Álvaro Parente | |
---|---|
Nationality | Portuguese |
Born | 4 October 1984 Porto (Portugal) |
2012 GP2 Series | |
Debut season | 2008 |
Current team | Racing Engineering |
Car no. | 8 |
Former teams | Scuderia Coloni Super Nova Racing Ocean Racing Technology |
Starts | 56 |
Wins | 2 |
Poles | 1 |
Fastest laps | 2 |
Best finish | 8th in 2008 and 2009 |
Previous series | |
2001–02 2003 2004–05 2006–07 2008–09, 2009–10 |
Spanish Formula Three Formula Three Euroseries British Formula Three Formula Renault 3.5 GP2 Asia Series |
Championship titles | |
2005 2007 |
British Formula Three Formula Renault 3.5 Series |
Álvaro Parente (born 4 October 1984 in Porto) is a Portuguese racecar driver. Parente's father was also a race driver.
Contents |
After winning the Karting European Junior Championship in 1998, Parente made his debut in auto racing in 2001 at the age of 16, driving in the Spanish F3 Championship. In the following year, he was integrated into the Team Portugal project and scored a win on his way to 4th place in the series.
Parente than began a more international career in 2003, moving to the F3 Euroseries with Team Ghinzani, but the Mugen-Honda engine proved to be inferior to the Mercedes and he scored a single point. He did better with one-off entries in Italian Formula 3 and at Spa in a round of the British Formula 3 Championship, his first association with Carlin Motorsport, which was repeated that year in the Macau Grand Prix.
This brief contact paved the way for a contract with Carlin for the 2004 season, where he took part in the British series, scoring another win and finishing 7th in the championship standings. He also took part in the Marlboro Masters and at Macau, but in the former the Mugen-Honda could not take the fight to the Mercedes drivers and in the latter he was taken out in the first lap.
Parente stayed in the British Formula Three for another season, and his experience helped him to win the championship with four races to go, scoring a total of 11 wins. This result made him the natural candidate to represent A1 Team Portugal for the new A1 Grand Prix series.
For 2006, Parente joined the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with the Victory Engineering team, and achieved his first win at Istanbul in only his fifth race in the category. He took two further wins at the Nürburgring and Circuit de Catalunya to finish fifth in the final standings. He had hoped to progress onto the GP2 Series in 2007, but a lack of sponsorship scuppered his plans. He did, however, return to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with the French Tech 1 Racing team, having signed a contract on the eve of the first pre-season test.[1]
During the 2007 season Parente took five podium finishes, including two race victories at Monaco and Spa, and was crowned World Series by Renault champion at the final round in Barcelona on October 27.[2]
As a prize for winning the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, Parente has tested for the Renault F1 team on January 17, 2008 at the Circuito de Jerez.[3]
For 2008 Parente moved to the Super Nova Racing team in the GP2 Series,[4] widely regarded as the primary feeder series to Formula One.
Alvaro Parente made a stunning start to his GP2 career in the opening round of the season at the Circuit de Catalunya, Parente won the feature race making him the first Portuguese driver to win in GP2 Series.[5] Alvaro Parente led from start to finish, to claim victory ahead of Bruno Senna and Andreas Zuber. He eventually finished eighth in the drivers' championship.
Super Nova team nicknamed Parente as "Chachi", due to his likeness to the famous character in Happy Days.[6]
In 2009 Parente participated in the GP2 Asia Series with My Team Qi.Meritus, and competed in the GP2 Series with Ocean Racing Technology, finishing eighth once again.
Parente began the 2010 season without a drive, but replaced Alberto Valerio at the Coloni team from the Belgian round onwards.[7] On his return to the category, he scored a double podium finish, and ended the weekend as the highest scoring driver. He was replaced for the final round by James Jakes.
Parente again went into the 2011 GP2 Series season without a drive, but was called up by Racing Engineering for the second round of the championship at Catalunya. He replaced Christian Vietoris, who had complained of recurring headaches following a heavy crash at the first round in Turkey.[8] Vietoris returned after two rounds, but Parente remained in the series by switching to the Carlin team, where he took the seat previously occupied by Oliver Turvey. After a further six races, he relinquished the seat to Mikhail Aleshin.[9] He then returned for the season finale at Monza, ending up in 16th place in the drivers' championship.[10]
Parente agreed to race at the 2009 Estoril round of the 2009 Superleague Formula season for his football squad team, F.C. Porto, and went on to win the second race, on his series debut.
Parente was a leading contender for a seat at Campos Meta, other contenders were Vitaly Petrov and Pastor Maldonado. On December 15, 2009, it was officially announced that Parente would join the new Virgin Racing team as a test driver.[11] However, he was not present at the launch of the VR-01 chassis in February 2010, and it was reported that he had left the team due to sponsorship problems.[12] Andy Soucek replaced Parente as the reserve driver.
† - Team standings.
(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 | 22 | DC | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2005–06 | Portugal | GBR SPR 8 |
GBR FEA Ret |
GER SPR Ret |
GER FEA 11 |
POR SPR 6 |
POR FEA 5 |
AUS SPR 2 |
AUS FEA 7 |
MYS SPR 9 |
MYS FEA 18 |
UAE SPR 8 |
UAE FEA 4 |
RSA SPR 8 |
RSA FEA 3 |
IDN SPR 19 |
IDN FEA Ret |
MEX SPR Ret |
MEX FEA 10 |
USA SPR 3 |
USA FEA 4 |
CHN SPR |
CHN FEA |
9th | 66 |
2006–07 | NED SPR |
NED FEA |
CZE SPR |
CZE FEA |
BEI SPR |
BEI FEA |
MYS SPR |
MYS FEA |
IDN SPR |
IDN FEA |
NZL SPR |
NZL FEA |
AUS SPR |
AUS FEA |
RSA SPR 8 |
RSA FEA 5 |
MEX SPR 14 |
MEX FEA 7 |
SHA SPR |
SHA FEA |
GBR SPR 11 |
GBR SPR 11 |
17th | 10 |
(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 | DC | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | Super Nova Racing | ESP FEA 1 |
ESP SPR 7 |
TUR FEA Ret |
TUR SPR 8 |
MON FEA 5 |
MON SPR 3 |
FRA FEA 9 |
FRA SPR Ret |
GBR FEA 16 |
GBR SPR Ret |
GER FEA 3 |
GER SPR 6 |
HUN FEA 16 |
HUN SPR Ret |
EUR FEA 16 |
EUR SPR Ret |
BEL FEA 2 |
BEL SPR Ret |
ITA FEA Ret |
ITA SPR 12 |
8th | 34 |
2009 | Ocean Racing Technology | ESP FEA Ret |
ESP SPR 11 |
MON FEA Ret |
MON SPR Ret |
TUR FEA Ret |
TUR SPR 10 |
GBR FEA Ret |
GBR SPR 11 |
GER FEA 6 |
GER SPR 2 |
HUN FEA 9 |
HUN SPR 6 |
VAL FEA 4 |
VAL SPR Ret |
BEL FEA 1 |
BEL SPR Ret |
ITA FEA 11 |
ITA SPR Ret |
POR FEA Ret |
POR SPR 4 |
8th | 30 |
2010 | Scuderia Coloni | ESP FEA |
ESP SPR |
MON FEA |
MON SPR |
TUR FEA |
TUR SPR |
VAL FEA |
VAL SPR |
GBR FEA |
GBR SPR |
GER FEA |
GER SPR |
HUN FEA |
HUN SPR |
BEL FEA 2 |
BEL SPR 3 |
ITA FEA 12 |
ITA SPR 9 |
ABU FEA |
ABU SPR |
15th | 13 |
2011 | Racing Engineering | TUR FEA |
TUR SPR |
ESP FEA 11 |
ESP SPR 7 |
MON FEA 2 |
MON SPR 16 |
16th | 8 | ||||||||||||||
Carlin | VAL FEA Ret |
VAL SPR 18 |
GBR FEA 9 |
GBR SPR 9 |
GER FEA 20 |
GER SPR Ret |
HUN FEA |
HUN SPR |
BEL FEA |
BEL SPR |
ITA FEA 12 |
ITA SPR 12 |
(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 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2008–09 | Qi-Meritus Mahara | CHN FEA |
CHN SPR |
DUB FEA |
DUB SPR |
BHR1 FEA |
BHR1 SPR |
QAT FEA 17 |
QAT SPR 16 |
MYS FEA 11 |
MYS SPR 9 |
BHR2 FEA Ret |
BHR2 SPR 13 |
21st | 1 |
2009–10 | Scuderia Coloni | ABU1 FEA |
ABU1 SPR |
ABU2 FEA |
ABU2 SPR |
BHR1 FEA 6 |
BHR1 SPR Ret |
BHR2 FEA 4 |
BHR2 SPR 3 |
8th | 12 |
(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Team | Operator | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Position | Points | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | F.C. Porto | Hitech Junior Team | MAG | ZOL | DON | EST | MOZ | JAR | 5th | 302 | ||||||
16 | 1 |
Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | F.C. Porto Hitech Junior Team |
MAG | ZOL | DON | EST DNQ |
MOZ | JAR |
Year | Team | Operator | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Position | Points | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | F.C. Porto | Reid Motorsport | SIL |
ASS |
MAG |
JAR |
NÜR |
ZOL |
BRH |
ADR |
POR |
ORD |
BEI† |
NAV |
7th | 495 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
4 | 5 | 5 | 11 | 16 | X | 5 | 11 | X | 8 | 11 | X | 17 | 1 | X | 11 | 12 | X | 11 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 11 | X | 3 | 17 | X | 15 | 1 | C | 8 | 1 | 6 |
† Round at Beijing was a non-championship event with no points given out for any of the races.
Sporting positions | ||
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Preceded by Nelson Angelo Piquet |
British Formula Three Champion 2005 |
Succeeded by Mike Conway |
Preceded by Alx Danielsson |
Formula Renault 3.5 Series Champion 2007 |
Succeeded by Giedo van der Garde |
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