Gastón Mazzacane

Gastón Mazzacane
Born 8 May 1975 (1975-05-08) (age 36)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality Argentinian
Active years 20002001
Teams Minardi and Prost
Races 21
Championships 0
Wins 0
Podiums 0
Career points 0
Pole positions 0
Fastest laps 0
First race 2000 Australian Grand Prix
Last race 2001 San Marino Grand Prix

Gastón Hugo Mazzacane (born May 8, 1975 in La Plata[1]) is a racing driver from Argentina. He participated in 21 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on March 12, 2000. He scored no championship points.

Contents

Racing career

He is Argentina's most recent F1 driver, but is unfortunately best known as a "pay driver". He began his F1 career in 1999 as the test driver for Minardi. In late February 2000, it was announced that he would be the teammate of Marc Gené in the race team. "I intend to learn over the first half of the season and then I feel I will have the confidence to perform well," Mazzacane told the press at Minardi's car debut at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. His debut year in Formula One began with a broken gearbox at his first race, the 2000 Australian Grand Prix, followed by a 10th place in Brazil. He went on to outqualify Gené at Imola, a feat he later accomplished four more times. The German Grand Prix was a relative high point for him; after outqualifying his teammate, he finished 11th. His highlight in the spotlights this season was on a damp Indianapolis track when he famously overtook Mika Hakkinen, who was struggling after an early gamble on dry tyres. After running up to third without stopping, he ran over his pitcrew and dropped out of the race later. Nevertheless he finished 11 of the 17 races that year and ranked third among drivers with the most kilometres raced.

At the start of 2001, Mazzacane tested for Arrows, but finally settled into the Prost team, taking over the seat of the Sauber-bound Nick Heidfeld. He beat CART's Oriol Servia for the Prost spot, and was announced as the second driver in January 2001. However, the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix would be his final F1 race. Alain Prost fired him by using a performance clause in his contract. The vacancy was filled by Luciano Burti, who had recently been sacked from Jaguar Racing.

Mazzacane signed a contract with the reformed DART team a/k/a Phoenix, which had plans to race in the 2002 season. However, it was not to be as the team was barred from racing.

He then went to the US and competed in the last half of the 2004 Champ Car season with the Dale Coyne Racing #19 American Medical Response car.

Motorsport career results

Complete International Formula 3000 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 DC Points
1996 Auto Sport Racing NÜR
Ret
PAU
DNQ
PER
14
HOC
Ret
SIL
11
SPA
19
MAG
Ret
EST
10
MUG
Ret
HOC
Ret
22nd 0
1997 Auto Sport Racing SIL
10
PAU
DNQ
HEL
Ret
NÜR
10
PER
15
HOC
10
A1R
17
SPA
11
MUG
10
JER
Ret
28th 0
1998 Team Astromega OSC
6
IMO
7
CAT
Ret
SIL
6
MON
12
PAU
9
A1R
Ret
HOC
Ret
HUN
Ret
SPA
DNQ
PER
13
NÜR
Ret
21st 2
1999 GP Racing IMO
MON
CAT
MAG
SIL
DNQ
A1R
HOC
HUN
SPA
NÜR
- 0

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
2000 Telefonica Minardi Fondmetal Minardi M02 Fondmetal V10 AUS
Ret
BRA
10
SMR
13
GBR
15
ESP
15
EUR
8
MON
Ret
CAN
12
FRA
Ret
AUT
12
GER
11
HUN
Ret
BEL
17
ITA
10
USA
Ret
JPN
15
MAL
13
21st 0
2001 Prost Acer Prost AP04 Acer V10 AUS
Ret
MAL
12
BRA
Ret
SMR
Ret
ESP
AUT
MON
CAN
EUR
FRA
GBR
GER
HUN
BEL
ITA
USA
JPN
25th 0

American Open-Wheel

(key)

Champ Car

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Rank Points
2004 Dale Coyne LBH
 
MTY
 
MIL
16
POR
13
CLE
12
TOR
6
VAN
DNS
ROA
18
DEN
15
MTL
12
LS
13
LVS
15
SRF
 
MXC
 
17th 73

External links

http://www.gastonmazzacane.com.ar/

References