F1: Honoring the back of the grid, Kiesa

  Nicolas Kiesa

First race: 2003 German Grand Prix

Last race: 2003 Japanese Grand Prix

Grand Prix starts: 5

Best grid position: 18th, United States GP 2003

Best race finish: 11th, Japanese GP 2003

Nicolas Kiesa was born on March 3^rd 1978 in Copenhagen (Denmark). He spent the first 8 years of his racing career in karting. This resulted in 6 championships (3 danish -,  2 FIA Viking -, and a Scandinavian karting championship) and more than a 160 trophies.

In 1998 Kiesa changed to single-seaters and took part in the British Formula Ford championship. The following year he competed once more in this championship and took the crown home. After this accomplishment Kiesa continued his career in the British and German F3 championships and in 2002 he joined the F3000 championship. One of the most remarkable moments in his F3000 career took place during the 2003 Monaco GP (see video below).   

Wirdheim led the Monaco GP, but slowed down to early on his last lap. This meant Kiesa could overtake him just before the finish line and win the Monaco GP.

In 2003 Kiesa wouldn’t finish the F3000 season, since the opportunity arose to drive the last 5 GP’s of the formula 1 season for Minardi. He finished every F1 race he started that season. In the following 2 years Kiesa didn’t manage to find a full time F1 seat. However, in 2004 he stayed with Minardi participating in promotional events and in 2005, from Hockenheim onwards, he signed a deal with Jordan GP as the friday test-driver. 

After 2005 Formula 1 was a closed book for Nicolas Kiesa. He went on participating in different race classes like DTM, the American Le Mans Series, European Le Mans Series, and dragstrip events. At the moment he is busy with building, re-building, and tuning cars. See http://www.kismo.dk/.

Kiesa driving a Minardi F1 car