Jann Mardenborough: Full Biography
Jann Mardenborough is a British racing driver who reached professional motorsport by winning Nissan’s GT Academy competition on Gran Turismo 5 in 2011. He drives a Ford Mustang GT3 for HRT Ford Performance in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.
GT Academy He had never driven a high-performance car or set foot on a racetrack when he entered during a gap year, having dropped out of a motorsport engineering degree after three weeks. Over 90,000 players from ten European countries took part; the final was a four-way, twenty-minute race at Silverstone, which he won from pole in a Nissan 370Z. The prize was a Nissan contract and a seat at the Dubai 24 Hour.
Nissan He finished third in the LMP2 class and ninth overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on his first appearance, in 2013, eighteen months after his first professional race. He led the class for fourteen hours the following year, won a GP3 race for Arden in 2014, and drove Nissan’s front-engined GT-R LM Nismo in LMP1 at Le Mans in 2015.
Japan and After Five seasons of Super GT followed — a GT300 win at Fuji in 2016, a GT500 podium at Sugo in 2018 — before Nissan declined to retain him for 2021. The 2023 Sony Pictures film Gran Turismo, based on his career, cast Archie Madekwe in the role and used Mardenborough as its stunt driver. He returned to a full endurance programme with HRT and Ford in 2025.
