Di Grassi at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix |
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| Born | 11 August 1984 São Paulo, Brazil |
|---|---|
| Formula One World Championship career | |
| Nationality | Brazilian |
| Active years | 2010 |
| Teams | Virgin |
| Races | 19 (18 starts) |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podiums | 0 |
| Career points | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| First race | 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix |
| Last race | 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix |
| 2010 position | 24th (0 points) |
Lucas Tucci di Grassi (born 11 August 1984 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian racing driver who drove for Virgin Racing in the 2010 Formula One season. He is currently Pirelli's official test driver for the 2011 Formula One season.[1]
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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.
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.[2]
He also travelled to Europe to make four race starts in the F3 Euroseries with Prema Powerteam, achieving a best finish of fourth place.[3] 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.[4] 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.[2]
At the end of the season, Di Grassi returned to Macau, this time with Manor, and won the event from third on the grid,[5] although runaway F3 Euroseries champion Hamilton missed the race.[2]
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.[6]
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.[2]
He scored his first win of the year in the 14th round of the championship at Istanbul, and took the lead of the championship,[7] but Glock moved back ahead of him when he won the sprint race at the same event,[8] 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.[9] 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,[10] and again finished third, finishing with the same number of points as he did in 2008.
Having previously been a test driver for Renault in 2005, di Grassi tested for the Honda Racing F1 Team at the end of 2008, alongside fellow Brazilian and GP2 rival Bruno Senna. Honda race driver Jenson Button tested a Honda at Circuit de Catalunya.
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 after fellow Brazilian Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Heikki Kovalainen. However, di Grassi was not retained by the team for 2010.
Di Grassi joined Timo Glock at new team Virgin Racing for 2010. The team, originally called Manor, was rebranded when Virgin Group owner Richard Branson purchased a 20% stake.[11] Di Grassi finished in 24th position in the championship, with a best race finish of 14th at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix.
In Japan, he crashed on the way to the grid before the race had started.[12] In December, di Grassi won the Desafio Internacional das Estrelas, a karting event organised by Felipe Massa.
On 21 December 2010, di Grassi was left without a drive, after Virgin announced Jérôme d'Ambrosio to partner Glock for the 2011 season.[13]
On 6 July 2011, di Grassi was appointed Pirelli's official tester for their development of Formula One tyres for the 2011 season,[1] and will drive the Italian company's Toyota TF109 test car in five test sessions in order to develop the next generation of tyres, as well as attending several race weekends where he will collect information about tyre performance and attend technical briefings.[1]
| Season | Series | Team | Races | Wins | Poles | F/Laps | Podiums | Points | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Formula Renault 2.0 Brazil | G Force Motorsport | 10 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 137 | 2nd |
| 2003 | Formula Three Sudamericana | Avallone Motorsport | 12 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 164 | 2nd |
| Formula 3 Euroseries | Prema Powerteam | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 21st | |
| 2004 | British Formula 3 | Hitech Racing | 24 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 130 | 8th |
| Bahrain Super Prix | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | 19th | ||
| Macau Grand Prix | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | N/A | 3rd | ||
| Masters of Formula 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | 5th | ||
| 2005 | Formula 3 Euroseries | Manor Motorsport | 19 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 68 | 3rd |
| Macau Grand Prix | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | N/A | 1st | ||
| Masters of Formula 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | N/A | 3rd | ||
| Formula One | Renault F1 | Test driver | |||||||
| 2006 | GP2 Series | Durango | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 17th |
| 2007 | GP2 Series | ART Grand Prix | 21 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 77 | 2nd |
| 2008 | GP2 Series | Barwa International Campos Team | 14 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 63 | 3rd |
| Formula One | Renault F1 | Test driver | |||||||
| 2009 | GP2 Series | Racing Engineering | 20 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 63 | 3rd |
| Formula One | Renault F1 | Test driver | |||||||
| 2010 | Formula One | Virgin Racing | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24th |
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Prema Powerteam | Dallara F303/022 | Spiess-Opel | HOC 1 |
HOC 2 |
ADR 1 14 |
ADR 2 18 |
PAU 1 9 |
PAU 2 4 |
NOR 1 |
NOR 2 |
LMS 1 |
LMS 2 |
NÜR 1 |
NÜR 2 |
A1R 1 |
A1R 2 |
ZAN 1 |
ZAN 2 |
HOC 3 |
HOC 4 |
MAG 1 |
MAG 2 |
21st | 5 |
| 2005 | Manor Motorsport | Dallara F305/025 | Mercedes | HOC 1 Ret |
HOC 2 DNS |
PAU 1 5 |
PAU 2 7 |
SPA 1 DSQ |
SPA 2 3 |
MON 1 7 |
MON 2 5 |
OSC 1 1 |
OSC 2 2 |
NOR 1 5 |
NOR 2 6 |
NÜR 1 2 |
NÜR 2 Ret |
ZAN 1 Ret |
ZAN 2 Ret |
LAU 1 8 |
LAU 2 3 |
HOC 3 2 |
HOC 4 Ret |
3rd | 68 |
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Virgin Racing | Virgin VR-01 | Cosworth CA2010 2.4 V8 | BHR Ret |
AUS Ret |
MAL 14 |
CHN Ret |
ESP 19 |
MON Ret |
TUR 19 |
CAN 19 |
EUR 17 |
GBR Ret |
GER Ret |
HUN 18 |
BEL 17 |
ITA 20 |
SIN 15 |
JPN DNS |
KOR Ret |
BRA NC |
ABU 18 |
24th | 0 |
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Alexandre Prémat |
Macau Grand Prix Winner 2005 |
Succeeded by Mike Conway |
| Preceded by Michael Schumacher |
Desafio Internacional das Estrelas winner 2010 |
Succeeded by Jaime Alguersuari |