With recent sales of an AS350B Squirrel, a King Air E90 and a Citation ISP, Boutsen Aviation is currently keeping to its targets of selling one aircraft per month. The man who set those goals for the company has spent much of his adult life achieving targets of his very own, albeit in the world of motorsport.

EBAN's Richard Evans spoke to three times Formula One Grand Prix winner Thierry Boutsen about the progress of his Monaco-based brokerage business. Boutsen explained: "Currently, we specialise in some of the aircraft that I have previously owned, for example Citation, Learjet 31 and 35, and turboprops like the King Air and Piper Cheyenne.

"We have targeted these aircraft since we started and I would like gradually to move into the midsize business jet market. When the time is right, we will switch to this kind of aircraft."

Thierry Boutsen first set up his aircraft brokerage business at the end of 1996, although he admits it was "more as a private person than as a businessman". At this time, he was still racing but decided to make aviation a second profession. His first sale was a Citation ISP to fellow motor racing personality, Heinz Harold Frenzen.

In June 1999, Boutsen was forced to quit racing after a high-speed accident in his Toyota at Le Mans. He explained: "I had already decided to quit motorsport as a driver before going to Le Mans but the accident meant that I couldn't physically drive a racing car any more.

"It was 3 o'clock in the morning, I was leading the race with my Toyota, and I was passing a back marker. He did not see me coming and while I was passing him, he decided to change lane from left to right. He hit me on the rear with his front and that threw me into the wall.

Boutsen was doing 295 kilometres an hour at the time and broke several vertebrae. Worse still, his legs were paralysed but thanks to specialist treatment in Paris, Boutsen is now able to live absolutely normally.

Now firmly established in the brokerage world - Boutsen Aviation has sold over 20 aircraft in total - Thierry Boutsen says his sporting image is one that has helped carry him into his new profession. He said: "The biggest help that I receive comes from the image that I have created around my personality in motorsport.

"Being famous is a help for sure but having a reputation for being very serious in everything that I do, is now very positive in the aviation world as well."

While there will always be other brokerage companies with whom to compete for business, Boutsen says that within Monaco, his company is probably the only one dealing in aircraft exclusively. He said: "There are a lot of brokers here but they're doing anything from boats to aircraft to cars.

"We are specialising in the second-hand aircraft business. We only handle sales and acquisitions, administration and management."

For maintenance work, Boutsen says he is currently trying to establish relationships with leading maintenance facilities, to whom he can guide the company's clients. He said: "We don't have any exclusive relationships but our tendency is to do the maintenance with service centres which are approved by the manufacturers, for example from Cessna and Beechcraft.

"On the whole, we consider that the official representatives are the best equipped facilities and we guide our clients towards them."

As regards the tightening up of European regulations for business aviation, Boutsen believes that it is a positive step for the industry. He said: "It has made the business a bit more difficult but more precise as well. We are in a phase where we are consolidating. There were a lot of amateur practices in existence but they are slowly disappearing because of the stricter regulations, which is a good thing for the business.

"It makes things a bit more expensive for the clients but safety has tremendously increased."

In Boutsen's opinion, there are many parallels between motorsport and aviation. He said: "You meet the same kind of people in motorsport and in aviation, they're all fanatics of a mechanical thing.

"It might be either a race car, a prestigious car or an aircraft. It makes little difference.

There's a piece of metal in there, there are engines, it makes noise, goes fast and requires a lot of concentration to dominate it."

Despite having left the Formula One circuit, Thierry Boutsen still keeps an avid eye on its comings and goings.

When EBAN asked him who the best racing driver is at the moment, he would not be drawn. Boutsen explained: "It depends on who's driving the best car. In fact, it's a combination of car, driver and engineer.

"If you put Schumacher in a Minardi, I can tell you he's not going to win races, that's for sure. So the people driving these cars have no chance, to prove even that they're good.

"But as soon as someone like Schumacher gets a chance to prove that he is good, then he can do it."