Alan van der Merwe
Alan van der Merwe ( born January 31, 1980 in Johannesburg) is a South African racing driver.
Career
At the age of 17 years, van der Merwe 1997 found relatively late entry into motorsports. His father then took him to the karting with and also started with the sport. At the same van der Merwe took part in the Dutch National Championship ICA. In the second year of his career he was with Slikker Racing third in the Dutch national ICA. 1999 debuted van der Merwe in Formula racing and first drove in the British Formula Ford At the end of the South African Haywood Racing has been committed for the 2000 season of the British Formula Ford. At the end of the season, he finished eleventh overall. In 2001, he remained in the British Formula Ford at Haywood Racing. Although he could not win a race, he finished the season third overall.
In 2002, van der Merwe in the British Formula 3 Championship at Carlin Motorsport. With a race win, he finished the season in eighth place in the overall standings. 2003, the South Africans stayed with Carlin Motorsport and denied his second season in the British Formula 3 Championship. With nine wins from 24 races he finally won the championship title of the series ahead of his teammate Jamie Green and Nelson Piquet junior.
2004 joined van der Merwe to Supernova Racing in the international Formula 3000 Championship, which was held him Framework Programme of the formula 1. He scored a point only two races in eighth and was replaced after seven races with Can Artam. In the overall classification, he finished 14th place. In addition, he made 2004 test runs for British American Racing his first experience in a Formula 1 race car.
2005 remained van der Merwe at British American Racing and has been included in the junior squad of the team. He was also the driver of a specially prepared formula 1 racing car of British American Racing, with whom he 2005 on a salt lake in Utah with an average of 397.481 km / h the fastest ever achieved with a corresponding to the rules Formula 1 racing car, speed reached.
After he had found for the 2006 season no cockpit, van der Merwe drove eight races for the South African A1 team in the A1GP series in the 2006/07 season. He could, however, achieve no championship points there. 2008 van der Merwe went in a race of the Le Mans Series and 2009 in two races in the 2008/2009 A1GP season at the start.
Since the 2009 season, van der Merwe as the driver of the Medical Cars Formula 1 operates.