Jani started his career in karting in 1998, remaining for two years before moving to Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup in 2001. He also raced some events in Italian Formula Renault that year and continued in both series in 2002. In 2003, he moved to the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup, driving for Jenzer Motorsport, and finished second in the championship by only four points. For 2004 he switched to the French team DAMS — stating in the Swiss press "This year, it is win or nothing" — and finished fourth in the championship.
In 2005, Jani raced in the GP2 Series with Racing Engineering alongside Borja García, winning twice: at the Hungaroring and at Monza. He also led most of the Nürburgring race in a clearly slower car through effective defensive driving.
In 2006, he replaced injured Nicolas Lapierre for Arden at Silverstone and Magny-Cours, becoming the only person ever to drive in both GP2 and Formula 1 on the same day.
Jani represented Switzerland with A1 Team Switzerland in the A1 Grand Prix series. In the inaugural 2005–06 season the team earned the silver medal, with Jani winning the Dubai Autodrome Sprint race. After Sébastien Buemi covered the first two rounds of 2006–07, Jani returned and won the Malaysia Sprint race later that season. He drove all races for Switzerland in 2007–08, taking the championship with four wins and 168 points. The team finished second in the 2008–09 season, again with Jani present throughout.
In 2007, Jani drove for PKV Racing in the Champ Car World Series, finishing ninth overall with 231 points. He chose to focus on the 2007–08 A1GP season rather than continue in Champ Car for 2008; the Champ Car series was subsequently absorbed by the IRL.
In 2010, Jani became affiliated with Swiss privateer Rebellion Racing, teaming with Nicolas Prost to race a Lola-Judd LMP1 at the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing second at Algarve and fifth at Silverstone. He also raced the second half of the FIA GT1 season for Matech in a Ford GT, finishing seventh in one championship race and eighth in two others.
Jani took up full-time WEC racing in 2012 with Rebellion, teaming with Prost and Nick Heidfeld for two seasons. He then joined the Porsche works team in 2014, winning his first LMP1 race at São Paulo, Brazil, and finishing third overall in the championship. In 2015 he won at Bahrain and secured five runner-up finishes, again finishing third in the championship.
Jani began the 2016 WEC season with a win at Silverstone and a second place at Spa. He then inherited victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans when Kazuki Nakajima's Toyota broke down in the lead with only one lap remaining.
On 24 August 2017, it was announced that Jani would make his Formula E debut in the fourth season with Faraday Future Dragon Racing alongside Jérôme d'Ambrosio. After two 18th-place finishes at the Hong Kong season opener, Jani abruptly left the team to focus on WEC commitments with Rebellion Racing.
In December 2018, Porsche announced Jani would race for them in their maiden Formula E season. He raced alongside André Lotterer through the end of the 2019–20 season, finishing twentieth in the standings. For the 2020–21 Formula E Championship he was replaced by Pascal Wehrlein.
Jani was confirmed as Scuderia Toro Rosso's third driver in December 2005, alongside race drivers Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi, a role he held throughout 2006 before departing for a Champ Car career. For the 2008 F1 season he was linked with the test driving role at Red Bull Racing. In early 2010, he tested for Force India, but Force India ultimately signed Paul di Resta as their test and reserve driver. In June 2023, it was announced that Jani signed with Audi as a simulator driver to help develop their power unit in preparation for their 2026 Formula One entry.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
Gallery · 4 related images
