Max Alexander Chilton (born 21 April 1991 in Reigate, Surrey, England, United Kingdom) is a British racing driver. He spent two years in Formula One, driving for Marussia.
His first involvement in F1 was driving at the 2011 Young Driver Test for Force India. He moved to Marussia in 2012 as a test driver, becoming the team's third driver after María de Villota's accident. He was promoted to the team for 2013 and suffered no retirements in his début year. This streak continued until the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix after he collided with his Marussia team-mate Jules Bianchi on lap 1, retiring both cars. He continued to drive for the team for a second year, with his car number being #4. After Marussia folded and was re-founded as Manor Marussia in early 2015, Chilton was not retained.
He held the record of most finishes from start of career until the 2017 United States Grand Prix, when that was broken by Esteban Ocon, who finished his 26th consecutive race.
He is the younger brother of World Touring Car Championship racer Tom Chilton.
Pre-Formula One[]
Chilton began racing as a teenager in 2005, competing in the T-Cars series, before moving on to British Formula Three and Formula Renault 3.5. In 2010, he made his debut in the GP2 Series and drove in the series until 2012, winning twice in the 2012 season.
Formula One Career[]
Force India[]
2011[]
In November 2011 Chilton drove for the Force India team in the 2011 Young Driver Test over at the Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit. This was his second time driving Formula One machinery following a straight-line aerodynamic test for the team earlier in the year. In the young driver test he show speed as he came in fifth in the test but it would still be in the GP2 for the 2012 season.
Marussia[]
2012[]
Chilton made his F1 practice debut at the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, replacing Charles Pic in the second Marussia.
2013[]
Chilton was signed up for a full race season at Marussia for 2013. After a deal fell through for Luiz Razia to drive the other car, Jules Bianchi was signed to replace him, creating an all-rookie line-up.
Chilton finished every race in his debut season and in the progress being first driver to ever do so.
2014[]
Marussia was one of only two teams, the other being Mercedes, to retain its driver line-up from 2013, as the outfit kept both Chilton and Bianchi.
Chilton's best finish was 13th twice at Australia and Bahrain, finishing ahead of his teammate in both races.
Chilton's finishing streak abruptly ended at the Canadian Grand Prix after he collided with his team-mate on the first lap, eliminating both drivers from the race. Chilton appeared to blame Bianchi outright, even though it was clear that he ran into the Frenchman, and was handed a three-place grid penalty for the next race at Austria to add to his woes.
In Belgium, Chilton was initially replaced by Alexander Rossi for the Grand Prix but Marussia director Graeme Lowdon announced during FP1 that the team had reversed their decision, depriving Rossi of his proper Formula One race debut. Chilton was back in the car from FP2 onwards.
Chilton swiftly finished his next five races before retiring again in Italy after crashing out on lap 5. At Russia, driving the sole Marussia in the race, he retired again with a suspension failure, and it was his last Formula One race when the Marussia team went into administration and then later went bankrupt in the wake of Bianchi's huge accident in Japan.
Post-Formula One[]
2015[]
Since Chilton wasn't retained for the 2015 season, he went Stateside to compete in the Indy Lights Series, driving for Carlin, the team which helped him to victory in his GP2 days. He won his maiden race, the Iowa Corn Indy 100 on July 18, the same weekend as Jules Bianchi's death and he dedicated the race to his team-mate.
In June, Chilton also took part in his first-ever 24 Hours of Le Mans, driving a Nissan GT-R LM Nismo with Olivier Pla and Jann Mardenborough, completing 234 laps before retiring.
IndyCar[]
In 2016, Chilton made his IndyCar debut for Chip Ganassi Racing being the third-highest rookie in the standings. In 2017, he competed for a second season in IndyCar for Ganassi, and finished 4th in that year's Indianapolis 500. That was his best finish of the season, and he completed the season 11th in the standings. Chilton was let go, when Ganassi decided to reduce the size of the team for 2018.
Formula One Statistical Overview[]
Formula One Record[]
Year | Entrant | Team | WDC Points | WDC Pos. | Report |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2011 | Force India F1 Team | Force India-Mercedes | Test Driver | ||
2012 | Marussia F1 Team | Marussia-Cosworth | Test Driver | ||
2013 | Marussia F1 Team | Marussia-Cosworth | 0 | 23rd | Report |
2014 | Marussia F1 Team | Marussia-Ferrari | 0 | 21st | Report |
Career Statistics[]
Updated after the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix
Entries | 35 |
Starts | 35 |
Pole Positions | 0 |
Sprint Poles | 0 |
Front Row Starts | 0 |
Race Wins | 0 |
Sprint Wins | 0 |
Podiums | 0 |
Sprint Podiums | 0 |
Fastest Laps | 0 |
Sprint Fastest Laps | 0 |
Points | 0 |
Laps Raced | 1872 |
Distance Raced | 9,505 km (5,906 mi) |
Career Results[]
Complete Formula One Results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | Pts | Pos | |||
2012 | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||||||
TD | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
2013 | 0 | 23rd | |||||||||||||||||||||||
17th | 16th | 17th | 20th | 19th | 14th | 19th | 18th | 19th | 17th | 19th | 20th | 17th | 17th | 19th | 17th | 21st | 21st | 19th | |||||||
2014 | 0 | 21st | |||||||||||||||||||||||
13th | 15th | 13th | 19th | 19th | 14th | Ret | 17th | 16th | 17th | 16th | 16th | Ret | 17th | 18th | Ret |
Key | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Symbol | Meaning | Symbol | Meaning | ||
1st | Winner | Ret | Retired | ||
2nd | Podium finish | DSQ | Disqualified | ||
3rd | DNQ | Did not qualify | |||
5th | Points finish | DNPQ | Did not pre-qualify | ||
14th | Non-points finish | TD | Test driver | ||
Italics | Scored point(s) for Fastest Lap | DNS | Did not start | ||
18th† | Classified finish (retired with >90% race distance) | NC | Non-classified finish (<90% race distance) | ||
4thP | Qualified for pole position | [+] More Symbols |
Notes[]
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