Luca Badoer

Luca Badoer

Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Italian
Entries	58 (50 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1993 South African Grand Prix
Last entry	2024 Austrian Grand Prix

Luca Badoer (born 25 January 1971) is an Italian Formula One driver who has raced for the Scuderia Italia, Minardi, Forti Corse and most recently, Ferrari teams. In addition to his racing duties, Badoer has been active as one of the test and reserve drivers for Ferrari since 1997 and is currently standing in for Ferrari's regular race driver Felipe Massa, starting at the 2009 European Grand Prix, after the Brazilian was injured during qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix and his original replacement, Michael Schumacher, pulled out due to injury.

Career

Badoer was born in Montebelluna, Veneto. Badoer raced karts in his youth, winning the Italian championship in the 100cc international class in 1988.

1990s: Formula 3000 to Formula One

In 1990, Badoer moved to to single-seater racing, joining the Trivellato team in the Italian Formula Three Championship. He beat Alex Zanardi to win the final race of the 1990 season. In 1991 he won four races in a row, but was disqualified after a technicality concerning his tyres. For 1992 he was picked to drive by Crypton Engineering for the Formula 3000 Championship, in which he emerged as champion.

His debut Formula One season in 1993 was mired by BMS Scuderia Italia's uncompetitive Lola chassis, which, despite Ferrari engines, was the slowest car in the championship in terms of qualifying pace. He regularly beat his experienced team-mate Michele Alboreto, but lost out to him for the second drive when Scuderia Italia merged with Minardi for the 1994 season. He was retained as test driver, and took over in 1995 when Alboreto retired. In the underfunded team his best results were eighth places in Canada and Hungary and ninth in Japan. In 1996 he switched to Forti Corse, where he was only able to qualify for six of the ten races the team entered. Forti Corse folded after that year's British Grand Prix.

Badoer testing for Ferrari at the Circuit de Catalunya in 2008

In 1997 Badoer moved to the new FIA GT Championship, driving a Lotus Elise GT1 for GBF Engineering with codriver Mimmo Schiattarella. While driving for GBF, Badoer was hired as Scuderia Ferrari's test driver, a role he continues to perform. He returned to racing for one season in 1999, with the Minardi team. In the July of that season, Ferrari's number one driver Michael Schumacher broke his leg in an accident at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. As Ferrari's test driver, Badoer expected to be promoted to the race seat in Schumacher's absence, but the team opted for Mika Salo instead, prompting criticism from former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi, who had himself turned the position down.

Badoer started 48 races for backmarkers Scuderia Italia, Minardi and Forti Corse between 1993 and 1999, without scoring any points. As of August 2009, he holds the record for the most Grand Prix starts without a point, although all of his races before his comeback came during a period when only the top six finishers scored points. He nearly achieved his first points finish in the 1999 European Grand Prix when a strong drive saw him lying in fourth place, but with only 13 laps remaining, the gearbox on his Minardi failed and television cameras showed Badoer weeping by his stricken Minardi.

2000s: Ferrari test driver

Unable to find a satisfactory race seat in Formula One after 1999, Badoer focussed on his job as the permanent test driver for Ferrari. He covers thousands of kilometres at the Mugello and Fiorano test circuits each year and has probably driven more kilometres in a Ferrari Formula One car than any other Italian in history. He is credited with making a vital contribution to Ferrari's first F1 Drivers' Championship win for 21 years in 2000.

At the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Badoer demonstrated one of the team's 2005 cars in the centre of the stadium, revving the engine, and performing several doughnuts, creating a large cloud of tyre smoke, and leaving circular black marks on the white platform. The event was witnessed by millions of television viewers worldwide.

Return to Formula One racing

On 11 August 2009 it was confirmed that Badoer would return to Formula One racing after almost 10 years, to replace the injured Felipe Massa at the 2009 European Grand Prix in Valencia. Massa was injured during the qualifying session for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix when a piece of suspension fell from the rear of Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP car and struck Massa's helmet, knocking him unconscious and causing him to crash into a tyre wall. Michael Schumacher was set to replace Massa, but a neck injury Schumacher sustained in a German superbike test earlier in the year forced him to pull out. Ferrari confirmed that Badoer (Ferrari's longest-serving test driver) would replace the injured Massa instead. The BBC reported that Badoer was given the job "as a thank you for his commitment to the team". His previous Formula One appearance was in the 1999 Japanese Grand Prix, where he qualified last and retired late in the race. While Badoer had waited almost 10 years since his last drive, this gap is shorter than the 10 years and three months between Jan Lammers's appearances at the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix and the 1992 Japanese Grand Prix.

In the first practice session for the 2009 European Grand Prix at the Valencia Street Circuit, where he had never driven before, Badoer came last and was three seconds off the pace of fastest man Rubens Barrichello and 2.5 seconds down on team mate Kimi Räikkönen. He was 1.3 seconds down on Räikkönen in second practice, and 1.9 seconds off in final practice. He qualified 20th and last for the race, with a time almost 1.5 seconds slowest than Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari, who was 19th.

He was also caught speeding in the pit-lane four times during Friday practice. These offences earned him a reprimand and three separate fines totalling €5,400. Badoer explained: "I am used to a 100kph limit in testing and so when I pressed the speed limiter button at the usual point in the pitlane, it did not give the car enough time to slow to the right speed".

A number of drivers defended Badoer's performance. Lewis Hamilton said: "I think he's done a good job. He's not put it in the wall; he's kept it on the track. It's an incredibly tall order to jump into the footsteps of Felipe Massa. He hasn't even raced for ten years, so I think anyone who has taken that long out of the car is going to struggle, but instead I think he has done a good job just to keep it on the track and bit-by-bit he will catch up". Heikki Kovalainen stated, "I don't know what else you could have expected. Sometimes the tyres warm up, or they overheat or they don't warm up, and it's much more complicated than a few years ago where they brought out tyres that worked straightaway in different conditions. I think that knocks the driver's confidence very easily – if the tyres are not working 100 per cent you can't push if you don't feel you have the grip".

In racing at Valencia, Badoer became the first Italian to drive for Ferrari in 15 years. BBC commentator and former F1 driver Martin Brundle argued in The Sunday Times that the inclusion of Badoer and Romain Grosjean in the race was dangerous, since new rules that ban further testing until 1 January 2010 mean that they have been unable to gain the experience necessary to race. Badoer had last been able to test the Ferrari F60 at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão, Portugal in December 2008.

Elsewhere, Brundle stated: "It is surprising to some that Ferrari has not elected to use fellow tester Marc Gené who once stood in pretty successfully at Williams. The problem is that, with the testing ban for 2009, none of the test drivers are really up to speed. I personally would have tried a sharp and fit up-and-coming star of which there are many around". During his race commentary, Brundle suggested that Ferrari should use Massa's absence to give a potential future star a drive. Badoer made up six places at the start of the race and ran 14th on the first lap before he was hit from behind by Grosjean and spun. He eventually finished in 17th place out of 18 finishers, posting a fastest lap which was faster than both Toro Rossos. Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali indicated after the race that Badoer would keep the seat for the Belgian Grand Prix.

At the Belgian Grand Prix, Badoer again qualified last after a spin on his last lap of the first qualifying session. At the start of the race, Badoer avoided the first-lap accidents, but he finished in 14th place, last of those drivers to finish the full race distance, despite setting the fastest sector one time of the race. Force India driver Giancarlo Fisichella has been linked to Badoer's seat for the Italian Grand Prix.

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
1993	Lola BMS Scuderia Italia	Lola T93/30	Ferrari V12	RSA Ret	BRA 12	EUR DNQ	SMR 7	ESP Ret	MON DNQ	CAN 15	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 13	ITA 10	POR 14	JPN	AUS		NC	0
1995	Minardi Scuderia Italia	Minardi M195	Ford V8	BRA Ret	ARG DNS	SMR 14	ESP Ret	MON Ret	CAN 8	FRA 13	GBR 10	GER Ret	HUN 8	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR 14	EUR 11	PAC 15	JPN 9	AUS DNS	NC	0
1996	Forti Grand Prix	Forti FG01B	Ford V8	AUS DNQ	BRA 11	ARG Ret	EUR DNQ														NC	0
		Forti FG03						SMR 10	MON Ret	ESP DNQ	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR DNQ	GER DNP	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	JPN
1999	Fondmetal Minardi Ford	Minardi M01	Ford V10	AUS Ret	BRA	SMR 8	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN 10	FRA 10	GBR Ret	AUT 13	GER 10	HUN 14	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	EUR Ret	MAL Ret	JPN Ret		NC	0
2009	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari F60	Ferrari 056 2.4 V8	AUS	MAL	CHN	BHR	ESP	MON	TUR	GBR	GER	HUN	EUR 17	BEL 14	ITA	SIN	JPN	BRA	ABU	21st*	0*

*Season in progress.

External links

• Luca Badoer Official Site Template:It icon
• Profile on F1 Rejects