Neel
Jani

Neel Jani was born in Rorschach, Switzerland, on 8 December 1983. He started karting in 1998 and moved up to the Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup in 2001. In 2003 he finished second in the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup with Jenzer, only four points off the title. He switched to DAMS for 2004 and ended the year fourth. In 2005 he raced in the GP2 Series with Racing Engineering and won races at the Hungaroring and Monza. In 2006 he stood in for the injured Nicolas Lapierre at Arden for the Silverstone and Magny-Cours rounds.

In A1 Grand Prix, Jani drove for A1 Team Switzerland. The team finished runner-up in 2005-06, with Jani winning a sprint race in Dubai, and he added a sprint win in Malaysia in 2006-07. In 2007-08 the team won the title with four victories and 168 points, and it was runner-up again in 2008-09. In 2007 Jani raced for PKV Racing in Champ Car and finished ninth with 231 points.

In Formula One he was Toro Rosso's third driver in 2006. He never contested a World Championship race. He tested for Force India in early 2010. In 2023 Audi announced him as a simulator driver to help develop its power unit for the marque's entry into the sport in 2026.

In sports car racing he drove for Rebellion Racing in 2010, and from 2012 he contested the World Endurance Championship with the team. He joined the Porsche works team in 2014 and finished third in the standings that year and again in 2015. In 2016 he won at Silverstone and, in the same year, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, inheriting victory when Kazuki Nakajima's leading Toyota broke down one lap from the end. In Formula E he raced for Faraday Future Dragon Racing in 2017-18 but left after the opening round in Hong Kong. In 2019-20 he drove for Porsche alongside André Lotterer and finished twentieth in the standings.

Source: Wikipedia, “Neel Jani”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.