46 Facts About Jann Mardenborough

Jann Alexander Mardenborough was born on 9 September 1991 and is a British professional racing driver.

Jann Mardenborough is a Ford Factory driver and currently competes in the 2025 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup for HRT Ford Performance.

Jann Mardenborough had no previous motorsport experience, having played sim racing video games instead.

Jann Mardenborough was a race winner in GP3, and finished second overall in the Toyota Racing Series in 2014.

Jann Mardenborough competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing third in the LMP2 class on his debut in 2013 and helping his team lead the category for 14 hours the following year.

Jann Mardenborough competed for Nissan Motorsports in the top LMP1 class of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, but the team withdrew from the series after one race because of a very uncompetitive car.

In 2016, Jann Mardenborough made the move to race in Japan, where he would compete in the top-level Super GT and Super Formula championships.

In 2015, Jann Mardenborough was named as one of the 50 most marketable athletes in the world by Sports Pro Media.

Jann Mardenborough, born in Darlington, is the son of English footballer Steve Jann Mardenborough.

Jann Mardenborough spent most of his childhood growing up in Cardiff, Wales.

Jann Mardenborough is portrayed by Archie Madekwe in the 2023 racing film Gran Turismo.

Jann Mardenborough serves as a co-producer, stunt driver and consultant on the movie, which depicts his early career and personal life, and gave permission for the filmmakers to include his 2015 crash at the Nurburgring Nordschleife, which killed one spectator.

Jann Mardenborough became interested in cars at a young age, and he dreamed of becoming a professional racing driver from the age of five or six, having learnt that it could be a job.

Jann Mardenborough began playing racing video games at the age of eight, when his friend had Gran Turismo on the original PlayStation.

Jann Mardenborough visited his friend to play the game so often he was eventually given both the console and the game so that he could play it at home.

In 2010, Jann Mardenborough went to university to study motorsport engineering, but dropped out after three weeks as it was too maths-based for his liking.

Jann Mardenborough then underwent training and a series of physical and racing challenges, eventually managing to get to the decisive final race, with all but three of his opponents having dropped out of contention.

The final was a 20-minute race around the Silverstone National Circuit in real Nissan 370Z sports cars, and Jann Mardenborough won by eight seconds to be crowned GT Academy winner and earn the professional Nissan contract.

Jann Mardenborough took part in the 2011 GT Academy competition, which was a joint venture between Nissan and the developers of "Gran Turismo" with the goal of identifying potential racers via online racing events.

Jann Mardenborough won the competition despite having no prior professional racing experience thanks to his outstanding talent.

Jann Mardenborough was then rewarded with a drive in a factory-backed Nissan 370Z GT4 at the Dubai 24 Hour race in January 2012.

Jann Mardenborough took part in four rounds of the Blancpain Endurance Series.

Jann Mardenborough was the best-placed rookie and finished the season in tenth place in the championship.

Jann Mardenborough scored two podium results and finished sixth overall in the British series, while he was 21st out of 36 drivers in the European championship.

In 2014, Jann Mardenborough again competed in New Zealand's Toyota Racing Series at the start of the year, finishing second in the championship, only eight points behind the champion.

Jann Mardenborough then joined Arden International to compete in the 2014 GP3 Series, the third-tier feeder series to Formula One, and was signed by Red Bull Racing for a driver development programme.

Jann Mardenborough won his first GP3 race in Germany after starting from pole position and setting the fastest lap in the reversed-grid sprint race.

Jann Mardenborough made his debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2013, driving a Zytek Z11SN-Nissan for Greaves Motorsport alongside Lucas Ordonez and Michael Krumm in the LMP2 class.

Jann Mardenborough returned to Le Mans in 2014 with OAK Racing, whose Ligier-Nissan LMP2 car he shared with Alex Brundle and Mark Shulzhitskiy.

At the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed, Jann Mardenborough set the fastest-ever supercar time up the famous "Goodwood Hill" whilst piloting the Nismo Nissan GT-R with the optional 'Time Attack' package.

In 2015, Jann Mardenborough was selected as one of the drivers for Nissan Motorsports' entry into the top LMP1 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship, which includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Jann Mardenborough continued racing in GP3, switching to Carlin for the 2015 season.

Jann Mardenborough missed four races during the season as he took part in a round of the GP2 Series as a substitute for another driver at Carlin and had a testing commitment at the end of the year.

One person was killed, while Jann Mardenborough was not seriously injured.

In 2016, Jann Mardenborough moved to Japan to compete in the GT300 class of Super GT and the Japanese Formula 3 Championship.

Jann Mardenborough felt he had enough experience by then to fight for the prominent F3 title.

For 2017, Jann Mardenborough moved up to Super GT's top GT500 class with Nissan, joining the C nic-sponsored Impul team.

Jann Mardenborough's move to the GT500 class coincided with a downturn in form for Nissan, whose GT-R car often lagged behind its rivals from Honda and Toyota over the following years.

Jann Mardenborough took pole position for the second race of the season-ending Suzuka double-header, a race in which the grid was determined by the second fastest time of each driver in a damp, red flag-affected qualifying session, but both races were cancelled due to Typhoon Lan.

Jann Mardenborough remained at Impul for the 2018 Super GT season, now with Daiki Sasaki being his co-driver.

At the following race at Sugo, Jann Mardenborough broke through for his first podium finish in GT500.

Jann Mardenborough had passed the Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX-GT of Naoki Yamamoto and Jenson Button for the lead during the opening stint, but overheating issues caused by grass picked up in an off-track excursion by Sasaki limited the pair to third.

For 2019, Jann Mardenborough was moved to the Kondo Racing team in Nissan's GT500 lineup, partnering Mitsunori Takaboshi.

Jann Mardenborough had qualified fourth for round five at Fuji, but a gear selector problem in the race denied the team a potential podium finish.

Jann Mardenborough contested the Silverstone 500 round of the 2024 British GT Championship with the McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Team RJN, claiming a win in the Pro-Am class and an overall podium alongside Chris Buncombe.

For 2025, Jann Mardenborough was signed by HRT Ford Performance to drive a Ford Mustang GT3 at the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.