Jerome d'Ambrosio Formula 1 driver biography

Belgian driver Jerome d’Ambrosio joined Virgin’s race team for 2011 after driving for them in several practice sessions at the end of 2010.

D’Ambrosio's route to F1

D’Ambrosio made his way to F1 through Renault’s driver development programme having made his start in circuit racing with Renault. He won the Belgian Formula Renault 1600 championship in 2003.

After a season in the F3000 Euroseries, d’Ambrosio won the inaugural running of the Formula Master championship in 2007.

That led him to GP2 and GP2 Asia where he spent three seasons driving for DAMS. After finishing 11th and ninth overall in his first two seasons he scored his first win in the sprint race at Monaco in 2010.

He was later substituted for Romain Grosjean (like d’Ambrosio, another driver from the Gravity Sports Management roster) at the German round but returned to complete the season.

He also made four appearances in Friday F1 practice sessions for Virgin. He also appeared for the team and for Renault in the post-season young drivers’ test, which secured his promotion to Virgin’s race team for 2011.

Jerome D’Ambrosio's F1 career

Virgin

With a disastrously uncompetitive car and a much more experienced team mate in Timo Glock, D’Ambrosio faced a struggle to impress in his first F1 season.

He occasionally out-qualified Glock but tended to finish behind his team mate. Worse, during the Hungarian Grand Prix he spun his car in a damp pit lane, fortunately without hitting anyone.

He showed signs of progress late in the year, particularly in Japan and Brazil. But he was dropped within a few hours of the chequered flag falling on the final race, Charles Pic taking his place for 2012.

Lotus

D’Ambrosio joined Lotus as the team’s third driver for 2012. When Grosjean was banned from racing in the Italian Grand Prix, D’Ambrosio was given his seat for the race.

Formula E

After Formula 1, D’Ambrosio spent six seasons racing in Formula E with Dragon and Mahindra, winning a three races. He later took a role at Mercedes, working on its junior driver programme, then moved to Ferrari in 2024.