Lucas di Grassi
| File:Lucas GP Brasil 2009.jpg | |
| Formula One World Championship career | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |  Brazilian |
| Entries | 0 |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podiums | 0 |
| Career points | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| First entry | 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix |
Lucas Tucci di Grassi (born 11 August 1984 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian Formula One racing driver. Having finished as runner-up to Timo Glock in the 2007 GP2 Series season, he will be a race driver for new Formula One team Virgin Racing in 2010.
Career
Early career
Di Grassi's career in karting peaked in 2000, with a 5th place in the Formula A World Championship. Di Grassi began his formula racing career in Brazilian Formula Renault in 2002, finishing as runner-up to champion Sérgio Jimenez.
Formula Three (2003-06)
In 2003 Di Grassi stepped up to Formula Three, driving a Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda for Avallone Motorsport in Formula Three Sudamericana. He finished as the championship runner-up behind Danilo Dirani, with one win and eleven other podium finishes. This came despite missing the last six races after suffering a major crash at the Curitiba round.[1]
He also travelled to Europe to make four race starts in the F3 Euroseries with Prema Powerteam, achieving a best finish of fourth place.[2] The following year, he made a permanent move to Europe and took a drive with Hitech Racing in the British F3 Championship. His season peaked with two wins, and he was classified in eighth place overall.[3] Another of that year's highlights was a podium finish on his début at the Macau Grand Prix with Hitech.
In 2005, Di Grassi took another step up in a full-time return to the F3 Euroseries with Manor Motorsport. Against the dominant ASM pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil he could only manage one win but ended the year third in the championship.[1]
At the end of the season, Di Grassi returned to Macau, this time with Manor, and won the event from third on the grid,[4] although runaway F3 Euroseries champion Hamilton missed the race.[1]
GP2 Series (2006-09)
2006 brought Di Grassi to the next stage in his career: promotion to the GP2 Grand Prix support series with Team Durango. It was a modest debut season, however, with only 8 points and 17th place in the championship standings.[5]
For 2007 he joined reigning champions ART Grand Prix. He scored points consistently throughout the season, failing to score only once in the first 13 races. Despite not winning a race in that time, it put him in contention for the championship along with iSport's Timo Glock.[1]
He scored his first win of the year in the 14th round of the championship at Istanbul, and took the lead of the championship,[6] but Glock moved back ahead of him when he won the sprint race at the same event,[7] and went on to win the title.
Di Grassi worked on testing the new-model GP2 car (to be used between 2008 and 2010), while testing for Renault F1. However, he resumed his GP2 career in 2008 by securing a drive at Campos Racing from round 4 onwards, replacing Ben Hanley.[8] With three second places and one fourth place finish, he was the highest-scoring driver over the first two race meetings in which he took part. Two wins followed and he briefly looked set for a surprising championship challenge, before a final lap collision with Giorgio Pantano (who was disqualified for the incident) at Spa effectively ended his hopes. He finished an eventual third, ten points behind Pantano despite six fewer races.
He returned to the series for 2009 with Racing Engineering,[9] and again finished third, finishing with the same number of points as he did in 2008.
Formula One
At the end of 2008, Di Grassi tested for the Honda Racing F1 Team alongside fellow Brazilian and GP2 rival Bruno Senna. Honda Racer Jenson Button tested the 2009 Honda and set a time around Circuit de Catalunya. Senna was just 0.3 seconds off and Di Grassi was 0.5 seconds off. [10] Di Grassi was then sent a contract by Renault to join them as a test driver, becoming the third GP2 runner-up to join Renault as a test driver alongside Heikki Kovalainen and fellow Brazilian Nelson Piquet Jr.
Virgin (2010)
Di Grassi will join Timo Glock at new team Virgin Racing for 2010. The team were originally called Manor but rebranded when Virgin Group owner Richard Branson purchased a 20% stake in the team
Racing record
| Season | Series | Team Name | Races | Poles | Wins | Points | Final Placing |
| 2002 | Brazilian Formula Renault | 1 | 2 | 2nd | |||
| 2003 | Formula 3 SudAmericana | Avallone Motorsport | 12 | 3 | 1 | 2nd | |
| 2003 | Formula 3 Euroseries | Prema Powerteam | 4 | 0 | 0 | 21st | |
| 2004 | British Formula 3 | HiTech Racing | 24 | 2 | 2 | 130 | 8th |
| 2005 | Formula 3 Euroseries | Manor Motorsport | 20 | 2 | 1 | 68 | 3rd |
| 2006 | GP2 Series | Durango | 20 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 17th |
| 2007 | GP2 Series | ART Grand Prix | 21 | 0 | 1 | 77 | 2nd |
| 2008 | GP2 Series | Campos Grand Prix | 14 | 0 | 3 | 63 | 3rd |
| 2009 | GP2 Series | Racing Engineering | 20 | 1 | 1 | 63 | 3rd |
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 | 21 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Durango | VAL FEA 17 |
VAL SPR 16 |
SMR FEA Ret |
SMR SPR Ret |
GER FEA 18 |
GER SPR 13 |
ESP FEA 12 |
ESP SPR 9 |
MON FEA 11 |
GBR FEA Ret |
GBR SPR EX |
FRA FEA 7 |
FRA SPR 6 |
GER FEA Ret |
GER SPR Ret |
HUN FEA 13 |
HUN SPR Ret |
TUR FEA 5 |
TUR SPR 9 |
ITA FEA 10 |
ITA SPR 14 |
17th | 8 |
| 2007 | ART Grand Prix | BHR FEA 5 |
BHR SPR Ret |
ESP FEA 3 |
ESP SPR 3 |
MON FEA 5 |
FRA FEA 2 |
FRA SPR 4 |
GBR FEA 4 |
GBR SPR 4 |
EUR FEA 2 |
EUR SPR 6 |
HUN FEA 4 |
HUN SPR 4 |
TUR FEA 1 |
TUR SPR 11 |
ITA FEA 13 |
ITA SPR 4 |
BEL FEA 3 |
BEL SPR 3 |
VAL FEA Ret |
VAL SPR 13 |
2nd | 77 |
| 2008 | Campos Grand Prix | ESP FEA |
ESP SPR |
TUR FEA |
TUR SPR |
MON FEA |
MON SPR |
FRA FEA 2 |
FRA SPR 4 |
GBR FEA 2 |
GBR SPR 2 |
GER FEA 5 |
GER SPR Ret |
HUN FEA 1 |
HUN SPR 10 |
EUR FEA 4 |
EUR SPR 1 |
BEL FEA 20 |
BEL SPR 5 |
ITA FEA 1 |
ITA SPR 11 |
3rd | 63 | |
| 2009 | Racing Engineering | ESP FEA Ret |
ESP SPR 10 |
MON FEA 4 |
MON SPR 4 |
TUR FEA 8 |
TUR SPR 1 |
GBR FEA 2 |
GBR SPR 19 |
GER FEA 7 |
GER SPR Ret |
HUN FEA 2 |
HUN SPR 3 |
VAL FEA 19 |
VAL SPR Ret |
BEL FEA 3 |
BEL SPR Ret |
ITA FEA 3 |
ITA SPR 2 |
POR FEA 3 |
POR SPR 15 |
3rd | 63 |
References
- ^ a b c d "Meet the rookies: Lucas di Grassi". F1Fanatic.co.uk. 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
- ^ "Forix".
- ^ "Forix".
- ^ "Forix".
- ^ "Forix".
- ^ "GP2 Turkey Feature: di Grassi takes title lead". MaximumMotorsport.co.uk. 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-28.
- ^ "GP2 Turkey Sprint: Glock back on top". MaximumMotorsport.co.uk. 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-28.
- ^ "Di Girassi in GP2 Return with Campos". autosport.com. 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-09.
- ^ "Di Grassi joins Racing Engineering". autosport.com. 2009-02-27. Retrieved 2009-02-27.
- ^ "Di Girassi joins Timo Glock at Virgin Media". Gareth Llewellyn-Stevens. 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-15.
External links
- Lucas di Grassi official website
- @lucasdigrassi on Twitter
- Lucas Di Grassi career statistics at Driver Database
|
