Jean-Christophe
Boullion

Jean-Christophe Boullion was born in Saint-Brieuc on 27 December 1969. He took up karting in 1982 and moved into car racing in 1988 after attending a racing school near Paris. In 1989 he finished third in the French Formula Ford 1600 series and won the title there in 1990. In French Formula 3 he was sixth in 1991 and fourth in 1992, with three wins. He entered International Formula 3000 in 1993 and finished eighth for Apomatox. In 1994 he drove for DAMS, won the last three races of the season and took the title narrowly ahead of Franck Lagorce and Gil de Ferran.

In 1995 Boullion was signed as a Williams test driver but was loaned to Sauber, replacing Karl Wendlinger from the Monaco Grand Prix onwards. He started eleven races for the team. At Monaco he was classified eighth, even though he had spun off two laps from the end. In Germany he finished fifth to score his first championship points, and in Italy he was sixth after passing Max Papis on the final lap. His last two races, at the Nürburgring and in the Pacific Grand Prix, ended in retirements. He finished the season 16th in the championship. The Sauber seat for 1996 went to Johnny Herbert. Boullion returned to his testing role at Williams, tested for Jordan at the end of 1996, remained a Williams test driver in 1997 and was a Tyrrell test driver in 1998.

Outside Formula One, he raced in the Renault Spider Eurocup in 1997, finishing fourth with two wins. In 1999 he contested the British Touring Car Championship for Williams in a Renault Laguna, taking one podium at Silverstone and finishing tenth in the standings.

From 2000 he concentrated on prototypes. With Pescarolo Sport he won a round of the FIA Sportscar Championship at Magny-Cours in 2001, and in 2002 he won the opening and final races alongside Sébastien Bourdais. With Emmanuel Collard he took the Le Mans Endurance Series title in 2005 and the Le Mans Series title in 2006, winning all five races that year. In 2005 he finished second overall at Le Mans with Collard and Érik Comas, and third in 2007. He was Le Mans Series runner-up in 2007, and again finished second in 2009 with Christophe Tinseau and in 2011 for Rebellion Racing with Andrea Belicchi. In 2012 he started the opening round of the World Endurance Championship at Sebring, but a crash in practice kept him out of the race at Le Mans.

Source: Wikipedia, “Jean-Christophe Boullion”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.