Luca Badoer returns to F1 racing
Following Jaime Alguersuari’s debut in Hungary there will another two new names on 2009 F1 grid this weekend in Valencia. Luca Badoer will step in for injured Felipe Massa, Romain Grosjean will replace Nelson Piquet in Renault. Here are short introductions of both drivers:
Luca Badoer, Ferrari
Following his 1992 F3000 championship title Luca Badoer moved up to Formula One in 1993. He made his F1 debut with the Ferrari powered Lola BMS. His best F1 race finish to date came in the fourth race of that season – 7th place in the 1993 San Marino GP. Unfortunately for him those days only top 6 scored the points…
At the end of 1993 season BMS merged with Minardi. Badoer became the Minardi test driver in 1994 before taking over the racing duties from Alboreto in 1995. He then moved to Forti in 1996. Forti however folded after 10 races and Badoer was left without a race drive. He became a Ferrari test driver in 1998 before returning to F1 racing with Minardi in 1999. The same year he missed out on chance to race for Ferrari when Mika Salo was drafted in to replace injured Michael Schumacher. At that time he probably had no idea that it would take 10 years and injuries to both Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher for him to race in F1 again …
Luca Badoer F1 stats (prior to 2009 European GP):
debut race – 1993 South African GP
last race – 1999 Japanese GP
best result – 1993 San Marino GP – 7th place
teams – Lola BMS (1993), Minardi (1995), Forti (1996), Minardi (1999)
former team mates – Michele Alboreto, Pierluigi Martini, Pedro Lamy, Andrea Montermini, Marc Gene
GPs started – 48
points scored – 0
Romain Grosjean
Romain Grosjean
Romain Grosjean has been the team’s third driver since 2008 season. He has been supported by Renault since he was 18-years-old and became part of Renault’s Driver Development programme in 2006 after winning the French Formula Renault title. In 2007 he was Formula 3 Euro Series champion and in 2008 he won the GP2 Asia Series. This season, Grosjean has been competing in the GP2 Series with Barwa Addax. He won the feature races in Spain and Monaco and finished 2nd in the sprint race in Spain. He is currently 2nd in the 2009 GP2 championship with 45 points (but unlikely to add anything to that tally).
Romain Grosjean career highlights:
2003 – champion Swiss Formula Renault 1.6
2005 – champion French Formula Renault
2007 – champion Formula Three Euroseries (ahead of 2nd placed Sebastien Buemi and 3rd Nico Hulkenberg)
2008 – champion GP2 Asia Series (ahead of 2nd placed Sebastien Buemi), 4th in GP2 championship (2 wins)
2009 – 2 wins, one 2nd place in GP2 championship
Photos: Shell Motorsport, Renault/LAT
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