The 24 hours of Le Mans 1999. It should be the last race for Thierry Boutsen. In the night, after 173 laps, he was leading the race in his Toyota GT-one. Because of a slower car, he went out at the Dunlop chicane and crashed heavily in the barriers. The GT-one was destroyed and Boutsen was carried to the hospital. A broken spine put him out for months and he had to learn to walk again. So yes, it was his last race. Two years before, he already set up Boutsen Aviation in Monaco and more recently with his son, Boutsen Classic Cars. Together with his sister as team principle, he keeps an eye on the Boutsen VDS racing team. His only driving lately was in the Tour Auto France at the wheel of a Cobra car.
Time to take a look at his career from the start to 1983, his F1 debut.
Thierry Boutsen was educated as a technical engineer. He therefore loved to have an influence on setting up a racing machine. But he also liked the racing itself. He was rather successful before his first race in the F1, but there was always a problem with finding money. His career went in a higher level on his first F1 race in Spa 1983 with Arrows. He had recruited 22 sponsors to make it possible. Unfortunately, a broken suspension ended his home race to soon.
He learned the ropes of racing at the race school of Teddy Pilette and made his racing career start in 1977 with a Hawke F.Ford. In 1978 he had a Crosslé and became champion FFord Benelux with 15 wins out of 18 races. With some help from Marlboro he did F3 with a Ralt in 1979 and could drive for Tico Martini in 1980. In that year, he won 3 races and ended second in the championship behind Michele Alboreto. He promoted to the European F2 with March in 1981, ending again second in the standings. For 1982, he was contacted by the British Spirit team. They would help to promote the Honda engine. Thierry declined an Ken Tyrrell offer and put his hopes on a F1 seat in the honda Project. But… they chose Stefan Johansson in the end. At the wheel of the Spirit 201 he scored three wins and ended third in the European F2 championship. He was active in the 24h Le Mans race with a WM P81. He escaped luckily without an injury from a big crash when his suspension collapsed at full speed.
In 1983, Thierry got further involved in the Endurance sportscar racing. With the Joest Porsche 956 he won the 1000 km Monza (with Bob Wollek), he was third in Silverstone in the Canon Porsche(with Jan Lammers), fourth in Fuji (with Henri Pescarolo). That put him on P06 in the championship.
In 1983 after his Spa debut in F1, his best results at the wheel of the Arrows Ford A6 were a P07 in Detroit and Canada.
Formula 1 from 1984 until 1988
In 1984, Boutsen continued with Arrows in F1 with 3 races in the A6-Ford and the rest of the season in the A7-BMW. He scored a P05 in Austria and in total he had 5 points in the overall standings. He raced with the Skoal Bandit Porsche 956 in the world endurance with a podium finish in the Nürburgring 1000 (David Hobbs) and the Brands Hatch 1000 (Rupert Keegan). He also raced in the Deutsch Rennsport Meistershaft and was third in the championship.
1985 started on a high with a win in the 24 hours of Daytona in the Henn's Swap Shop Racing Porsche 962 together with AJ Foyt and Al Unser sr. He joined the Brun Motorsport team and formed a strong team with Stefan Bellof until the accident at Spa. He raced in 16 GP with the Arrows A8 and scored a P02 in San Marino, a P04 at the Nurburgring and a P06 in the European and the South Africa GP, which put him on P11 in the standings. The finish at Imola is forever famous. Thierry Boutsen was running in third position when his car ran out of fuel right before the finish line. As the rules specify that the car must cross the line, but not how, he simply pushed it across. And with Prost disqualified, he officially became second.
For 1986 he stayed at Arrows. The car lacked development, so four seventh places was the maximum score. In the endurance championship, he stayed with team Brun and the Porsche 962. Together with Frank Jelinski, he won the 1000 km of Spa.
With Gerard Berger off to Ferrari in 1987, he became driver in the Benetton F1 team. With the Benetton B187-Ford, Boutsen scored a P03 in Australia. In total 16 points put him on P08 in the championship. In that year, he also raced in touring cars with the Eggenberger Ford Sierra. He took part in the 24 heures Spa (DNF) and the race in Zolder (P02) with Klaus Ludwig.
Boutsen repeated his 24 hours Spa race in 1988 and became second. That year was also a top year in the Benetton B188-Ford. He scored five podium finishes , in total 27 points and ended fourth in the F1 standings.
Driving for Williams and Ligier
For 1989, Frank Williams and Patrick Head offered him a job to develop the Williams- Renault V10. First with the FW12C and later the FW13. His team partner was Ricardo Patrese. After six races, he had a impressive win in the wet race in Canada in front of Patrese. In Australia he gave again a master driving class in the rain in Australia, scoring his second win. Above that, there were three other podium finishes at the Hungaroring, at Monza and in Japan. A total of 37 points put him on P05 in the championship. The FW 13B with a new Renault RS2 V10 engine was his car for 1990. His best race was for sure the Hungary GP. He started from Pole (his first!), led for 77 laps and held Senna behind him by 0.3 seconds after a dramatic chase that has lasted for the final thirteen laps of the race. Prior to that he had a P02 in England and a P03 in Phoenix.
Williams could get more money with a returning Nigel Mansell in the team after two years at Ferrari, so Boutson was dismissed. He found a place at the French team Ligier. The JS35 had an unreliable Lamborghini V12 engine in the back. A seventh place in San Marino and Monaco were the best results. He hoped for a better year in 1992, when the Ligier team now had Renault engines, but the conventional JS37 was not a great car. His team mate Eric comas scored two P05. And Thierry, his best race was the Australian GP. He started from P22 on the grid and moved up to fifth by the end of the race. He went to look for a racing spot in the Indycar series in the future, but there was no team ready to take him on.
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In 1993, Boutsen found his way back to the endurance racing. The World Sportscar Championship ceased to exist but the cars were permitted to race in the 24 hours of Le Mans. Thierry and his teammates Yannick Dalmas and Teo Fabi ended on the second place in a Peugeot 905C, just one lap behind the winning Peugeot. They had an exhaust problem that made them lose the leading position at one point. And as there were the three Peugeots in the lead, team manager Jean Todt preferred to ensure and quickly froze the positions. He was also drafted in the F1 team of Eddie Jordan, when Ivan Capelli decided to stop racing. The Jordan 193-Hart turned out to be designed for Rubens Barichello, who was 20 cm shorter. So Thierry was very uncomfortable in the car, had difficulties turning the steering wheel. So after ten races, in Spa, he decided that it was enough.
Back to the endurance racing scene
Thierry Boutsen is back at Le Mans in 1994 with the Porsche Dauer together with Hans Stuck and Danny Sullivan. They obtained a third place overall and P02 in the GT1. In the same year, he is active in the ADAC Tourenwagen cup with an Eggenberger Ford Mondeo; he ended tenth in the championship. In 1996, he remained active in the ADAC SuperTourenWagen cup, this time with Ford Mondeo Team Schübel. In 1995 he was driving the Kremer K8 up to P06 in the 24hours Le Mans. In 1996 he was officially a driver in the factory Porsche 911 GT1. In the BPR championship, he won the 4h ours of Spa end the 4 hours Brands Hatch with Hans Stuck. In Le Mans he drove together with Stuck and Bob Wollek. The did a strong race, ended second overall and won the GT1 class. They tried to go for an overall win the next year, ran in the lead for 11 hours, but in the 13th hour of the race they were out after a collision. The team also ran in the FIA-GT championship,with as best result a P03 in Spa.
For 1998 and 1999, Thierry Boutsen kept on driving the Porsche 911 GT1 Evo1 in the American IMSA for the Champion Motors team. With Bob Wollek and Andy Pilgrim, he was third in the 12 hours of Sebring and again third in the Petit LeMans race at road Atlanta.In 1999 he stayed with the team in IMSA en got to P04 in Sebring, again with Bob Wollek (and Dirk Muller). And as a bonus, in 1998 he won the 24 hours of Zolder with Marc Goossens and Patrick Huisman at the wheel of a Porsche 993.
In 1998 he also joined Toyota. His 24 hours race at the wheel of the Toyota GT one went smooth until half an hour before the ending of the race. First the suspension collapsed and then the gearbox. He made it to the pits, finding all his mechanics in tears. And then in 1999, the big accident. When he was leading the race, just before the Dunlop bridge, car 66 of Michel Maisoneuve hits the front of his car, sending him into the barrier. Big accident, a broken spine. He already had decided, during an earlier test at Paul Ricard, that Le Mans would be his final race.
