What Is Jann Mardenborough's Net Worth?
Jann Mardenborough is a British professional racing driver who has a net worth of $10 million. In 2011, Jann Mardenborough became the youngest driver to win the GT Academy competition after beating out more than 90,000 entrants, which earned him a professional racing contract with Nissan. At the time, he had no previous experience with racing and had spent years playing the "Gran Turismo" video game series. Jann has driven for NDDP Racing, Team Impul, and Kondō Racing in the Super GT and for Greaves Motorsport, OAK Racing, and Nissan Motorsports in the 24 Hours of Le Mans series. He finished in second place at the 2014 Toyota Racing Series and the 2016 Japanese Formula 3 Championship and third in class at the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2015, Sports Pro Media named Mardenborough one of the world's 50 most marketable athletes. He served as a co-producer on the 2023 film "Gran Turismo," and he was portrayed by Archie Madekwe in the movie.
Early Life
Jann Mardenborough was born on September 9, 1991, in Darlington, County Durham, England. He is the son of Lesley and Steve Mardenborough, and his father is a former professional footballer. Jann grew up in Cardiff and has a younger brother named Coby. Mardenborough began dreaming of a career as a professional racing driver when he was just 5 or 6 years old, and he started playing the racing game "Gran Turismo" at a friend's house at the age of 8. He spent so much time at his friend's house that he was eventually given the game and the PlayStation so he'd be able to play it at home. Jann later played "Gran Turismo" games on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. In 2010, he enrolled at a Swansea university with plans to study motorsport engineering, but he dropped out less than a month later because "it was more maths-based than [he'd] expected." While taking a gap year, he learned of an online time trial for "Gran Turismo 5" that was a competition for the GT Academy and would award a professional racing contract to the winner. Out of more than 90,000 people, Mardenborough qualified in the top 20 in his region and subsequently underwent training and racing challenges before making it to the final race. Jann won the 20-minute race at the Silverstone National Circuit in a Nissan 370Z car, earning a professional racing contract with Nissan.
Career
After winning the GT Academy competition, Mardenborough completed a driver training program and began competing in national races, which made it possible for him to qualify for an international racing license. In early 2012, he competed in the Dubai 24 Hour race, driving a Nissan 370Z GT4, and finished the race third in his class. For the rest of the year, Jann raced in a Nissan GT-R GT3 in the British GT Championship for RJN Motorsport. He won one race in the series with Alex Buncombe and came in sixth in the GT3 championship. He switched his focus to formula racing in 2013 and ended the season in tenth place in New Zealand's Toyota Racing Series. Mardenborough drove for Carlin Motorsport in the 2013 FIA European Formula Three Championship and British Formula 3 Championship, finishing in 21st and sixth place, respectively. At the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans, he drove for Greaves Motorsport alongside Michael Krumm and Lucas Ordóñez in the LMP2 class and finished third in class. The following year Jann drove for OAK Racing at Le Mans alongside Mark Shulzhitskiy and Alex Brundle and finished fifth in the LMP2 class due to a spark plug issue. Mardenborough was runner-up in the 2014 Toyota Racing Series, then he competed for Arden International in that year's GP3 Series. Around that time, Red Bull Racing signed Jann to its driver development program. In July 2014, he won a GP3 race for the first time.
(Photo by Zak Mauger/Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images)
In 2015, Mardenborough was chosen to drive for Nissan Motorsports in the FIA World Endurance Championship's (WEC) top LMP1 class, and he drove for Carlin in GP3. During the VLN series in March 2015, his Nissan GT-R Nismo flipped over a fence at the Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany, causing the death of a spectator. Jann was taken to a hospital for "routine checks" after the crash but was not seriously injured. He moved to Japan in 2016, where he finished fourth in the GT300 class at the Super GT series and second at the Japanese Formula 3 Championship. He moved up to the top GT500 class of Super GT in 2017, driving for Team Impul. He finished 15th in the Super GT GT500 standings with teammate Hironobu Yasuda, and he came in 14th at the Japanese Super Formula Championship. Mardenborough and co-driver Daiki Sasaki ended the 2018 Super GT season in 12th place. In 2019, he began driving for Kondō Racing's Nissan GT500 line-up alongside Mitsunori Takaboshi, and the duo finished 14th overall in Super GT that year and 19th overall in 2020. Nissan did not retain Jann for the 2021 season, and he spent 2021 and 2022 as a car development driver and simulator for Nissan e.dams. In May 2023, he returned to racing at the Super Taikyu Series, driving a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 for Helm Motorsports in the Fuji 24 Hours round. His team finished in fourth place due to brake issues.
Personal Life
Jann was a co-producer on the 2023 film "Gran Turismo," and he also served as a consultant and stunt driver. He was portrayed by Archie Madekwe, who earned a Black Reel Award nomination for Outstanding Breakthrough Performance for the film. Mardenborough gave the filmmakers permission to include his 2015 Nürburgring Nordschleife crash in the film because he thought that it "would have been a disservice for the audience for that not to be in there." He stated, "It needed to be correct, because somebody lost their life in this accident. And the movie does a great job of that. It shows as well the deep dark moments of my life when I was in the hospital by myself. You know, the mental aspects to such an event, and in life as well: what can happen; how you can get out of that; how can you rebound and achieve something — achieve greatness — off the back of that. And so it had to be in there."
