You cannot help but like Thierry Boutsen, who came into motor sport by way of the Andre Pilette Racing school in Zolder, where he was a star pupil. At the age of 21 he started racing an Irish Crossle Formula Ford car and he promptly dominated the class. He was so good that his Belgian countryman Jacky Ickx helped him to get a Formula 3 drive in 1979, where, at the final round in Jarama, he was up there battling with Formula 3 leader and Champion Alain Pros,t which helped him move forward in his racing career. It was Thierry who took Prost’s place in the Martini Formula 3 team the following seaso,n and he won three of his first four races in 1980.
He naturally moved into Formula 2 in 1981 with a factory March drive and ended the season as runner-up to champion Geoff Lees. His chance to move into Formula 1 was lost when the Spirit team chose Swede Stefan Johansson instead, but in 1983, he signed a full-time contract with Arrows to drive the Arrows-Cosworth and was to stay with Arrows for four seasons, taking a second place at San Marino in 1985 ,driving the Arrows A8 powered by the famous BMW turbo engine producing 1100 bhp.
In 1987, he moved to Benetton, driving the B187 powered by the Ford V6 turbo and had a podium finish in the Australian Grand Prix. He had his best results with the team in 1988, driving the Benetton B188, now powered by the familiar Cosworth V8 engine. He finished 4th in the world championship and won the non-aspirated class with five third places.
He drove for Williams-Renault in 1989 and 1990, winning his three Formula 1 grand prix races ( Canada, Australia and Hungary). His win in Hungary was his most memorable as he crossed the finish line a microscopic 0.288 seconds from Ayrton Senna with Nelson Piquet in third place, the closest finish to any Formula 1 grand prix thus far.
Thierry moved to Monaco in 1984, and when he retired from racing, he founded Boutsen Aviation, a brokerage firm dedicated to the sale and acquisition of business jets. He has also run a classic car business in the Principality since 2018.