Bas Leinders

Bas Leinders
Nationality	Belgian
Born	(1975-07-16) 16 July 1975 Bree, Belgium

Bas Leinders (born 16 July 1975) is a retired professional racing driver from Belgium. He was a Formula One test and reserve driver in 2004 for the Minardi F1 team, taking part in the Friday practice sessions during Grand Prix weekends, making 17 appearances in all. He is also a former British Formula Ford and German Formula Three champion, winning the titles in 1995 and 1998 respectively.

Career

Born in Bree, Leinders was one of the most successful Belgian racing drivers of the nineties and the beginning of the 21st century. He started his career in karting, winning his very first race. At the age of 14 he was already a European Champion beating Jarno Trulli, Ralph Firman and others. In 1992 Leinders was an official works driver for the Italian Tony Kart outfit.

Leinders started his automobile career with the Formula Ford. He was not only crowned Benelux Champion but he also obtained the pole position at the prestigious Formula Ford Festival at his first participation, later becoming European and British Formula Ford Champion. Not being able to gather enough money to make the step to Formula Three, Leinders decided on the European Formula Opel Championship (for Van Amersfoort Racing). With a record of 8 wins he secured the Championship several races before the end.

With some more backing he graduated to the German Formula 3 series with VAR. The Belgian finished 2nd in his maiden F3 weekend just behind Nick Heidfeld. In his second year, he won the Championship and was invited by the McLaren Junior team to partner Nick Heidfeld in the last race of the Formula 3000 season. Leinders obtained his best F3000 results in 2001, finishing second twice behind Tomáš Enge and Justin Wilson respectively.

Leinders driving for Minardi during free practice for the 2004 United States Grand Prix

In 2002 and 2003 Leinders competed in the World Series by Nissan, he finished third in the Championship on both occasions. His good performance in this series and especially winning the last race of the season gave him the opportunity to test with the Jordan F1 Team which resulted in a contract with the Minardi F1 Team as an official Friday Test and reserve driver in the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Leinders was pre-selected several times by journalists for the title "Belgian Sportsman of the Year". Leinders was crowned "Champion of Belgium" in 2001 by the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, the award presented by Crown-prince of Belgium, Prince Philippe. The Belgian also won the Golden Helmet in 2004 for his performances in Formula One with the Minardi F1 Team.

From 2005, Leinders was a regular racer in the FIA GT Championship with Belgian Racing, driving a Belgian-built Gillet Vertigo. In 2011 he became the team principal of the rebranded Marc VDS Racing, which was also his last year as full-time driver.

In 2014, he ran the entire season of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series with Marc VDS Racing's Toyota Camry in the Elite 1 category. He finished the season in 14th place in the standings with two Top 5 finishes, one at Brands Hatch and one at Le Mans.

After Marc VDS's victory in the 2015 24 Hours of Spa, Leinders announced he parted ways with the team.

In 2016, Leinders became sporting manager of the McLaren GT factory programme and team manager of Garage 59. In 2018 he joined Optimum Motorsport.

Leinders has also worked as color analyst at Formula One broadcasts on Telenet's Play Sports.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Podiums	Pole positions	F.Laps	Points	Position
1994	European Formula Ford	MB Racing	?	?	?	?	?	13	8th
	Belgian Formula Ford Championship		?	?	?	?	?	?	1st
1995	British Formula Ford Championship	Swift Racing Cars	?	?	?	?	?	127	1st
	European Formula Ford Championship		?	?	?	?	?	55	1st
	Formula Ford Festival		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
1996	European Formula Opel	Van Amersfoort Racing	16	7	10	?	8	239	1st
1997	German Formula Three Championship	Van Amersfoort Racing	18	0	4	2	1	100	7th
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
	Monaco Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	7th
1998	German Formula Three Championship	Van Amersfoort Racing	20	7	10	9	4	200	1st
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	1	N/A	8th
	Belcar	MW-Racing	?	?	?	?	?	212	7th
1999	International F3000	KTR	7	0	0	0	0	1	23rd
2000	International F3000	Kid Jensen Racing	9	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Belgian Procar	MG Racing	7	0	1	1	1	67	9th
	Belcar GTB	Team Beliën	?	?	?	?	?	?	1st
2001	International F3000	KTR	12	0	2	0	0	17	7th
2002	FIA GT Championship	Carsport Holland	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	World Series by Nissan	KTR	18	2	8	2	6	184	3rd
2003	World Series by Nissan	Racing Engineering	18	2	4	2	1	128	3rd
2004	Formula One	Minardi	Test driver
2005	FIA GT Championship	Belgian Racing	5	3	3	3	2	N/A	–
2006	FIA GT Championship - G2	Belgian Racing	9	?	?	?	?	?	1st
2007	FIA GT Championship - G2	Belgian Racing	8	?	?	?	?	?	1st
2008	FIA GT Championship - G2	Belgian Racing	8	5	6	5	0	100	1st
2009	FIA GT Championship - GT1	Marc VDS Racing Team	8	0	0	0	0	9	14th

Career highlights

• 2014 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series – Marc VDS Racing Team
• 2010 FIA GT1 World Championship – Marc VDS Racing Team
• 2009 FIA GT Championship – Ford GT
• 2008 FIA GT Championship – Gillet Vertigo 1st G2
• 2007 FIA GT Championship – Gillet Vertigo 1st G2
• 2006 FIA GT Championship – Gillet Vertigo 1st G2
• 2005 FIA GT Championship – Gillet Vertigo – 3 class wins
• 2004 Formula One World Championship test driver in Minardi-Cosworth F1 Team. Did not participate in races
• 2003 3rd place – Superfund World Series – 2 wins.
• 2003 Winner TA Class 24 hours of Zolder in a BMW M3 GTR
• 2002 24 h of Spa in a Chrysler Viper GTS-R
• 2002 3rd place – Telefónica World Series – 2 wins .
• 2002 4th in 24 hours of Zolder in a BMW Z3
• 2001 Formula 3000 Championship – KTR 2-second places.
• 2000 Formula 3000 Championship – Kid Jensen Racing.
• 1999 Formula 3000 Championship – Witmeur Team KTR .
• 1999 3rd 24 hours of Spa
• 1998 German Formula 3 Champion
• 1998 2nd 24 hours of Zolder
• 1997 7th German Formula 3 Championship
• 1996 European Formula Opel Champion
• 1995 British and European Formula Ford Champion
• 1994 Benelux Formula Ford Champion
• 1992 Vice-European and Belgian Kart Champion
• 1991 Belgian Kart Champion
• 1990 European Kart Champion

Complete German Formula Three results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Engine	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Pts
1997	Van Amersfoort Racing	Opel	A	HOC 1 4	HOC 2 2	NÜR 1 6	NÜR 2 6	SAC 1 3	SAC 2 2	NOR 1 16	NOR 2 Ret	WUN 1 8	WUN 2 Ret	ZWE 1 8	ZWE 2 Ret	SAL 1 6	SAL 2 Ret	LAH 1 4	LAH 2 3	NÜR 1 9	NÜR 2 11			7th	100
1998	Van Amersfoort Racing	Opel	A	HOC 1 1	HOC 2 1	NÜR 1 16	NÜR 2 7	SAC 1 1	SAC 2 1	NOR 1 2	NOR 2 6	LAH 1 7	LAH 2 7	WUN 1 Ret	WUN 2 Ret	ZWE 1 1	ZWE 2 2	SAL 1 14	SAL 2 3	OSC 1 1	OSC 2 1	NÜR 1 2	NÜR 2 Ret	1st	200

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
1998	West Competition	OSC	IMO	CAT	SIL	MON	PAU	A1R	HOC	HUN	SPA	PER	NÜR DNS	NC	0
1999	Witmeur KTR	IMO DNQ	MON DNQ	CAT Ret	MAG 6	SIL 16	A1R Ret	HOC Ret	HUN Ret	SPA DNQ	NÜR Ret			23rd	1
2000	Kid Jensen Racing	IMO 16	SIL Ret	CAT 13	NÜR Ret	MON Ret	MAG 10	A1R 11	HOC DNQ	HUN 7	SPA Ret			NC	0
2001	KTR	INT 10	IMO 9	CAT 2	A1R 2	MON Ret	NÜR 11	MAG Ret	SIL 8	HOC 6	HUN 6	SPA 7	MNZ 4	7th	17

Complete Formula One participations

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	WDC	Points
2004	Wilux Minardi Cosworth	Minardi PS04B	Cosworth V10	AUS *	MAL TD	BHR TD	SMR TD	ESP TD	MON TD	EUR TD	CAN TD	USA TD	FRA TD	GBR TD	GER TD							–	–
	Minardi Cosworth															HUN TD	BEL TD	ITA TD	CHN TD	JPN TD	BRA TD

* Leinders was entered as third driver in Australian Grand Prix but was refused a superlicence until he completed the required mileage in an F1 car. He satisfied this requirement before the next race.

Complete GT1 World Championship results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pos	Points
2010	Marc VDS Racing Team	Ford	ABU QR 6	ABU CR 13	SIL QR 19	SIL CR 8	BRN QR 16	BRN CR Ret	PRI QR 20	PRI CR 4	SPA QR 9	SPA CR Ret	NÜR QR Ret	NÜR CR 11	ALG QR Ret	ALG CR 5	NAV QR 3	NAV CR 5	INT QR 11	INT CR 5	SAN QR 3	SAN CR Ret	14th	54
2011	Marc VDS Racing Team	Ford	ABU QR 11	ABU CR DNS	ZOL QR Ret	ZOL CR 10	ALG QR Ret	ALG CR 10	SAC QR Ret	SAC CR 8	SIL QR 11	SIL CR 6	NAV QR 12	NAV CR 10	PRI QR Ret	PRI CR 12	ORD QR 10	ORD CR 10	BEI QR Ret	BEI CR Ret	SAN QR Ret	SAN CR 9	22nd	18

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2010	Marc VDS Racing Team	Eric De Doncker Markus Palttala	Ford GT1	GT1	26	DNF	DNF
2011	Kronos Racing Marc VDS Racing Team	Vanina Ickx Maxime Martin	Lola-Aston Martin B09/60	LMP1	328	7th	7th
2012	OAK Racing	David Heinemeier Hansson Maxime Martin	Morgan LMP2-Nissan	LMP2	341	14th	7th

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Whelen Euro Series – Elite 1

NASCAR Whelen Euro Series – Elite 1 results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	NWES	Points
2014	Racing Club Partners – Marc VDS	32	Toyota	VAL 13	VAL 18	BRH 9	BRH 5	TOU 21	TOU 7	NUR 19	NUR 19	UMB 21	UMB 21	BUG 21	BUG 5	14th	464

External links

• Official website
• Bas Leinders career summary at DriverDB.com
• Bas Leinders driver statistics at Racing-Reference