Biography

Having spent his formative years in Karting, mainly in his native Holland, Ho-Pin finally graduated to single-seaters in 2001, aged 18, when he contested the Dutch and Benelux F-Ford Championship.

He remained in the series for 2002, finishing fourth overall, ending his season with an appearance in the Brands Hatch Festival, unfortunately spinning off in the final.

During 2002, Ho-Pin contested one round of the BMW Formula Europe Series finishing second, and this led to him switching to BMW Formula Asia for 2003. With ten wins and two runner-up finishes it was a walkover for the Chinese youngster who was rewarded with an outing in the BMW Williams F1 car at Jerez.

For 2004 Ho-Pin moved up to F3 contesting the German series, in fact, he remained in German F3 until 2006. Over the course of the three seasons, Ho-Pin steadily improved, finishing seventh in his first year, third in 2005 and finally winning the title in 2006 courtesy on 9 wins and 4 pole positions.

Ho-Pin also got to make a number of outings in A1 GP, representing China over the course of the 2006/2007 and 2008/2009 seasons.

In 2007 and 2008 he raced in GP2, first with BCN and then with Trident, with whom he also contested the 2008 GP2 Asia series.

Having enjoyed relatively little success in GP2, Ho-Pin moved to the newly established Superleague Formula in 2009 starting the season with Galatasaray and ending it with Athletico Madrid.

At season end Ho-Pin was given a test drive with the Renault F1 team, however, a technical problem on his second day of running meant he only completed 4 laps. Nonetheless, over the winter Ho-Pin was continually linked with the French team, his situation clearly helped by the fact that his management company (Gravity) is part of the group (Genii Capital) which has bought a large slice of the Enstone-based outfit.

At the launch of the Renault R30 on January 31, Ho-Pin wan confirmed as the team's third driver along with Belgian Jerome d'Ambrosio. At the same time it was announced that the youngster would be returning to GP2 with the DAMS run Renault Junior Team.

In a season plagued by retirements, and having failed to score a single point, Ho-Pin was involved in a first lap collision with Jules Bianchi in Hungary, leaving both drivers injured. While Bianchi had recovered in time for the next race (Spa) several weeks later, Ho-Pin was not so lucky, and was replaced by Romain Grosjean in Belgium and Italy.

While he was fit to race in the season finale in Abu Dhabi, DAMS opted to retain Grosjean. However, when Christian Vietoris went down with appendicitis, it was Ho-Pin who got the call from Racing Engineering.

On 22 November 2010, Ho-Pin made sporting history when he became the first Chinese licensed driver to take the wheel of an Indy Car, running the FAZZT Race Team Dallara-Honda in a test at Sebring International Raceway. Though still eyeing a seat in F1, the Chinese driver has made no secret of the fact that he would love to contest the Indy 500.

Sure enough, Ho-Pin attempted to qualify for the 2011 Indianapolis 500 with Dragon Racing, but was unsuccessful due to a crash on Pole Day that resulted in a mild concussion. However, he made his Indy Car debut later in the year, in August, at Infineon Raceway driving for the same team.

Earlier in the year he contested the Dutch round of the ill-fated Superleague Formula, driving China's entry to tenth and eleventh in the opening two races.