Born in Waidhofen an der Thaya, Wurz competed in cycling events in his youth, and won the BMX World Championship in 1986 at the age of 12.

Also in 1996, Wurz, together with Davy Jones and Manuel Reuter, won the Le Mans 24 Hours and in so doing became the youngest ever winner of the 24-hour race, a record he still holds.

[4] Wurz's Formula One debut was on 15 June 1997 at Montreal for Benetton filling in for fellow Austrian Gerhard Berger, who could not race due to illness.

In April 2005, with Juan Pablo Montoya injured, Wurz drove for McLaren in the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix, finishing fourth in the race, but taking third place after both BAR-Honda drivers were disqualified.

However, McLaren were struggling with their abortive new car and blocked the move to retain Wurz as a development driver.

[citation needed] Jaguar then decided to give Pizzonia more time to prove himself, before drafting in Justin Wilson.

It was announced on 3 August 2006 that Wurz would replace Mark Webber as a race driver at Williams for the 2007 season.

He came third for the third time in his F1 career at the Canadian Grand Prix on 10 June 2007, having started 19th on the grid in an action packed race.

On 8 October 2007 he announced his immediate retirement from Formula One, meaning that the 2007 Chinese Grand Prix was his final race.

In 2009, together with Marc Gené and David Brabham, he took outright victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours, driving a works Peugeot.

In November 2011, Toyota Motorsports confirmed Wurz as one of their factory drivers for the companies planned return to the 24 Heures du Mans in 2012.

[16] In May 2018 Wurz announced that he would follow in the footsteps of his father by making his competitive rallycross debut at the FIA World Rallycross Championship's World RX of Norway at Lånkebanen the following month, driving a Ford Fiesta Supercar for MJP Racing Team Austria.

[19] The team would have been funded by Christian Baha, the owner of the Superfund Group, and the cars would be powered by Cosworth engines.