Jack Christopherson

Jack Christopherson (born January 2, 1968) is a British Formula 1 driver born in Birmingham, England. He was noted for being a Formula 1 driver with a career beginning in 1991 for the midfield Dallara team where his results attracted attention, especially his 2nd place at his home race at Silverstone, then moving onto Tyrrell, Sauber, Williams, Jordan and Arrows.

Formula One

Dallara (1991)

Christopherson's 1990 F3000 season caught the eye of the Dallara team, especially his dominant win at the Birmingham Superprix, a circuit located just over 3 miles from his home. Dallara signed Christopherson in 1991 to replace Andrea De Cesaris who had recently joined the Jordan team. He would partner Emmanuele Pirro. Because of only 11 teams signing the agreement for the 1991 championship, both Christopherson and Pirro were spared of pre-qualifying. In his first race at Phoenix, he qualified a sensational 3rd only behind the Williams cars of Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese. Unfortunately a bad start and Prost running into him halfway through the race cost him potential debut points, despite this, he came home in 11th and impressed on his debut. He repeated his 11th place in Interlagos before going into a small slump before scoring his maiden point at the 1991 Austrian Grand Prix, a late replacement for the Mexican Grand Prix. At the first ever race at Magny-Cours, he repeated this feat. The following race at Silverstone, he once again qualified 3rd, but a poor start cost him. He did however drive solidly to score his first ever podium, with 2nd place to bring his and the team's tally to 8 points. The second half of the season was less successful with many retirements but a sensational drive in Adelaide, capitalising on other driver's misfortunes rewarded him with 4th place and an extra 3 world championship points. He finished the season 10th in the championship with 11 points. Dallara finished 7th out of the 11 teams that took part, as Pirro failed to score.

Tyrrell (1992-1994)

1992

Ken Tyrrell was eager to sign Christopherson for 1992 to partner Andrea De Cesaris. The team had finished 5th for the past three seasons and were looking to improve, facing some fierce competition. Initially, things looked bad as Christopherson could only qualify 25th for Kyalami and retired during the race. Things improved slightly in Mexico with 19th in qualifying and reaching the finish with 10th place. However, his season ended very abruptly as he was injured in a horrific crash at Interlagos and was replaced for the rest of the season by Tyrrell test driver Olivier Grouillard.

1993

Almost a year out of a Formula 1 car showed, as Christopherson struggled early on in the season, he was not earning a good reputation at Kyalami. Interlagos was somewhat better as he at least brought the car home. The car seemed to have obvious understeer problems and Christopherson really couldn't extract as much out of the car as he did back at Dallara. Donnington was a considerable step in the right direction for the Brummie, considerably quicker than De Cesaris in qualifying and 7th in the race, just missing out on the points. Monaco was a complete disaster, he failed to set a time due to a crash, and failed to qualify for the first time in his career. Canada was the only other high point of the season. Qualifying an incredible 6th and finishing in the points in 5th. A point for De Cesaris in France suggested an upturn in fortunes for the Tyrrell team, this however was not the case, as the team slipped further down the grid, sometimes being the slowest cars on the grid with the exception of the awfully slow Lola cars. The only other race that showed promise was Hockenheim where Christopherson qualified 9th but threw away any chance of points with an amateurish mistake. He notably finished 8th at Estoril out of 10 finishers. Christopherson rounded off an awful season by causing a 5 car collision at the start of the final round at Adelaide. He caused Andrea De Cesaris, Philippe Alliot, Mika Hakkinen and Michele Alboreto to retire. An awful season finally over for the Englishman.

1994

Christopherson once again remained with Tyrrell for 1994, believing that he could not attract a better team at this point in time. Mark Blundell joined the team from Ligier after a succesful 1993 season. Initially, the two drivers were very evenly matched and the new car proved to be competitive, if unreliable. The two drivers constantly qualified in the top half, despite race results initially not coming. In the fourth round at Monaco, Christopherson scored his first ever pole position in treacherous conditions when a switch to monsoon tyres, with aggressive driving paid off, unfortunately a coming together with Gerhard Berger put pay to any chance of victory or a podium. He however did not finish any of the first 4 rounds. He finally saw the chequered flag at Barcelona, albeit last, whilst Blundell took 2nd position. Engine problems robbed Christopherson of points at both Montreal and Magny Cours, the former whilst in 4th place and a retirement in front of him meant a potential podium. It took until Hockenheim in the second half of the season for Christopherson to score his first point, after Hakkinen retired whilst running in 6th. Tyrrell were even more competitive at Hungary, with Christopherson and Blundell taking 3rd and 5th on the grid respectively, with the latter taking 2nd place. Christopherson retired after crashing due to over-eagerness. Christopherson has been assured of remaining with the team for the rest of the season but is looking elsewhere for 1995. He confirmed towards the end of the season that he had been in talks with Jordan, Footwork and Sauber for a 1995 race seat and originally McLaren, although they went with his teammate Mark Blundell. The Belgian Grand Prix gave Christopherson more points, a 4th place finish, just ahead of his McLaren-bound teammate Blundell. Unfortunately for the Brummie, the end of his season was fairly disappointing, finishing 2 out of the 5 races. Two first lap retirements in Estoril and Adelaide, Estoril being because of Pierluigi Martini. He also retired early on in Jerez thanks to reliability issues whilst running in 6th place, and claimed he could have scored a podium. He finished 17th in the championship with 4 points.

Sauber (1995)

Jack Christopherson has stated in a press conference that he will be driving for the Sauber Formula One team in 1995, alongside Austrian driver Karl Wendlinger. He replaced the outgoing Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who attracted Williams, and was made their test driver. His first weekend as a Sauber driver was a success, qualifying 9th at Interlagos and finishing 6th to score a point, although he could well have finished 4th were it not for a mistake and a spin whilst trying to pass Johnny Herbert around the outside. Another great drive followed in Argentina where he started 20th and finished 8th after passing both Jordans on the last lap. At the modified Imola Circuit for the San Marino Grand Prix, he was running in 8th late in the race before a Mika Hakkinen puncture, which moved him up to 7th. He moved up to 6th after a do or die move on Mark Blundell at the final chicane. Spain and Monaco once again proved not to be happy hunting grounds for the Englishman, although the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal brought him his first podium finish since the 1991 British Grand Prix from 13th on the grid. Another point followed with a solid 6th place finish in Magny Cours for the French Grand Prix. He retired very early on from his home race at Silverstone, ruining any chance of repeating, or even bettering his glory 4 years prior. Another 6th place finish followed at Hockenheim, although he was rather dissappointed with his race, thinking he could have done better. He reached a double figure points tally for the second time in his career, with a 5th place finish at Spa-Francorchamps. On the Tuesday before the Italian Grand Prix, he signed a contract to drive for Williams in 1996, alongside Damon Hill. Towards the end of the season, his performances dipped slightly, although this can be seen more as Frentzen establishing himself as a permanent fixture on the grid, scoring points regularly at the end of the season. In the last 5 races, Christopherson only managed to score points once, with a fine 5th place finish at the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. Reliability problems robbed him of potential points at Suzuka whilst a questionable overtake on Johnny Herbert at Adelaide ended his season on a low. Nevertheless, he finished a career-high 7th in the Drivers Championship with a career best 12 points. Frentzen's 9 points put Sauber's tally up to 21 points, enough to clinch 4th place in the Constructors Championship.

Williams (1996-1997)

1996

Christopherson's first race for Williams at the Australian Grand Prix at the new Melbourne circuit ended after one corner thanks to a collision with Mika Hakkinen. He had qualified 5th for the race, new teammate Damon Hill qualified and finished 2nd, fortunately better luck came his way at Brazil, where he scored pole position, and looked like he would take his first ever win, going unchallenged after Schumacher's retirement, although braking too late at the pit exit meant he had to make an extra pitstop, dropping to 3rd. Argentina came, and his bad qualifying meant that he could only finish 4th. He once again picked up pole at the Nurburgring for the European Grand Prix, although bad tyre choice by everyone on a damp track meant that he, along with several other drivers retired. However, the following race at Imola, luck finally shined on the Brummie, as after starting second, he passed Michael Schumacher at Tosa on lap 5, and remained in first place for the rest of the grand prix, to take his first Formula 1 victory, and to him a chance of fighting for the championship. His season continued it's upturn with an emphatic win at Monaco, where only five drivers went the distance, none of the others being from one of the top 6 teams. This win gave Christopherson the lead in the World Championship for the first time in his career. A podium followed at the Spanish Grand Prix at another one of his weakest circuits, where he qualified on the front row, but made a mistake at the start to drop to 10th, and he fought back for 3rd, thanks to a collision between Schumacher and Hill. This extended his championship lead to 5 points. Another pole position followed at the Canadian Grand Prix, but the race started damp and he left it too late to change to slicks. Whilst trying to redeem himself, he pushed too hard and ended up in the Wall of champions. The same conditions followed in France, although Christopherson managed to bring the car home in 4th, unable to pass the Ligier of Panis, with Damon Hill winning. He finally won from pole at the British Grand Prix, with a dominant drive at Silverstone, where he led the entire race, a race he cites as his greatest victory to date. It also regave him the championship lead. Pole at the German Grand Prix amounted to nothing, after a dreadful start, where he caused a collision with Eddie Irvine. A couple more bad races could have put him out of contention, but a dominant drive at the Italian Grand Prix put him a single point ahead of Schumacher at the top of the Drivers Championship with just 2 races to go. The Portuguese Grand Prix was a disaster, as he failed to finish, only still having a chance of winning the championship because of Alesi beating Schumacher to the flag. At Suzuka, he needed to score 6 points more than Schumacher, or in other words, win without Schumacher finishing 2nd. He led the Japanese Grand Prix from pole to flag, although it wasn't enough, as Schumacher finished 2nd. Christopherson missed out on the championship by 1 point, finishing 2nd with 66 points and 5 victories to his name.

1997

For 1997, Jack Christopherson remained at Williams, once again teaming with Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Damon Hill moved to Arrows. Christopherson started 1997 in the strongest way possible, winning the Australian Grand Prix from pole in dominant fashion. The Brazilian Grand Prix was won by teammate Frentzen, with Christopherson finishing 2nd. A retirement at Argentina seemed to slow things down after a crash in qualifying, with a poor race. At San Marino, things got back on track, as he took his second win at Imola, his first repeat victory in Formula One. He survived the attrition yet again at Monaco, to win for a second time at the Principality. He won despite a poor effort in qualifying, where there were only 18 starters, and 9 finishers. The Spanish Grand Prix should have been his for the taking, but after a poor start from pole where he let Schumacher take the lead and race off into the distance, the Brummie had to settle for second place, although he extended his championship lead by six points, as nearest challenger Frentzen failed to finish. Two victories in the next three races, along with a fourth place in France helped him progress further towards the championship. In both victories, he also took pole position and fastest lap. In round 10 at Hockenheim, he was beaten in a straight fight with Michael Schumacher, the Ferrari engine being more powerful than the Renault one. The Hungarian Grand Prix followed, and it was only his second retirement of the season. After that, Christopherson won the next three races in succession, the Belgian Grand Prix at the challenging Spa-Francorchamps circuit, the Italian Grand Prix at the high speed Monza circuit, and finally clinching the championship at the A1 Ring in Austria, the circuit where he scored his first ever point. He only needed 5th place at Austria, and that was only if his teammate Frentzen was to win the race, as he was the only other driver in contention at the time. His first Grand Prix after clinching the championship wasn't a great race, he retired from 3rd place at the Nurburgring, but bouncing back at Suzuka finishing 2nd, just under 13 seconds behind Gerhard Berger, who was competing in his penultimate race. The final round at Jerez was low-key for the Englishman, as he finished 6th after qualifying a lowly 15th in the wet qualifying session. He finished the season on 108 points.

Jordan (1998-2000)

1998

Christopherson fancied a new challenge, and signed a 2 year contract just after the Austrian Grand Prix where he clinched the championship, with an option of a 3rd year. The Englishman partnered promising German driver Ralf Schumacher, and replaced the outgoing Giancarlo Fisichella who moved to Benetton. 1999. In his first Grand Prix for the Jordan team, he qualified a commendable 5th, and finished in 4th place, less than 10 seconds behind race winner Michael Schumacher, and around 5 seconds behind McLaren duo Coulthard and Hakkinen. He qualified 4th in Brazil, but only lasted 19 laps on a drying Interlagos track, spinning off at the end of the back straight. The South American leg of the 1998 championship was a disaster, after qualifying a disappointing 15th at the Argentine Grand Prix, he crashed into Eddie Irvine's Ferrari after trying what was described as an overly ambitious move. Back in Europe, and Christopherson's fortunes improved, finishing an excellent second at Imola in a race where only eight drivers finished, although the top 6 all qualified in the top half of the grid. The Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona brought only one point, as he lacked mid-race pace and described it as a missed opportunity. The point brought his tally up to 10. After qualifying 11th at Monaco, his race only lasted one-third distance, after losing 4th gear and retiring by driving down an escape road. Christopherson returned to the rostrum at Canada, finishing 3rd, although only seven drivers reaching the end of the race. At Magny-Cours, he achieved his best qualifying of the season up to that point, qualifying 3rd. A bad start meant he lost out to Villeneuve and Alesi at the start, and the rain was on and off, with a bad first pitstop to change to intermediate tyred costing him dearly. During that race, he pulled off what he described as 'The best pass he's done in my career', passing Alexander Wurz when trying to lap Jan Magnussen. Christopherson and Wurz going either side of Magnussen. His race ended with just under 20 laps to go, as he spun at the Nurburgring chicane when driving over a part of the track that was still wet, whilst on dry tyres. The race was eventually won by Olivier Panis, who didn't change tyres when the rain fell the second time, he was initially outqualified by Takagi in the underperforming Tyrrell. At the halfway point of the season, he was 6th in the championship on 14 points. An anonymous weekend followed at Silverstone, where Christopherson salvaged a point whilst passing teammate Ralf Schumacher for 6th place with 13 laps to go, although that point moved him above Fisichella in the standings. A superb win from pole position followed at the A1 Ring, where Christopherson won a second consecutive Austrian Grand Prix, after fending off a late challenge from Michael Schumacher. Another points finish followed at Hockenheim with 6th, followed by a late season dip in form, with only one finish from the final 5 races, that being 4th at Monza. A podium could have been a possibility at Suzuka, as he was running in 4th, and Coulthard who was in 2nd at the time retired later on. However, Ricardo Rosset cut across him whilst being lapped, and cost him his front wing. Christopherson retired later on in the race with an engine failure, drawing 1998 to a close. He finished 4th in the Championship with 29 points, whilst Jordan finished 3rd with 47 points.

1999

Christopherson along with Ralf Schumacher was retained at Jordan for 1999, the team very optimistic for the season ahead, after impressive results in 1998. Initially, things looked good, as Christopherson qualified 4th and finished 3rd at Melbourne, ahead of teammate Ralf Schumacher in 4th, making everyone take notice of the Jordan team. Brazil was poor, as he misread the mixed conditions and qualified last and only made it onto the grid because of the 107% rule not applying in wet conditions. He moved steadily up the grid until a careless mistake cost him any chance of points. However, the Englishman went from zero to hero as the teams moved to Imola, taking pole position and winning the race after a cracking battle with Schumacher and Hakkinen before the latter's retirement from the race. The 10 points moved him up to 2nd in the championship with 14 points. The next three races gave him no points whatsoever, as he failed to finish a single one of them, he was on for at least 4th place at Canada with less than 20 laps to go before a crash, the slump in form dropped him a few places in the championship. He looked like he was heading back on track at Magny Cours, qualifying 8th in the wet and taking advantage of incidents ahead to finish 2nd behind David Coulthard. The home event at Silverstone was not a happy return, as a crash cost him a minor points finish after starting a promising 2nd. Austria was the opposite though, as after starting 3rd, he rocketed past Coulthard at the start, and passed Hakkinen into turn 1, and won the race whilst driving the fastest lap of the race. Hockenheim wasn't quite as successful, but he took 5th place after an interesting battle with Rubens Barrichello and Giancarlo Fisichella over 4th place, however Eddie Irvine's victory put him level on 32 points. Hungary proved to be disappointing again, although he at least finished this time. 10th from 20th on the grid, not a bad recovery considering all 22 drivers finished the race. A disappointing race followed at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium, after qualifying 9th, he was fighting for minor points when his car understeered going into Pouhon, and he met the barriers at some speed. Fortunately, he walked away scot free. Monza was a decent race, as he finished 4th and picked up three more points, and post-race, he admitted the car lacked the pace to challenge for a podium. He inherited a podium at Nurburgring after Michael Schumacher's Ferrari broke down and virtually ended his championship challenge. At the inaugural Malaysian Grand Prix, he took home 4th in the torrential rain, and then finishing the season with pole position, fastest lap and a win at Suzuka, even if Jacques Villeneuve in the BAR tried to put pay to that early on.

2000

The new season didn't start great, as after qualifying 5th, a spin early on and a collision with Alexander Wurz ended the Australian Grand Prix in the worst way imaginable. The second round at Interlagos in Brazil was no better, after a promising qualifying session, all good work was undone after strategic mistakes in the changing conditions, and a collision with Jacques Villeneuve. Imola proved to be much better, where he finished fourth to claim his first points of the season, splitting the two Ferraris. A disastrous qualifying session at Barcelona left Christopherson slowest other than the Minardis, and the best he could manage was 10th place, albeit with a low level of attrition. Nurburgring was much better, with a fifth place finish, but the Englishman only scored points there because of a double retirement from McLaren, and he was beaten by Jarno Trulli to fourth. Monaco was strange, as Christopherson took an unlikely pole position, but a front wing change after a crash, and a stop-go penalty for speeding in the pitlane put pay to a chance of points, as he eventually finished a lapped 9th. Canada proved to be an improvement, as pace was strong and a podium was a possibility, but he had to settle for fourth place. The French Grand Prix at Magny Cours provided Christopherson with his first podium finish of the season, ninth time lucky, even if it was somewhat inherited from an incident between Mika Hakkinen and Rubens Barrichello. On the Friday of that weekend, he announced that he was leaving Jordan at the end of the season, and had signed a one year contract with another team for 2001, but would not reveal it until the German Grand Prix It could have been second place, as he was actually ahead of Michael Schumacher at the time, but he couldn't quite hold onto that position. Another podium followed at the A1-Ring in Austria, but it was his first failure to win at this circuit since its reintroduction to the calendar in 1997, that being said, he drove well to finish just behind the McLarens, and solidify his 'best of the rest' status behind the McLarens and Ferraris. At the German Grand Prix, he revealed that his move was to Arrows for 2001, although his teammate was yet to be revealed. The race was not a successful one, as he retired, with another retirement to follow at Hungary. The race in Belgium was better, but not much better, as after a loss of front wing at the start of a 7 kilometre lap, he could only recover to finish 13th, his lowest classified finish since the 1993 Hungarian Grand Prix. Monza was a marked improvement, as he was fifth to bump Jordan back up to 3rd in the Constructors Championship ahead of Williams. That was consolidated further, when the Englishman finished 3rd at Indianapolis after jumping ahead of Rubens Barrichello at the start and passing Michael Schumacher late on in the race. Jack suffered what was probably the second biggest accident of his career at the Japanese Grand Prix, after carrying too much speed at the Degner curve, and hitting the barriers at roughly 110mph. Fortunately, he was unhurt. The Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang followed, and at his last race for Jordan, he finished 4th in the changeable conditions. He finished the season with 25 points, and he finished fifth in the championship. It was also his first winless season since 1995.

Arrows (2001)

In the off-season, Jack Christopherson announced the details of his contract, it stated that he would not be allowed to enter talks with Williams for 2002 if Arrows were at least 6th in the Constructors Championship. A couple of months before the Australian Grand Prix, Christopherson's partner was announced to be Brazilian rookie Enrique Bernoldi, who was bringing important sponsorship from Red Bull. 2001 did not start well for the team, as both drivers were outqualified by Minardi's Spanish rookie, Fernando Alonso. Christopherson and Bernoldi were 20th and 21st respectively. Christopherson managed to move up the grid slightly during the race, and finish a lowly 13th. Malaysia was much better, and the chaotic early stages of the race gave the Englishman a chance of scoring points, running as high as 6th before losing the position to Rubens Barrichello. In the end, he finished 7th. In Brazil he went one better, qualifying 9th and making the right strategic call by starting on dry tyres rather than intermediates, and finished 6th, even challenging Frentzen for 5th in the late stages of the race. For the first time since 1994, when the previous layout was used, Christopherson failed to score points at Imola, finishing down in 11th in a very quiet and anonymous race. At the Spanish Grand Prix, Christopherson was lucky to even qualify, after a slow first qualifying lap, he ran wide at the final corner in the second lap and crashed. Similar fate befell him in the race, where in the atrocious conditions, he had worked his way up to 11th place, but spun off at the same corner. With four races until his contract trigger, Arrows are currently 9th in the Constructors Championship with just a single point, whilst sixth placed BAR were on four points. Austria was a return of some promise. At one of his strongest tracks, he had an average qualifying and picked his way through the traffic of a turn 1 incident. He was fending off Eddie Irvine for 7th when he hit a very slow Tarso Marques when attempting to lap him. Button's subsequent retirement would have promoted him to the points. A chaotic as usual Monaco Grand Prix allowed Christopherson to finish fifth. Even so, thanks to Jarno Trulli and Pedro De La Rosa scoring their first points caused him to drop a position in the Drivers Championship, whilst Arrows remained ninth, five points adrift of Jaguar who were in that all-so important sixth place. Canada was mildly promising, hanging onto the back of the drivers who battled over the minor points, albeit very briefly as he crashed on lap 2. Arrows struggled at Nurburgring, both drivers qualifying in the bottom six with Christopherson and Bernoldi finishing 14th and 15th respectively, a wet track at the start of the race failing to help them in their quest to score more points. As Arrows were not at least 6th in the Constructors Championship (9th to be exact), Christopherson was able to enter contract talks for Williams from 2002 onwards. The French Grand Prix was more disappointment, as were the next few races aside from Silverstone, where Christopherson came within a few seconds of beating Jean Alesi and Eddie Irvine to the final point. Monza was by far his best race of the season, after qualifying 7th thanks to an ultra low downforce setup, he made a storming start in the heavy rain to move up to 4th and remained there for the whole race. Indianapolis was a return to normality with a lowly 13th place finish after a tangle with newcomer Felipe Massa. Suzuka was a disaster for Arrows in general, 20th and 21st on the grid, with Christopherson suffering a heavy crash in the race. He ended the season 13th in the championship with 6 points. The lowest position and points for him since 1994.

Return to Williams (2002-)

2002

The early races in 2002 were a difficult return for Christopherson to the team where he was World Champion. Despite fourth in Australia and a solid podium finish in Brazil, he failed to qualify higher than sixth and was outpaced by Ralf Schumacher over the course of the three races. Between those two races at Malaysia, he was not that competitive, even if Takuma Sato had not took him out of the race, the best he could have hoped for was a minor points finish. He addressed the critics before the San Marino Grand Prix, acknowledging that he had been underperforming. His season kickstarted at Imola, taking the chequered flag after getting pole position by over half a second from Rubens Barrichello. His victory was followed by two troublesome races at Spain and Austria. His Spanish Grand Prix ending in a crash in the changeable conditions whilst Austria ended with an engine failure during a charge through the field after a required front wing change on the first lap. Monaco was a better result, as Christopherson scored a podium finish in the wet to dry race where all of the frontrunners aside from Michael Schumacher retired. He was arguably only denied second place due to a tyre change gamble that almost secured the win for Fisichella. A win could have been on the cards had he not lost the lead to Michael Schumacher at the start after starting from pole. Christopherson then qualified and finished second in Canada, after a wet qualifying and a race with a relatively high attrition. A poor weekend followed at Nurburgring, where he could only finish sixth, behind both Renaults. His home race wasn't that much better, and he only scored two points, but it was enough to at least keep with his rivals. The German Grand Prix at the new Hockenheim was a different story though, as he took pole position and dominated the race, more than any other driver had that season. Two consecutive retirements followed, with the crash at Belgium being due to an overambitious attempt at passing Barrichello for the lead, although Barrichello later retired and Christopherson would have won the race anyway, barring any car troubles. Monza was an improvement, although a bad start may have cost him victory. Indianapolis resulted in no points, after a front wing loss when trying to lap Mark Webber. It left him level on points with Kimi Raikkonen with one round to go, in a battle for third in the championship, with Christopherson's teammate Ralf Schumacher only a point behind. Christopherson clinched third in the championship by default, as neither Kimi Raikkonen or Ralf Schumacher finished the race. He had to fight for the final podium position, as he was involved in a great battle with David Coulthard in the closing stages of the race.

2003

Jack Christopherson made a reasonable start in 2003. A front row grid slot, but a lacklustre start in comparison to his teammate meant that he could only finish third, although he made Ralf Schumacher work for 2nd place. Christopherson was involved in a first lap incident in Malaysia when he was spun at turn 1 and lost his front wing. On the fight back through the field, he spun off and never recovered. At the Brazilian Grand Prix, he fared somewhat better, finishing in a lonely 4th. Yet another win at Imola followed, his incredible run of results since the 1995 modifications continuing with pole position, fastest lap and the victory, the 20th of his career. In the week leading up to the Spanish Grand Prix, Christopherson put pen to paper to sign for Williams for 2004. A collision with teammate Ralf Schumacher ended his Spanish Grand Prix early, whilst he retired from 2nd in Austria, after trying to lap Cristiano Da Matta. Things didn't improve at Monaco, after qualifying a lowly 12th due to a mistake on his only lap, and retiring without really troubling the points. Canada marked a return to winning ways, winning from pole position and scoring the fastest lap in the process and surviving the attrition that affected a lot of the frontrunners, although he would have most likely won the race without it. At the halfway stage of the season, he was third in the championship with 31 points, and his two wins being the only non-Ferrari victories of 2003 at that point. Two more podium finishes followed, although better starts could have turned those podiums into wins. His championship hopes were hanging by a thread, but there were still a few hopefuls that believed he could challenge the Ferraris, Christopherson however was not one of them. A collision with Nick Heidfeld ended his home race early, a race where seemingly anyone from the top teams could have won thanks to the unpredictable conditions. Hockenheim was slightly better, although a mistake in qualifying left him, but a good drive in tricky conditions resulted in 4th, just ahead of teammate Ralf Schumacher. Christopherson qualified better than usual at Hungary, the circuit changes may have something to do with it, but he qualified 5th, although a gamble when rain hit to change tyres early did not pay off, and the Englishman could only finish 7th. He returned to winning ways at Monza, mostly thanks to a co-operative Michael Schumacher not fighting too hard during a brave and questionable overtake. Low key races at Indianapolis and Suzuka rounded off a reasonable season, another season finishing 3rd in the championship, behind the Ferraris.

2004

2004 didn't start too well for Jack Christopherson, or Williams for that matter. After qualifying 5th, Jack retired with an engine failure, after teammate Ralf Schumacher had already retired earlier on. Malaysia was better for both Christopherson and Williams, Christopherson finishing 5th in what was his 200th Grand Prix start, the Japanese Grnd Prix the year before being his 200th entry, but he failed to qualify for two of them. Williams finally showed some promise at the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix, as Christopherson put his Williams in pole, although Michael Schumacher beat him off the line and he had to settle for second for the time being, although a brake failure cost him his first podium of the season. The Englishman surely hoped for better at Imola, where he had won every time he had raced there as a Williams driver, but a mistake in qualifying and misfortune regarding backmarkers in the rain, most notably Zsolt Baumgartner left him 9th.

F1RWRS

Jones Racing (2013-2015)

After many years on the racing sidelines, Christopherson was signed on as a guest driver for Jones Racing to participate in the Budweiser 500, run by another former F1 driver in the form of Sammy Jones. Christopherson wasn't in contention for a full time drive at Jones Racing next year as the team has just completed a deal with Daniel Melrose. Despite that Christopherson did well against competitors that were many years younger than himself and having never drove the car before. Christopherson qualified 11th on the grid for the race before a fantastic drive on race day meant he became the first winner of the Dan Wheldon Memorial trophy after leading the last 50 laps when the Foxdale cars hit problems.

Foxdale (2014)

The win immediately put the Brit on the map for several drives up and down the grid despite facing the potential of being the oldest driver on the grid with the retirement of Chris Dagnall. While Jones Racing had a test contract with Christopherson for 2014, he was free to drive for another team for the foreseeable future unless Jones took out his option on him for 2014. After much debate, Christopherson eventually signed on for Foxdale, the very team he beat for the Bud 500 win a few months before. Foxdale entered the season as one of the championship favourites with a new Renault engine replacing the old Hart engine which game the team so many problems in 2013. However it soon became evident that the car, whilst more reliable, was nowhere near the blistering pace being set by DGNgineering and MRT up front. As a result Christopherson struggled for pace, suffering numerous mechanical failures, and only finished one race before being fired by Foxdale mid-way through the year, following the British Grand Prix. His only race finish was ninth in Mexico.

Christopherson returned to his role as Jones Racing's test driver, and was credited by Jones himself for helping drive development forward on the CJR-103 car as the team finished fifth overall in the championship. Once again he featured in the non-championship races in the off-season and led a Jones 1-2-3 at the Bud 800 race, securing himself the Dan Wheldon Trophy for the second year in succession. Christopherson stayed on at Jones for 2015, once again assuming his test and development role, albeit replaced by Terry Hawkin as offical reserve driver.

Complete Formula One Grand Prix results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	WDC	Points
1991	Scuderia Italia SpA	Dallara 191	Judd GV 3.5 V10	USA 11	BRA 11	SMR Ret	MON Ret	CAN 14	AUT 6	FRA 6	GBR 2	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 12	POR 16	ESP Ret	JPN Ret	AUS 4			10th	11
1992	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 020B	Ilmor 2175A 3.5 V10	RSA Ret	MEX 10	BRA DNQ	ESP	SMR	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	JPN	AUS			NC	0
1993	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 020C	Yamaha OX10A 3.5 V10	RSA Ret	BRA 11	EUR 7	SMR Ret	ESP 12	MON DNQ	CAN 5	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 17	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR 8	JPN Ret	AUS Ret			19th	2
1994	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 022	Yamaha OX10B 3.5 V10	BRA Ret	PAC Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	ESP 11	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 9	GER 6	HUN Ret	BEL 4	ITA 12	POR Ret	EUR Ret	JPN 12	AUS Ret			17th	4
1995	Red Bull Sauber Ford	Sauber C14	Ford ECA Zetec-R 3.0 V8	BRA 6	ARG 8	SMR 6	ESP Ret	MON Ret	CAN 3	FRA 6	GBR Ret	GER 6	HUN Ret	BEL 5	ITA Ret	POR Ret	EUR 5	PAC 12	JPN Ret	AUS Ret		7th	12
1996	Rothmans Williams Renault	Williams FW18	Renault RS8 3.0 V10	AUS Ret	BRA 3	ARG 4	EUR Ret	SMR 1	MON 1	ESP 3	CAN Ret	FRA 4	GBR 1	GER Ret	HUN 5	BEL Ret	ITA 1	POR Ret	JPN 1			2nd	66
1997	Rothmans Williams Renault	Williams FW19	Renault RS9 3.0 V10	AUS 1	BRA 2	ARG Ret	SMR 1	MON 1	ESP 2	CAN 1	FRA 4	GBR 1	GER 2	HUN Ret	BEL 1	ITA 1	AUT 1	LUX Ret	JPN 2	EUR 6		1st	108
1998	B&H Total Jordan	Jordan 198	Mugen–Honda MF301HC 3.0 V10	AUS 4	BRA Ret	ARG Ret	SMR 2	ESP 6	MON Ret	CAN 3	FRA Ret	GBR 6	AUT 1	GER 6	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 4	LUX Ret	JPN Ret			4th	29
1999	B&H Jordan	Jordan 199	Mugen–Honda MF301HD 3.0 V10	AUS 3	BRA Ret	SMR 1	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA 2	GBR Ret	AUT 1	GER 5	HUN 10	BEL Ret	ITA 4	EUR 3	MAL 4	JPN 1			4th	52
2000	B&H Jordan	Jordan EJ10	Mugen–Honda MF301HE 3.0 V10	AUS Ret	BRA Ret	SMR 4	GBR Ret	ESP 10	EUR 5	MON 9	CAN 4	FRA 3	AUT 3	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 13	ITA 5	USA 3	JPN Ret	MAL 4		5th	25
2001	Orange Arrows	Arrows A22	Asiatech V10	AUS 13	MAL 7	BRA 6	SMR 11	ESP Ret	AUT Ret	MON 5	CAN Ret	EUR 14	FRA Ret	GBR 8	GER 9	HUN Ret	BEL 11	ITA 4	USA 13	JPN Ret		13th	6
2002	BMW Williams F1 Team	Williams FW24	BMW P82 3.0 V10	AUS 4	MAL Ret	BRA 3	SMR 1	ESP Ret	AUT Ret	MON 3	CAN 2	EUR 6	GBR 5	FRA Ret	GER 1	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 2	USA 10	JPN 3		3rd	50
2003	BMW Williams F1 Team	Williams FW25	BMW P83 3.0 V10	AUS 3	MAL Ret	BRA 4	SMR 1	ESP Ret	AUT Ret	MON Ret	CAN 1	EUR 2	FRA 3	GBR Ret	GER 4	HUN 7	ITA 1	USA 7	JPN 5			3rd	68
2004	BMW Williams F1 Team	Williams FW26	BMW P84 3.0 V10	AUS Ret	MAL 5	BHR Ret	SMR 9	ESP Ret	MON 2	EUR 4	CAN Ret	USA 1	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	CHN	JPN	BRA	6th*	27*

• *Season in Progress

Complete F1RWRS Results

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Pts
2014	Foxdale Auto Racing Team	Foxdale 001	Renault RS01	TAS Ret	AUS Ret	BRA Ret	MEX 9	USA Ret	MON Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER	BEL	ITA	MED	NED	MAC	CHN	JPN	33rd	0