Oliver Turvey

Oliver Turvey
Nationality	British
Born	1 April 1987 (1987-04-01) Penrith (England)
2012 GP2 Series
Debut season	2010
Current team	Carlin
Car no.	25
Former teams	iSport International
Starts	22
Wins	0
Poles	1
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	6th in 2010
Previous series
2004–06 2007 2007 2008 2009 2009–10-2011	Formula BMW UK Italian FRenault Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 British Formula Three Formula Renault 3.5 Series GP2 Asia Series
Awards
2006 2008	McLaren Autosport Award Cambridge Full Blue

Oliver Jonathan Turvey (born 1 April 1987 in Penrith, Cumbria) is a British racing driver. He was a notable kart racer, with two national titles, and was the 2006 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner. His career has been supported by the Racing Steps Foundation.

Career history

Karting

Like many aspiring junior racing drivers, Turvey began his karting career at eight years old. After three seasons, he progressed to the British Cadet Championship in 1999, in which he was placed fifth overall, and was selected as a member of the English National team, which won that year's Inter-nation Championship. In 2000, Turvey graduated to the Junior Yamaha National Championship and won the title. After a season in Junior TKM, he moved on to the Junior Rotax class in 2002 and added that title to his collection.

Car racing

Turvey made his formula single seater debut in the 2003 British Formula Renault Winter Series and spent the remainder of the season competing in Zip Formula, in which he was the highest-placed rookie. In 2004, he sidestepped into Formula BMW UK with Team SWR and achieved one race win. At the end of the season, he made a one-off Formula Three debut in the Promotion class of the Asian F3 Championship.

In the following season, Turvey stayed with Team SWR in Formula BMW, making eight appearances (each with two race starts) in the ten-round championship. Budgetary restrictions prevented him from entering more than seven rounds in 2006, but points scores in every race (including five wins) secured second place overall. At the Formula BMW World Final in Valencia, he was the highest-placed British finisher in sixth position. Turvey ended the year by beating five other finalists to win the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award.

Although Turvey was expected to graduate to the British F3 Championship in 2007, he has instead opted for the opportunity of competing in Europe. He spent the season dovetailing a dual program in Italian Formula Renault and the Formula Renault Eurocup with the experienced Jenzer Motorsport organisation. In 2008, he was runner-up in the British Formula Three Championship, behind team-mate Jaime Alguersuari.

Turvey competed in the World Series by Renault for 2009, where he was once again paired with Alguersuari at Carlin. He won a single race and finished the championship as top rookie, in fourth position. He competed in the 2009–10 GP2 Asia Series season and is now taking part in the 2010 GP2 Series season for the iSport International team.

On 16 November 2010 he took part in the Formula One young drivers test in Abu Dhabi driving for McLaren. Turvey set the second fastest time, 1.1 seconds slower than the quickest time set by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.

With his Racing Steps Foundation backing having expired at the end of 2010, Turvey was unable to raise a budget for another GP2 season in 2011. However, he was drafted by Carlin—the team now competing in its first year of GP2—to replace Mikhail Aleshin for the third round of the championship in Monaco; Aleshin also struggling to find enough money for a full season. He finished in the points in his comeback race, but was subsequently penalised due to jumping the start. He was replaced for the following round by Álvaro Parente, and finished 25th in the championship.

Turvey joined Gary Paffett as a test driver for McLaren for the 2012 season.

Turvey will spend 2012 driving a McLaren MP4-12C GT3 in the GT3 Championship.

Awards

Dec. 2006 - McLaren Autosport BRDC Award
2008 - Sports Personality of the Year award at the 2008 Cumbria Sports Awards
2008 - Daily Mirror Best British Driver in F3 Award
2008 - Awarded the Dunhill Future Champion Award at Goodwood Festival of Speed
2008 - University of Cambridge Extraordinary Full Blue for Motorsport (the first ever for the sport).
2008 - British Racing Drivers' Club National Racing Driver of the Year

Education

Turvey attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Penrith, Cumbria in England and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge as an undergraduate, where he studied engineering. In late 2007, he applied to become a Cambridge Full Blue, the highest honour that can be awarded to a sportsman at the university. He completed his bachelors degree in 2008 and was awarded the Full Blue by the university; the first ever racing driver to be awarded the accolade. His Master's will include a dissertation on F1 aerodynamics. He has one sister called Lucie Turvey who also attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School.

Racing career

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Pos	Points
2009	Carlin Motorsport	CAT SPR 4	CAT FEA 11	SPA SPR 6	SPA FEA 14	MON FEA 1	HUN SPR 8	HUN FEA ret	SIL SPR 3	SIL FEA 3	BUG SPR 3	BUG FEA 10	ALG SPR Ret	ALG FEA 6	NÜR SPR 4	NÜR FEA ret	ALC SPR 2	ALC FEA 5	4th	93

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2010	iSport International	ESP FEA 5	ESP SPR 5	MON FEA 15	MON SPR 15	TUR FEA 14	TUR SPR 18	VAL FEA Ret	VAL SPR 12	GBR FEA 8	GBR SPR 2	GER FEA 8	GER SPR 2	HUN FEA 4	HUN SPR 5	BEL FEA 6	BEL SPR 5	ITA FEA 3	ITA SPR 6	ABU FEA 2	ABU SPR 17	6th	47
2011	Carlin	TUR FEA	TUR SPR	ESP FEA	ESP SPR	MON FEA 14	MON SPR 8	VAL FEA	VAL SPR	GBR FEA	GBR SPR	GER FEA	GER SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	BEL FEA	BEL SPR	ITA FEA	ITA SPR			25th	0

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	DC	Points
2009–10	iSport International	ABU1 FEA 8	ABU1 SPR 4	ABU2 FEA 1	ABU2 SPR 5	BHR1 FEA 9	BHR1 SPR 6	BHR2 FEA 9	BHR2 SPR 11	6th	17
2011	Ocean Racing Technology	ABU FEA 18	ABU SPR 19	ITA FEA 15	ITA SPR 8					16th	0

External links

• Oliver Turvey's official website

Awards
Preceded by Oliver Jarvis	McLaren Autosport BRDC Award 2006	Succeeded by Stefan Wilson
Preceded by Jason Plato (Racing Driver) Mark Higgins (Rally Driver)	Autosport National Driver of the Year 2008	Succeeded by Colin Turkington