JP Kurbhi

as of 2023 F2 United States GP

João Pedro "JP" Kurbhi is a Brazilian Driver who drives for ART Grand Prix in the 2023 GP4 F2 OC season and is under reserve driver duties at Aston Martin. He initially was banned after the 2015 Tahiti ePrix, but was reinstated in the OC fraternity after patching things with FE & BTCC host JW97. He returned to the GP4OC fraternity via the GP4 BTCC OC with Techspeed Motorsport. He is the older brother of GP2 driver and BTCC Champion Dudu Kurbhi. In between the 2019 and 2020 season JP got suspended for 1 season but made his return in 2021 via World ChampCar.

## History

### 2015

Kurbhi started his career at the Venturi Racing Team at Tier 4. At pre season testing in Donington Park, England, he led for most of the beginning of the pre season testing, however he lost it to Milosz (Kai) Czeresnia. He finished pre-season testing in P8, ahead of his teammate Panos Tsekouras, who was right behind him in P9. Kurbhi said that he was confident for the first race in Adelaide. He qualified in P12 and he managed to get as high as P3 on the pit stops, however, he retired with a transmission problem. In the next race in Macau, he qualified P21 and finished P16. The next race in Singapore proved to be his season's high point. He qualified in P11, just a spot from the Top 10. In the race, he had a blistering race and originally finished 6th, but due to a penalty given to DS Virgin's Matthew Orange, he finished 5th. In Sunob, Tahiti, he qualified in P15 but retired on what was one of the biggest crashes in the 2015 FE OC Season. In a move which saw him being challenged by Andretti's Niclas Herbst, Herbst pushed Kurbhi in the wall and flipped the Brazilian. Despite the crash, it was not investigated because the corner was said to be troublesome as seen in the 2014 edition of this race, where several incidents occured on the same corner.. But some said the crash mimicked Milosz (Kai) Czeresnia's and Matteo Cattelan's crash some laps earlier, which saw the Italian also fly up as he clipped the Pole's rear. The Brazilian scored 10 Points in his career, having retired twice, failed to score once and scored 5th Place in the Singapore ePrix, in what could be seen as a weak outing for the Brazilian as he only finished ahead of Matteo Cattelan with 4 Points.

### Ban

However, he was banned after behaving disruptively on certain highlights videos, using his father's death for attention and disruptively asking the hosts to pay tribute like they did with Snežana Radivojević in 2014. He was banned after Tahiti and in the Cordoba ePrix he ended up being replaced by 2014 GP2 Champion Nicholas Pascali.

### Aftermath

JP was then nowhere to be seen after his ban, but in 2017, JP's younger brother, Dudu Kurbhi, officially joined the 2017 BTCC championship for Listerine Racing.

### Return to the OC

During the 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix for the top class, JP was reinstated into the GP4OC fraternity after patching things with FE & BTCC host JW97.

### Return to Racing

After both Vojin Çelebi and Panos Glezos both took sabbaticals following relative deaths, Kurbhi made his official return to racing after managing to get Glezos's seat at Techspeed Racing, making the 2017 BTCC Silverstone Arena Sprint Race his first race since the 2015 Tahiti ePrix in 2015.

### 2017 (BTCC)

After he and Lorenzo Tomaselli joined the 2017 GP4 BTCC OC, JP was ready from the get-go. He qualified 8th, after only setting 1 quick lap on dry conditions. In the first race, he finished in the same place he started - 8th Place. Meaning that the Sprint Race in the Silverstone Grand Prix Arena generated JP's first points since the 2015 Singapore ePrix, but he retired in the feature race after a heavy crash in the last corner with Jake Galloway. But in Croft, Kurbhi qualified in a spectactular 2nd and went on to finish 3rd in the sprint race, but what was next was unbelievable. He had a good start and after Phongchanok Chaochainat and Darabos Dániel had a collision, he was in the lead and after pitting early, consolidated a P1 finish, and it would remain like that until the end, as he won in amazing fashion ahead of his brother, making himself and Dudu Kurbhi the first siblings to ever finish in a 1-2 in the OC's history, in dominating fashion.

### 2018 (FE)

For 2018, JP has been confirmed to drive in Formula E again, this time for the NIO Team. He started his FE return by getting pole in Adelaide, ahead of Virgin Driver and friend, Mateu Cuadras. He went on to finish 4th, behind Cuadras and both Venturi cars of Aggi Prasan and former teammate Panos Tsekouras. He was set to take his first FE win in Macau, until Max Nordberg punted him in the first corner, dropping him to 20th. Max would win the race, but was given a 10-Second Time Penalty, giving the win to Bosnian-German Driver Mariku Kalević. He redeemed himself in Tahiti, finishing 5th. However, he failed to score in the next 3 races, finishing 12th in Cordoba and retiring from both Baku and Miami races. He would then retire from the Miami race, and scored his first points since Tahiti in Mexico with 10th Place. Another 10th Place came in Montreál, although he was underfueled on his pitstop, he managed to get to 10th because Jozef Frederik Sütő suffered a failure. However, in a turn of events. JP claimed Pole Position for the race at Monaco. Although he finished 2nd to eventual champion Max Nordberg, he stated: "I'm very happy with 2nd. Considering how the season so far has been a rollercoaster, it's a relief." Although he finished out of the points in the next 2 races, he ended the year with 7th in Anderstorp.

### 2019 (FE)

Entering his third year in Formula E, JP has been confirmed to drive for the now renamed NIO 333 Team. His somewhat bad luck came back to bite him, as he was running 5th in Adelaide with 3 laps to go until a water leak ended his race. He was classified 20th. Kurbhi qualified 8th in Macau, but crashed after a massive crash, which saw his car flip. Tahiti came, and he qualified 13th, but his strategy failed when he was severely held up in the pit lane. He only finished 16th, his best result in the year so far.

JP was evidently dissapointed with his fall of performance comparing to the previous season, which saw some success. He said in the discord server "Blame my Luck lol, Pretty sure if my season keeps on like this, back to BTCC I go" He had yet another crash in Maués, this time with 2017 champion Michael Clarke, as the Brit flipped, taking out the Brazilian. He was having a decent race in New York, until he got slammed on the rear by Muhammad Razin, as he rejoined, he was spun round by Clarke, and this left the Brazilian clearly frustrated. He was unable to finish due to Brake Issues, ending a frustrating race. JP was clearly frustrated with how his season was going, He stated in the discord server: "I think my only objective this season is to get a point". He qualified 7th in Miami, but three incidents, one with Luca Farina and Darabos Dániel (which gave him a 5-second time penalty) and two with Audi driver Santino Andréoli, the third one causing him to be struck by the Mahindra of Razin, forcing him to pit for repairs. He finished 16th, equalling his best result of the year so far. He stated mid-race: "If I even sign up for FE I absolutely won't go for NIO", possibly hinting leaving NIO. He announced a new helmet for Mexico (which was originally set to debut in Miami), where he finished 14th. He finally scored his first points of the season, a 4th at Monaco (with 2 extra points from getting the fastest lap.). JP was visibly happy about his first points of the season, celebrating in the livestream chat. Following a 10th in Pau, he got yet another top 5 result, with 5th in Urbano, the third to last round of the season.