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Bas Leinders (born 16 July 1975) is a retired professional racing driver from Belgium. He was a Formula One test and reserve driver in for the Minardi F1 team, taking part in the Friday practice sessions during Grand Prix weekends, making seventeen appearances in all. He is also a former British Formula Ford and German Formula Three champion, winning the titles in 1995 and 1998 respectively.
Leinders started his automobile career with the Formula Ford. He was not only crowned Benelux Champion but he also obtained the pole position at the prestigious Formula Ford Festival at his first participation, later becoming European and British Formula Ford Champion. Not being able to gather enough money to make the step to Formula Three, Leinders decided on the European Formula Opel Championship (for Van Amersfoort Racing). With a record of 8 wins he secured the Championship several races before the end.
With some more backing, Leinders graduated to the German Formula 3 series with VAR. He finished second in his maiden F3 weekend just behind Nick Heidfeld. In his second year, he won the championship and was invited by the McLaren Junior team to partner Nick Heidfeld in the last race of the Formula 3000 season. Leinders obtained his best F3000 results in 2001, finishing second twice behind Tomáš Enge and Justin Wilson respectively. In 2002 and 2003, Leinders competed in the World Series by Nissan, he finished third in the Championship on both occasions. His good performance in this series and especially winning the last race of the season gave him the opportunity to test with the Jordan F1 Team which resulted in a contract with the Minardi F1 Team as an official Friday Test and reserve driver in the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship.
Leinders was pre-selected several times by journalists for the title "Belgian Sportsman of the Year". Leinders was crowned "Champion of Belgium" in 2001 by the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, the award presented by Crown-prince of Belgium, Prince Philippe. The Belgian also won the Golden Helmet in 2004 for his performances in Formula One with the Minardi F1 Team.
From 2005, Leinders was a regular racer in the FIA GT Championship with Belgian Racing, driving a Belgian-built Gillet Vertigo. In 2011, he became the team principal of the rebranded Marc VDS Racing, which was also his last year as full-time driver.
In 2014, Leinders ran the entire season of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series with Marc VDS Racing's Toyota Camry in the Elite 1 category. He finished the season in 14th place in the standings with two Top 5 finishes, one at Brands Hatch and one at Le Mans.
After Marc VDS's victory in the 2015 24 Hours of Spa, Leinders announced he parted ways with the team.
In 2016, Leinders became sporting manager of the McLaren GT factory programme and team manager of Garage 59. In 2018, he joined Optimum Motorsport.
Leinders has also worked as color analyst at Formula One broadcasts on Telenet's Play Sports.
| Belgian Formula Ford Championship | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 1st | |
| European Formula Ford Championship | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 55 | 1st | |
| Formula Ford Festival | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | DNF | |
| Masters of Formula 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | DNF | |
| Macau Grand Prix | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | DNF | |
| Monaco Grand Prix | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | 7th | |
| Masters of Formula 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | DNF | |
| Macau Grand Prix | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | N/A | 8th | |
| Belcar | MW-Racing | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 212 | 7th |
| Belgian Procar | MG Racing | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 67 | 9th |
| Belcar GTB | Team Beliën | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 1st |
| World Series by Nissan | KTR | 18 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 184 | 3rd |
| 1997 ! Van Amersfoort Racing ! Opel ! A | Hockenheimring | Hockenheimring | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | Sachsenring | Sachsenring | Norisring | Norisring | WUN 1 | WUN 2 | ZWE 1 | ZWE 2 | Salzburgring | Salzburgring | Regio-Ring | Regio-Ring | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | ! 7th ! 100 | |||
| 1998 ! Van Amersfoort Racing ! Opel ! A | Hockenheimring | Hockenheimring | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | Sachsenring | Sachsenring | Norisring | Norisring | Regio-Ring | Regio-Ring | WUN 1 | WUN 2 | ZWE 1 | ZWE 2 | Salzburgring | Salzburgring | OSC 1 | OSC 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 !style="background:#FFFFBF;" | 1st !style="background:#FFFFBF;" | 200 |
| 1998 ! West Competition | OSC | IMO | CAT | SIL | MON | PAU | A1R | Hockenheimring | Hungaroring | SPA | PER | NÜR ! NC ! 0 |
| 1999 ! Witmeur KTR | IMO | MON | CAT | MAG | SIL | A1R | Hockenheimring | Hungaroring | SPA | NÜR | ! 23rd ! 1 | |
| 2000 ! Kid Jensen Racing | IMO | SIL | CAT | NÜR | MON | MAG | A1R | Hockenheimring | Hungaroring | SPA | ! NC ! 0 | |
| 2001 ! KTR | INT | IMO | CAT | A1R | MON | NÜR | MAG | SIL | Hockenheimring | Hungaroring | SPA | MNZ ! 7th ! 17 |
| ! Minardi ! rowspan=2 Minardi PS04B ! rowspan=2 | Cosworth V10 | AUS * | MAL | BHR | SMR | ESP | MON | EUR | CAN | USA | FRA | GBR | GER | ! rowspan=2 – ! rowspan=2 | – | |||||
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