Neel Jani (born December 8, 1983) is a Swiss race car driver. Having spent the 2005 season racing in the GP2 Series for the team Racing Engineering. Neel has secured a the third driver position for Red Bulls junior F1 Team Scuderia Toro Rosso, where he provides vital information for the team. He currently resides in Luton, Great Britain.
Karting
Jani's career started in karting in 1998, where he stayed for two years before moving up to Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup in 2001.
Karting to Formula Renault
In the same year he also raced some races in Italian Formula Renault. He would stay in both for 2002, again only racing part of the Italian Formula Renault season. In 2003 he moved to Formula Renault V6 Eurocup, driving for the Jenzer team.
GP2
He stayed in V6 Eurocup for 2004, driving for the DAMS team this time, whilst also one race for DAMS' FIA GT Championship team. In 2005 he will race in GP2 Series, with Racing Engineering alongside Borja Garcia, who he has generally outperformed.This was seen with to race wins in Hungary and at Monza.He also managed to lead most of the Nerburgring race in a clearly slower car with some brilliant defensive driving.
In 2006 he replaced injured Nicolas Lapierre in the Silverstone and Magny-Cours races for English race team Arden. By doing this he also secured his place in the record books, being the only person to ever drive in both GP2 and F1 on the same day.
GP2 Series Record
| Season | Team Name | No. | Races | Poles | Wins | Points | Final Placing |
| 2005 | Racing Engineering | 18 | 23 | 1 | 2 | 48 | 7th |
| 2006 | Arden International | 04 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28th |
Formula One
He was linked to an F1 seat with the Sauber team in 2004. However, he moved back to GP2 the following year. In December 2005 he was confirmed as Scuderia Toro Rosso's third driver, alongside race drivers Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi.
Complete Formula One participations
(key)
| Yr | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Team | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Toro Rosso | BAH TD |
MAS TD |
AUS TD |
SMR TD |
EUR TD |
SPA TD |
MON TD |
GBR TD |
CAN TD |
USA TD |
FRA TD |
DEU TD |
HUN TD |
TUR TD |
ITA TD |
CHN |
JPN |
BRA |
Toro Rosso | N/A* | 0* |
A1GP
Also in 2005 he competed in the new A1GP Series, driving for Team Switzerland. In the championships inaugural year Neel successfully won the Swiss team second place, with consistent podiums throughout the winter season. He won his first race at the circuit in Dubai in December.