engine problems robbed Christopherson of points at both Montreal and Magny Cours, the former whilst in 4th place and a retirement in front of him meant a potential podium. It took until Hockenheim in the second half of the season for Christopherson to score his first point, after Hakkinen retired whilst running in 6th. Tyrrell were even more competitive at Hungary, with Christopherson and Blundell taking 3rd and 5th on the grid respectively, with the latter taking 2nd place. Christopherson retired after crashing due to over-eagerness. Christopherson has been assured of remaining with the team for the rest of the season but is looking elsewhere for 1995. He confirmed towards the end of the season that he had been in talks with Jordan, Footwork and Sauber for a 1995 race seat and originally McLaren, although they went with his teammate Mark Blundell. The Belgian Grand Prix gave Christopherson more points, a 4th place finish, just ahead of his McLaren-bound teammate Blundell. Unfortunately for the Brummie, the end of his season was fairly disappointing, finishing 2 out of the 5 races. Two first lap retirements in Estoril and Adelaide, Estoril being because of Pierluigi Martini. He also retired early on in Jerez thanks to reliability issues whilst running in 6th place, and claimed he could have scored a podium. He finished 17th in the championship with 4 points.

Sauber (1995)
Jack Christopherson has stated in a press conference that he will be driving for the Sauber Formula One team in 1995, alongside Austrian driver Karl Wendlinger. He replaced the outgoing Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who attracted Williams, and was made their test driver. His first weekend as a Sauber driver was a success, qualifying 9th at Interlagos and finishing 6th to score a point, although he could well have finished 4th were it not for a mistake and a spin whilst trying to pass Johnny Herbert around the outside. Another great drive followed in Argentina where he started 20th and finished 8th after passing both Jordans on the last lap. At the modified Imola Circuit for the San Marino Grand Prix, he was running in 8th late in the race before a Mika Hakkinen puncture, which moved him up to 7th. He moved up to 6th after a do or die move on Mark Blundell at the final chicane. Spain and Monaco once again proved not to be happy hunting grounds for the Englishman, although the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal brought him his first podium finish since the 1991 British Grand Prix from 13th on the grid. Another point followed with a solid 6th place finish in Magny Cours for the French Grand Prix. He retired very early on from his home race at Silverstone, ruining any chance of repeating, or even bettering his glory 4 years prior. Another 6th place finish followed at Hockenheim, although he was rather dissappointed with his race, thinking he could have done better. He reached a double figure points tally for the second time in his career, with a 5th place finish at Spa-Francorchamps. On the Tuesday before the Italian Grand Prix, he signed a contract to drive for Williams in 1996, alongside Damon Hill. Towards the end of the season, his performances dipped slightly, although this can be seen more as Frentzen establishing himself as a permanent fixture on the grid, scoring points regularly at the end of the season. In the last 5 races, Christopherson only managed to score points once, with a fine 5th place finish at the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. Reliability problems robbed him of potential points at Suzuka whilst a questionable overtake on Johnny Herbert at Adelaide ended his season on a low. Nevertheless, he finished a career-high 7th in the Drivers Championship with a career best 12 points. Frentzen's 9 points put Sauber's tally up to 21 points, enough to clinch 4th place in the Constructors Championship.

1996
Christopherson's first race for Williams at the Australian Grand Prix at the new Melbourne circuit ended after one corner thanks to a collision with Mika Hakkinen. He had qualified 5th for the race, new teammate Damon Hill qualified and finished 2nd, fortunately better luck came his way at Brazil, where he scored pole position, and looked like he would take his first ever win, going unchallenged after Schumacher's retirement, although braking too late at the pit exit meant he had to make an extra pitstop, dropping to 3rd. Argentina came, and his bad qualifying meant that he could only finish 4th. He once again picked up pole at the Nurburgring for the European Grand Prix, although bad tyre choice by everyone on a damp track meant that he, along with several other drivers retired. However, the following race at Imola, luck finally shined on the Brummie, as after starting second, he passed Michael Schumacher at Tosa on lap 5, and remained in first place for the rest of the grand prix, to take his first Formula 1 victory, and to him a chance of fighting for the championship. His season continued it's upturn with an emphatic win at Monaco, where only five drivers went the distance, none of the others being from one of the top 6 teams. This win gave Christopherson the lead in the World Championship for the first time in his career. A podium followed at the Spanish Grand Prix at another one of his weakest circuits, where he qualified on the front row, but made a mistake at the start to drop to 10th, and he fought back for 3rd, thanks to a collision between Schumacher and Hill. This extended his championship lead to 5 points. Another pole position followed at the Canadian Grand Prix, but the race started damp and he left it too late to change to slicks. Whilst trying to redeem himself, he pushed too hard and ended up in the Wall of champions. The same conditions followed in France, although Christopherson managed to bring the car home in 4th, unable to pass the Ligier of Panis, with Damon Hill winning. He finally won from pole at the British Grand Prix, with a dominant drive at Silverstone, where he led the entire race, a race he cites as his greatest victory to date. It also regave him the championship lead. Pole at the German Grand Prix amounted to nothing, after a dreadful start, where he caused a collision with Eddie Irvine. A couple more bad races could have put him out of contention, but a dominant drive at the Italian Grand Prix put him a single point ahead of Schumacher at the top of the Drivers Championship with just 2 races to go. The Portuguese Grand Prix was a disaster, as he failed to finish, only still having a chance of winning the championship because of Alesi beating Schumacher to the flag. At Suzuka, he needed to score 6 points more than Schumacher, or in other words, win without Schumacher finishing 2nd. He led the Japanese Grand Prix from pole to flag, although it wasn't enough, as Schumacher finished 2nd. Christopherson missed out on the championship by 1 point, finishing 2nd with 66 points and 5 victories to his name.

1997
For 1997, Jack Christopherson remained at Williams, once again teaming with Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Damon Hill moved to Arrows. Christopherson started 1997 in the strongest way possible, winning the Australian Grand Prix from pole in dominant fashion. The Brazilian Grand Prix was won by teammate Frentzen, with Christopherson finishing 2nd. A retirement at Argentina seemed to slow things down after a crash in qualifying, with a poor race. At San Marino, things got back on track, as he took his second win at Imola, his first repeat victory in Formula One. He survived the attrition yet again at Monaco, to win for a second time at the Principality. He won despite a poor effort in qualifying, where there were only 18 starters, and 9 finishers. The Spanish Grand Prix should have been his for the taking, but after a poor start from pole where he let Schumacher take the lead and race off into the distance, the Brummie had to settle for second place, although he extended his championship lead by six points, as nearest challenger Frentzen failed to finish. Two victories in the next three races, along with a fourth place in France helped him progress further towards the championship. In both victories, he also took pole position and fastest lap. In round 10 at Hockenheim, he was beaten in a straight fight with Michael Schumacher, the Ferrari engine being more powerful than the Renault one. The Hungarian Grand Prix followed, and it was only his second retirement of the season. After that, Christopherson won the next three races in succession, the Belgian Grand Prix at the challenging Spa-Francorchamps circuit, the Italian Grand Prix at the high speed Monza circuit, and finally clinching the championship at the A1 Ring in Austria, the circuit where he scored his first ever point. He only needed 5th place at Austria, and that was only if his teammate Frentzen was to win the race, as he was the only other driver in contention at the time. His first Grand Prix after clinching the championship wasn't a great race, he retired from 3rd place at the Nurburgring, but bouncing back at Suzuka finishing 2nd, just under 13 seconds behind Gerhard Berger, who was competing in his penultimate race. The final round at Jerez was low-key for the Englishman, as he finished 6th after qualifying a lowly 15th in the wet qualifying session. He finished the season on 108 points.

1998
Christopherson fancied a new challenge, and signed a 2 year contract just after the Austrian Grand Prix where he clinched the championship, with an option of a 3rd year. The Englishman partnered promising German driver Ralf Schumacher, and replaced the outgoing Giancarlo Fisichella who moved to Benetton. 1999. In his first Grand Prix for the Jordan team, he qualified a commendable 5th, and finished in 4th place, less than 10 seconds behind race winner Michael Schumacher, and around 5 seconds behind McLaren duo Coulthard and Hakkinen. He qualified 4th in Brazil, but only lasted 19 laps on a drying Interlagos track, spinning off at the end of the back straight. The South American leg of the 1998 championship was a disaster, after qualifying a disappointing 15th at the Argentine Grand Prix, he crashed into Eddie Irvine's Ferrari after trying what was described as an overly ambitious move. Back in Europe, and Christopherson's fortunes improved, finishing an excellent second at Imola in a race where only eight drivers finished, although the top 6 all qualified in the top half of the grid. The Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona brought only one point, as he lacked mid-race pace and described it as a missed opportunity. The point brought his tally up to 10. After qualifying 11th at Monaco, his race only lasted one-third distance, after losing 4th gear and retiring by driving down an escape road. Christopherson returned to the rostrum at Canada, finishing 3rd, although only seven drivers reaching the end of the race. At Magny-Cours, he achieved his best qualifying of the season up to that point, qualifying 3rd. A bad start meant he lost out to Villeneuve and Alesi at the start, and the rain was on and off, with a bad first pitstop to change to intermediate tyred costing him dearly. During that race, he pulled off what he described as 'The best pass he's done in my career', passing Alexander Wurz when trying to lap Jan Magnussen. Christopherson and Wurz going either side of Magnussen. His race ended with just under 20 laps to go, as he spun at the Nurburgring chicane when driving over a part of the track that was still wet, whilst on dry tyres. The race was eventually won by Olivier Panis, who didn't change tyres when the rain fell the second time, he was initially outqualified by Takagi in the underperforming Tyrrell. At the halfway point of the season, he was 6th in the championship on 14 points. An anonymous weekend followed at Silverstone, where Christopherson salvaged a point whilst passing teammate Ralf Schumacher for 6th place with 13 laps to go, although that point moved him above Fisichella in the standings. A superb win from pole position followed at the A1 Ring, where Christopherson won a second consecutive Austrian Grand Prix, after fending off a late challenge from Michael Schumacher. Another points finish followed at Hockenheim with 6th, followed by a late season dip in form, with only one finish from the final 5 races, that being 4th at Monza. A podium could have been a possibility at Suzuka, as he was running in 4th, and Coulthard who was in 2nd at the time retired later on. However, Ricardo Rosset cut across him whilst being lapped, and cost him his front wing. Christopherson retired later on in the race with an engine failure, drawing 1998 to a close. He finished 4th in the Championship with 29 points, whilst Jordan finished 3rd with 47 points.

1999
Christopherson along with Ralf Schumacher was retained at Jordan for 1999, the team very optimistic for the season ahead, after impressive results in 1998. Initially, things looked good, as Christopherson qualified 4th and finished 3rd at Melbourne, ahead of teammate Ralf Schumacher in 4th, making everyone take notice of the Jordan team. Brazil was poor, as he misread the mixed conditions and qualified last and only made it onto the grid because of the 107% rule not applying in wet conditions. He moved steadily up the grid until a careless mistake cost him any chance of points. However, the Englishman went from zero to hero as the teams moved to Imola, taking pole position and winning the race after a cracking battle with Schumacher and Hakkinen before the latter's retirement from the race. The 10 points moved him up to 2nd in the championship with 14 points. The next three races gave him no points whatsoever, as he failed to finish a single one of them, he was on for at least 4th place at Canada with less than 20 laps to go before a crash, the slump in form dropped him a few places in the championship. He looked like he was heading back on track at Magny Cours, qualifying 8th in the wet and taking advantage of incidents ahead to finish 2nd behind David Coulthard.

= F1RWRS =

Jones Racing (2013-2015)
After many years on the racing sidelines, Christopherson was signed on as a guest driver for Jones Racing to participate in the Budweiser 500, run by another former F1 driver in the form of Sammy Jones. Christopherson wasn't in contention for a full time drive at Jones Racing next year as the team has just completed a deal with Daniel Melrose. Despite that Christopherson did well against competitors that were many years younger than himself and having never drove the car before. Christopherson qualified 11th on the grid for the race before a fantastic drive on race day meant he became the first winner of the Dan Wheldon Memorial trophy after leading the last 50 laps when the Foxdale cars hit problems.

Foxdale (2014)
The win immediately put the Brit on the map for several drives up and down the grid despite facing the potential of being the oldest driver on the grid with the retirement of Chris Dagnall. While Jones Racing had a test contract with Christopherson for 2014, he was free to drive for another team for the foreseeable future unless Jones took out his option on him for 2014. After much debate, Christopherson eventually signed on for Foxdale, the very team he beat for the Bud 500 win a few months before. Foxdale entered the season as one of the championship favourites with a new Renault engine replacing the old Hart engine which game the team so many problems in 2013. However it soon became evident that the car, whilst more reliable, was nowhere near the blistering pace being set by DGNgineering and MRT up front. As a result Christopherson struggled for pace, suffering numerous mechanical failures, and only finished one race before being fired by Foxdale mid-way through the year, following the British Grand Prix. His only race finish was ninth in Mexico.

Christopherson returned to his role as Jones Racing's test driver, and was credited by Jones himself for helping drive development forward on the CJR-103 car as the team finished fifth overall in the championship. Once again he featured in the non-championship races in the off-season and led a Jones 1-2-3 at the Bud 800 race, securing himself the Dan Wheldon Trophy for the second year in succession. Christopherson stayed on at Jones for 2015, once again assuming his test and development role, albeit replaced by Terry Hawkin as offical reserve driver.

= Complete Formula One Grand Prix results =


 * *Season in Progress

= Complete F1RWRS Results =