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Gabriele Tarquini (born in Giulianova, March 2, 1962) is a racing driver from Italy. He participated in 78 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on May 3, 1987. He scored 1 championship point, and holds the record for the most failed attempts to qualify. He has subsequently raced successfully in Touring Cars, winning the BTCC in 1994, the ETCC in 2003 and the WTCC in 2009.
On 22 November 2009, he won the 2009 FIA World Touring Car Championship title at the age of 47 years and 266 days. Then, he has become the oldest FIA World Champion ever, breaking Juan Manuel Fangio's record of being the oldest FIA Formula One World Drivers' Champion (46 years and 41 days).[1][2][3]
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He made a debut for Osella at the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix.
He joined Coloni for 1988 and started 8 of the 16 races, often failing to qualify due to the other slow cars all being exempt from pre-qualifying.
Tarquini signed to drive for the FIRST team and drove for them at the Formula One Indoor Trophy, but when their car failed crash tests, he started 1989 without a ride but joined AGS after Philippe Streiff's career-ending testing crash. He came 6th in Mexico and often threatened to score points, running 4th at the Monaco Grand Prix and 6th in the United States. He remained with the team until late 1991, by which time it was totally uncompetitive and on the verge of folding.
He moved to Fondmetal, and showed pace for them, scoring a major upset in Belgium by outqualifying Ivan Capelli's Ferrari. This team too soon folded.
He was signed up by Tyrrell for the 1995 season and was their test driver. He replaced Ukyo Katayama for the European round as the Japanese driver was injured. But after finishing 14th, Tarquini's Formula One career was over.
Tarquini failed to pre-qualify on a record 24 occasions (out of a total of 40 failures to qualify), mainly because he was a regular in the pre-qualifying era, usually in cars which were so slow as to struggle to qualify.
Tarquini moved to the British Touring Car Championship in 1994, winning the title at the first attempt in an Alfa Romeo featuring controversial aerodynamic enhancements. He started races in both the British and Italian Touring Car Championship in 1995, and was also in the BTCC for David Richards' Honda team in the late 1990s, taking 4 further victories, as well as racing in Germany's STW Cup and the Belgian Procar series. He switched to the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) with considerable success, winning it for Alfa Romeo in 2003.
He remained with Alfa Romeo as the ETCC became the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in 2005. He finished seventh overall, with two victories.
He moved to SEAT Sport for 2006, finishing fifth in the championship, with one win. He finished 8th in the standings in 2007, winning just one race. 2008 saw considerable improvement for Tarquini as he finished runner-up in the championship to Yvan Muller winning three races. His biggest success of his career came in 2009 when he won the WTCC championship at the last race of the year in Macau.
SEAT withdrew from the WTCC for 2010, but provided funding to introduce the new semi-works SR-Sport team, with whom Tarquini attempted to retain his crown. He scored five wins during the season to finish runner-up to ex-SEAT Sport teammate Yvan Muller in the drivers standings.
This was after four victories, plus an inherited victory in Belgium from Jordi Gene after Gene's disqualifacation. His crash in Japan Race two was what ended his chances.
(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 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | San Remo Racing | SIL 5 |
THR 5 |
EST 3 |
VAL Ret |
PAU DNS |
SPA 4 |
DIJ 13 |
PER 4 |
ZEL 13 |
ZAN Ret |
DON Ret |
6th | 14 |
| 1986 | Coloni Racing | SIL |
VAL 13 |
PAU Ret |
SPA 8 |
IMO 4 |
MUG Ret |
PER Ret |
ZEL 3 |
BIR 13 |
BUG Ret |
JAR 13 |
10th | 7 |
| 1987 | First Racing | SIL 10 |
VAL Ret |
SPA 12 |
PAU 11 |
DON 19 |
PER 3 |
BRH 17 |
BIR 14 |
IMO 2 |
BUG 5 |
JAR Ret |
8th | 12 |
(key)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Kelvin Burt |
Autosport National Racing Driver of the Year 1994 |
Succeeded by John Cleland |
| Sporting positions | ||
| Preceded by Gianni Morbidelli |
Formula One Indoor Trophy Winner 1991 |
Succeeded by Johnny Herbert |
| Preceded by Joachim Winkelhock |
British Touring Car Champion 1994 |
Succeeded by John Cleland |
| Preceded by Fabrizio Giovanardi |
European Touring Car Champion 2003 |
Succeeded by Andy Priaulx |
| Preceded by Yvan Muller |
World Touring Car Champion 2009 |
Succeeded by Yvan Muller |
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