Arrows

Boutsen was considered a promising driver, testing for McLaren and Brabham. He was briefly attached to the Spirit Honda F1 project before losing out to his Formula Two teammate Stefan Johansson.

In 1983 he paid $500,000 for a drive in Formula One and made his debut with Arrows at his home race, the 1983 Belgian Grand Prix at the shortened 7 km (4.3 mi) Spa.^[1] While he scored no points in 1983 his careful handling and close performance compared to experienced teammate Marc Surer allowed him to foster a positive reputation within the team. With backing from Barclay cigarettes he remained with Arrows for a further three seasons. The first saw Arrows struggle with their difficult first turbocharged car, with powerful BMW turbo engines but poor handling. Boutsen scored points twice in the old Cosworth DFV powered A6 and once in the turbo machine. His second season saw several notable results, including 2nd place at Imola. Boutsen crossed the line third, behind Alain Prost and Elio de Angelis but after the race, Prost was disqualified because his car was 2 kg underweight. Three more points scores saw him 11th overall in the standings. A final season with Arrows saw no points for Boutsen in an uncompetitive car, but in parallel to F1 he drove for the Walter Brun team in Group C and clinched the World Championship title with them in 1986, winning that year's Spa 1000 km.

Benetton

Boutsen got his big chance when he switched to the works Ford Europe F1 team, Benetton, for the 1987 season as teammate to Teo Fabi. While the package wasn't a race winner, it did allow him to run regularly in the top 6. He scored points in six races, his best being awarded 3rd place in Adelaide after the disqualification of Ayrton Senna's Lotus and moved to 8th overall. At the Australian Grand Prix, Boutsen was furious with Fabi when the Italian refused to let his teammate lap him for a number of laps. When Boutsen confronted Fabi about this after the race, a frustrated Fabi (who had been unable to find an F1 drive for 1988), told the Belgian to "come back and see me when you have a pole position". Fabi scored no wins in his F1 career but did have 3 poles to his name while at that stage Boutsen could only boast his 2nd place at Imola in 1985.

1988 saw Boutsen with a new teammate, the Italian Alessandro Nannini. When Cosworth stopped development of their turbocharged V6 engine, Benetton were forced to switch to normally aspirated Ford DFR V8 engines in anticipation of the banning of turbos in 1989. Boutsen's consistency, mechanical sympathy and speed in the Rory Byrne designed Benetton B188 saw him score points in 10 of the 16 races, including five 3rd-place finishes (all behind the all-conquering McLaren-Honda cars), and place 4th overall as the best non-turbo driver in the field.

Williams

Frank Williams signed Boutsen in the summer of 1988 to replace Nigel Mansell for 1989 as Mansell had signed to move to Ferrari.^[3] Boutsen's reputation as a reliable, fast driver with good development skills saw Williams sign him on a two-year contract.

For 1989, he drove the new V10 Renault powered Williams FW12C. 1989 began with Boutsen on the back foot due to a heavy pre-season testing crash in Rio and because veteran teammate Riccardo Patrese had a major resurgence in form. However at the Canadian Grand Prix, Boutsen drove well in wet conditions and took his maiden victory after Senna suffered a late engine failure. Although it was a welcome win (Boutsen became the first new winner in F1 since former Arrows teammate Gerhard Berger had won the 1986 Mexican Grand Prix for Benetton), it was considered a lucky win for the Belgian as he had been last at one stage and had a full 360° spin, though luckily he managed to keep his car off the walls. He managed to catch and pass Patrese who was suffering with a loose undertray and took the lead 3 laps from the end when the Honda V10 engine in Senna's McLaren MP4/5 seized. Three more podium finishes came before Boutsen rounded the year off with a second victory at the rain-soaked Australian Grand Prix. Ironically Boutsen had been one of the drivers protesting about the conditions at the circuit before the race.

1990 saw more consistent points scoring drives, including his third and final Grand Prix victory - a lights-to-flag victory in Hungary where he took his first pole position and held off sustained pressure from Alessandro Nannini (Benetton) and Ayrton Senna (McLaren) to win. However, with Nigel Mansell available in 1991, Williams felt they needed a 'star' driver to put together a championship bid. Despite Boutsen winning three races in two years to Patrese's one and finishing every race in 1990 in the points (top 6) barring retirements, the team felt that Patrese had been more consistent (and had worked well with Mansell in 1988) and decided to keep the Italian to drive alongside Mansell.

Ligier

With no vacancies among the top teams Boutsen had to drop down to the Ligier team. Despite having a sizeable budget and Lamborghini V12 engines, the JS35 was an uncompetitive car and Boutsen was frequently unable to disguise his disgust with the machinery given to him. The arrival of Renault engines in 1992 improved matters a little and in his final race for the team he scored 5th place, his first points since leaving Williams.

Jordan

Initially he was unable to find a drive for 1993 but Barclay secured him a slot at Jordan, replacing Ivan Capelli. Boutsen was too tall for the car and largely outpaced by young teammate Rubens Barrichello, failing to score any points in ten races. With Eddie Jordan keen to bring in younger, well-sponsored drivers to the seat the decision was taken to turn Boutsen's home race into a farewell event, though he retired on the first lap.