Junior formulae and sportscars After winning the "Volant V" in 1977 at the André Pilette Racing School, Zolder, Boutsen entered the Belgian
Formula Ford 1600 championship and won it in 1978 with 15 victories in 18 races. He also entered the 1978 Spa 24 Hours race, the last auto race on the old 14 km (8.7 mi) Spa-Francorchamps circuit- driving a Toyota Trueno. For 1979, he moved to
Formula 3, winning three races in 1980 and second place in the
European title race, behind
Michele Alboreto. Boutsen's reputation as a reliable, fast driver with good development skills saw Williams sign him on a two-year contract. For 1989, Boutsen drove the new
V10 Renault powered
Williams FW12C. began with Boutsen on the back foot due to a heavy pre-season testing crash in
Rio and because veteran teammate
Riccardo Patrese had a major resurgence in form. However at the
Canadian Grand Prix, Boutsen drove well in wet conditions and took his maiden victory after Senna suffered a late engine failure. Although it was a welcome win (Boutsen became the first new winner in F1 since former Arrows teammate
Gerhard Berger had won the
1986 Mexican Grand Prix for Benetton), it was considered a lucky win for the Belgian as he had been last at one stage and had a full 360° spin, though luckily he managed to keep his car off the walls. He managed to catch and pass Patrese who was suffering with a loose undertray and took the lead 3 laps from the end when the Honda V10 engine in Senna's
McLaren MP4/5 seized. Three more podium finishes came before Boutsen rounded the year off with a second victory at the rain-soaked
Australian Grand Prix. Ironically Boutsen had been one of the drivers protesting about the conditions at the circuit before the race. saw more consistent points scoring drives, including Boutsen's third and final Grand Prix victory - a lights-to-flag victory in
Hungary where he took his first pole position and held off sustained pressure from Alessandro Nannini (Benetton) and Ayrton Senna (McLaren) to win. However, with Nigel Mansell available in 1991, Williams felt they needed a 'star' driver to put together a championship bid. Despite Boutsen winning three races in two years to Patrese's one and finishing every race in 1990 in the points (top-six) barring retirements, the team felt that Patrese had been more consistent (and had worked well with Mansell in 1988) and decided to keep the Italian to drive alongside Mansell.
Ligier at the
1993 British Grand Prix. With no vacancies among the top teams, Boutsen had to drop down to the
Ligier team. Despite having a sizeable budget and
Lamborghini V12 engines, the
JS35 was an uncompetitive car and Boutsen was frequently unable to disguise his disgust with the machinery given to him. The arrival of Renault engines in 1992 improved matters a little and in his
final race for the team he scored fifth place, his first points since leaving Williams.
Jordan Initially, Boutsen was unable to find a drive for 1993, but Barclay secured him a slot at
Jordan, replacing
Ivan Capelli. Boutsen was too tall for the car and largely outpaced by young teammate
Rubens Barrichello, failing to score any points in ten races. With
Eddie Jordan keen to bring in younger, well-sponsored drivers to the seat the decision was taken to turn Boutsen's
home race into a farewell event, though he retired on the first lap. in a
Kremer K8 Spyder Touring cars For 1994, Boutsen was hired by Ford Motorsport to lead their works challenge on the newly created
Super Tourenwagen Cup in Germany. Driving a factory prepared
Ford Mondeo built by
Eggenberger Motorsport, that first season was a learning year for both Boutsen and the team. The following year, Boutsen was joined by his old Williams teammate Riccardo Patrese, but the season was a disaster. Attempting to follow Audi's lead by developing a four-wheel drive car, the Mondeo was totally uncompetitive. Boutsen started in only the first four races in 1996 before leaving the team and turning his attention to sports car racing. After three years of limited success, Ford pulled the plug on the project at the end of that season to focus solely on the
British series.
Sportscars Boutsen then drove sports cars in the US, driving for Champion Racing in a Porsche 911 GT1, alongside
Bill Adam and
Hans Stuck. The trio finished second in class at the
24 Hours of Daytona in 1997, Boutsen won the GT-1 US Championship with the Champion Racing in 1998. After a crash at Le Mans in 1999 at the wheel of a
Toyota GT-One he retired from racing altogether. ==Helmet==