Luca Badoer

Luca Badoer

Badoer in 2007
Born	(1971-01-25) 25 January 1971 Montebelluna, Veneto, Italy
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Italian
Active years	1993, 1995–1996, 1999, 2009
Teams	Scuderia Italia, Minardi, Forti, Ferrari
Races	58 (50 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1993 South African Grand Prix
Last race	2009 Belgian Grand Prix

Luca Badoer (born 25 January 1971) is an Italian former racing driver. Badoer has raced for the Scuderia Italia, Minardi, Forti Corse and most recently, Ferrari teams. In addition to his racing duties, Badoer was one of the active test and reserve drivers for Ferrari from 1998 to 2010 and in 2009 stood in for Ferrari's regular race driver Felipe Massa at the European Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix after the Brazilian was injured during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix and his original replacement, Michael Schumacher, pulled out due to injury.

As of September 2011, Badoer holds the record for the most Grand Prix starts – 50 – and the most race laps completed – 2364 – without scoring a point,^[1] although all of his races before his 2009 comeback came during a period when only the top six finishers scored points. Under the 2010 scoring system, he would have scored 26 points over his career.^[2][3] He nearly achieved a points finish in the 1999 European Grand Prix when a strong drive saw him reach fourth place, but the gearbox on his Minardi failed with 13 laps remaining.^[4]

Career

Badoer was born in Montebelluna, Veneto, Italy.^[5] He raced karts in his youth starting in 1985 and scored two wins. In 1986, Badoer drove in the 100cc category to become the karting champion of Venice and became national champion the following year. He won the Italian championship in the 100cc international class in 1988.^[6][7][8]

1990s: Formula 3000 to Formula One

In 1989, Badoer moved to single-seater racing, joining the Trivellato team in the Italian Formula Three Championship driving a Dallara/Alfa Romeo that followed a move to MRD in 1990. Driving a Ralt RT33 Alfa Romeo, he defeated Alex Zanardi and Roberto Colciago to win the final race of the 1990 season and finished 10th in the championship.^[7][8] In 1991 he moved to the Supercars team driving a Dallara 391 Alfa Romeo to won four races in succession, but was disqualified after a technicality concerning his tyres. Badoer finished 4th overall taking 33 points. For 1992 he was picked to drive by Crypton Engineering for the Formula 3000 Championship, in which he emerged as champion,^[9] winning four races en route to the title.^[10]

Formula One

1993

His debut Formula One season in 1993 was mired by BMS Scuderia Italia's uncompetitive Lola chassis, which, despite Ferrari engines, was the slowest car in the championship in terms of qualifying pace. In South Africa, Badoer retired after 20 laps due to gearbox failure. In Brazil, Badoer qualified 21st and finished 12th after an incident forced him to pit for a new nose cone. At Donington, he fell victim to a new rule limiting qualifying to the fastest 24 cars (his time was only good enough for 26th). The round at Imola saw Badoer race as high as sixth, but finish seventh. This remained Badoer's best result in Formula One. In Spain, he was unable to finish and at Monaco, Badoer finished the last of the runners. He managed to finish 15th in Canada.^[11] At Magny-Cours, Silverstone, Hockenheim and Budapest, Badoer failed to finish, twice to suspension failure. Going into Spa, the Lola team was gaining reliability and Badoer finished 13th. At his home race at Monza he was ahead of Christian Fittipaldi and battled for several laps before the Brazilian hit Badoer's car and eventually finished 10th. At Estoril, Badoer finished 14th after starting last. After the race, Lola did not travel to the races in Japan and Australia after the team announced they were to merge with Minardi in 1994.^[11]

Benetton offered both Alboreto and Badoer tests in their cars to see who would partner Michael Schumacher for 1994 but Benetton chose JJ Lehto and Alboreto went to Minardi to line up alongside Pierluigi Martini while Badoer became Minardi's test driver.^[11]

1995

Badoer took over Alboreto's seat after the former retired. In the underfunded team using a Ford V8 after a deal with Mugen-Honda fell through, he started with a gearbox failure in Brazil with a good qualifying in Argentina. During the race, Badoer collided with the back of Mika Salo's Tyrrell and hit Rubens Barichello's Jordan later on bringing out the red flag. Badoer did not make the restart, having no spare chassis. His best results were eighth places in Canada and Hungary and ninth in Japan.^[11]

1996

In 1996 he switched to Forti Corse to be teammates with Andrea Montermini after Pedro Diniz left to join Ligier. During the season, he was only able to qualify for six of the ten races the team entered. In the 1996 Argentine Grand Prix Badoer was involved in a heavy collision with Diniz, whose Ligier struck him from behind and flipped his Forti upside down. He emerged from the collision unhurt but Argentine safety marshals were heavily criticised for failing to assist Badoer in a timely manner because they feared a fire would break out.^[11] At Imola, Badoer had a newer car and outqualified Montermini by more than a second. He finished 10th and the last of the runners. In Monaco, Badoer remained at the back and collided with Jacques Villeneuve at Mirabeau forcing both drivers to retire. He did not qualify in Spain but started 20th in Canada. In France, Badoer started ahead of Eddie Irvine after the Ferrari was relegated to the back. Forti Corse folded after that year's British Grand Prix.^[11]

FIA GT Championship

In 1997 Badoer moved to the new FIA GT Championship, driving a Lotus Elise GT1 for GBF Engineering with codriver Mimmo Schiattarella. At Hockenheim and Silverstone, Badoer retired with his form improving in Helsinki where he finished 20th. Schiattarela and Badoer retired in Nurburgring and Zeltweg with the pair finishing 12th at Donington completing 151 laps. A race at Mugello saw Badoer retire with loose bodywork.^[12] While driving for GBF, Badoer was hired as Scuderia Ferrari's test driver, a role he maintained until 2010.

Minardi (1999)

Badoer returned to Formula One racing in 1999, again with the Minardi team. At Melbourne, Badoer raced as high as 11th and found himself running fourth until gearbox problems forced him to retire with 13 laps to go. Prior to Brazil, he suffered a testing accident which left him with a broken hand. Stephane Sarrazin took his seat for the race.^[13] He returned for Imola with his hand still causing problems but managed to finish eighth. He suffered from gearbox problems and a spin in Monaco and Spain.^[13] In July, Ferrari's number one driver Michael Schumacher broke his leg in an accident at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. As Ferrari's test driver, Badoer expected to be promoted to the race seat in Schumacher's absence, but the team opted for Mika Salo instead, prompting criticism from former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi, who had himself turned the position down.^[14]

Badoer overall started 48 races for backmarkers Scuderia Italia, Minardi and Forti Corse between 1993 and 1999.^[15]

2000s: Ferrari test driver

Unable to find a satisfactory race seat in Formula One after 1999, Badoer focused on his job as the permanent test driver for Ferrari, covering thousands of kilometres at the Mugello and Fiorano test circuits each year. He is credited with making a vital contribution to Ferrari's first Formula One Drivers' Championship win for 21 years in 2000.^[16]

At the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Badoer demonstrated one of the team's 2005 cars in the centre of the stadium. After the pit crew assembled the car, Badoer revved the engine, and performed several doughnuts, creating a large cloud of tyre smoke and leaving circular black marks on the white platform.^[4][17][18]

Return to Formula One racing

On 11 August 2009 it was confirmed that Badoer would return to Formula One racing after almost 10 years, to replace the injured Felipe Massa at the 2009 European Grand Prix in Valencia.^[19] Massa was injured during the qualifying session for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix when a piece of suspension fell from the rear of Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP car and struck Massa's helmet, fracturing his skull, knocking him unconscious and causing him to crash into a tyre wall. Michael Schumacher was set to replace Massa, but a neck injury Schumacher sustained in a German superbike test earlier in the year forced him to pull out.^[20] Ferrari confirmed that Badoer (Ferrari's longest-serving test driver) would replace the injured Massa instead.^[21] The BBC reported that Badoer was given the job as a "thank you for his commitment to the team".^[22] His previous Formula One appearance was in the 1999 Japanese Grand Prix, where he qualified last and retired late in the race.^[23] While Badoer had waited almost 10 years since his last drive, this gap is shorter than the 10 years and three months between Jan Lammers's appearances at the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix and the 1992 Japanese Grand Prix.^[15]

In the first practice session for the 2009 European Grand Prix at the Valencia Street Circuit, where he had never driven before, Badoer came last and was three seconds off the pace of fastest man Rubens Barrichello and 2.5 seconds down on team mate Kimi Räikkönen. He was 1.3 seconds down on Räikkönen in second practice, and 1.9 seconds off in final practice.^[24] He qualified 20th and last for the race, with a time almost 1.5 seconds slower than Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari, who was 19th.^[25][26]

He was also caught speeding in the pit-lane four times during Friday practice.^[27] These offences earned him a reprimand and three separate fines totalling €5,400. Badoer explained: "I am used to a 100kph limit in testing and so when I pressed the speed limiter button at the usual point in the pitlane, it did not give the car enough time to slow to the right speed".^[28]

A number of drivers defended Badoer's performance. Lewis Hamilton said: "I think he's done a good job. He's not put it in the wall. He's kept it on the track. It's an incredibly tall order to jump into the footsteps of Felipe Massa. He hasn't even raced for ten years, so I think anyone who has taken that long out of the car is going to struggle, but instead I think he has done a good job just to keep it on the track and bit-by-bit he will catch up".^[26] Heikki Kovalainen stated, "I don't know what else you could have expected. Sometimes the tyres warm up, or they overheat or they don't warm up, and it's much more complicated than a few years ago where they brought out tyres that worked straightaway in different conditions. I think that knocks the driver's confidence very easily – if the tyres are not working 100 percent you can't push if you don't feel you have the grip".^[26]

In racing at Valencia, Badoer became the first Italian to drive for Ferrari in 15 years.^[29] BBC commentator and former F1 driver Martin Brundle argued in The Sunday Times that the inclusion of Badoer and Romain Grosjean in the race was dangerous, since new rules that ban further testing until 1 January 2010 mean that they have been unable to gain the experience necessary to race.^[30] Badoer had last been able to test the Ferrari F60 at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão, Portugal in December 2008.^[31]

Elsewhere, Brundle stated: "It is surprising to some that Ferrari has not elected to use fellow tester Marc Gené who once stood in pretty successfully at Williams. The problem is that, with the testing ban for 2009, none of the test drivers are really up to speed. I personally would have tried a sharp and fit up-and-coming star of which there are many around".^[32] During his race commentary, Brundle suggested that Ferrari should use Massa's absence to give a potential future star a drive.^[33] Badoer made up six places at the start of the race and ran 14th on the first lap before he was hit from behind by Grosjean and spun. He eventually finished in 17th place out of 18 finishers,^[34] posting a fastest lap which was faster than both Toro Rossos. Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali indicated after the race that Badoer would keep the seat for the Belgian Grand Prix.^[35]

At the Belgian Grand Prix, Badoer again qualified last after a spin on his last lap of the first qualifying session.^[36] At the start of the race, Badoer avoided the accidents on the first lap and finished in 14th place, last of those drivers to finish the full race distance,^[37] despite setting the fastest sector one time of the race.^[38][39] Badoer was replaced by Force India driver Giancarlo Fisichella starting at the Italian Grand Prix,^[40] although over the five remaining races of the season he also failed to score any points. Badoer blamed the negative media coverage of his driving for Ferrari's decision to replace him.^[41]

Retirement

At the end of 2010, Badoer retired from Ferrari as test driver and was replaced by Jules Bianchi.^[42] He ended his 12-year role at Ferrari with a demonstration of the Ferrari F60, the car Badoer raced with 2009 on a Ferrari-themed day at the Bologna Motor Show on 8 December 2010.^[42][43] He also took part in a forum for Gazzetta dello Sport, where he stated his only regret was that he "was only able to do two races [for the Scuderia]".^[43] In January 2011, Badoer drove the Ferrari F60 with a special livery on the ice of the Madonna di Campiglio for his final act with the team.^[44]

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(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	DC	Points
1992	Crypton Engineering	Reynard/92D	Ford Cosworth	SIL 5	PAU 6	CAT 6	PER 1	HOC 1	NÜR 1	SPA Ret	ALB 2	NOG 1	MAG Ret	1st	46

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
1993	Lola BMS Scuderia Italia	Lola T93/30	Ferrari 040 3.5 V12	RSA Ret	BRA 12	EUR DNQ	SMR 7	ESP Ret	MON DNQ	CAN 15	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 13	ITA 10	POR 14	JPN	AUS		NC	0
1995	Minardi Scuderia Italia	Minardi M195	Ford EDM 3.0 V8	BRA Ret	ARG DNS	SMR 14	ESP Ret	MON Ret	CAN 8	FRA 13	GBR 10	GER Ret	HUN 8	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR 14	EUR 11	PAC 15	JPN 9	AUS DNS	NC	0
1996	Forti Grand Prix	Forti FG01B	Ford ECA Zetec-R 3.0 V10	AUS DNQ	BRA 11	ARG Ret	EUR DNQ														NC	0
		Forti FG03						SMR 10	MON Ret	ESP DNQ	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR DNQ	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	JPN
1999	Fondmetal Minardi Ford	Minardi M01	Ford VJM1/VJM2 Zetec-R 3.0 V10	AUS Ret	BRA	SMR 8	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN 10	FRA 10	GBR Ret	AUT 13	GER 10	HUN 14	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	EUR Ret	MAL Ret	JPN Ret		NC	0
2009	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari F60	Ferrari 056 2.4 V8	AUS	MAL	CHN	BHR	ESP	MON	TUR	GBR	GER	HUN	EUR 17	BEL 14	ITA	SIN	JPN	BRA	ABU	25th	0

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Luca Badoer.

• Luca Badoer Official Site (Italian)
• Profile on F1 Rejects
• Profile on Blue Flags F1

Sporting positions
Preceded by Christian Fittipaldi	International Formula 3000 Champion 1992	Succeeded by Olivier Panis
Preceded by Rubens Barrichello (1993)	Formula One Indoor Trophy Winner 1995	Succeeded by Giancarlo Fisichella

Minardi F1 Team Founder Giancarlo Minardi Owners Flavio Briatore (1996) Gabriele Rumi (1996–2000) Paul Stoddart (2001–2005) Personnel Andy Bendell Gustav Brunner Giacomo Caliri Aldo Costa Gabriele Tredozi Notable drivers (See all) Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto Luca Badoer Zsolt Baumgartner Gianmaria Bruni Adrián Campos Andrea de Cesaris Anthony Davidson Christian Fittipaldi Marc Gené Pedro Lamy Tarso Marques Pierluigi Martini Gianni Morbidelli Roberto Moreno Luis Pérez-Sala Jos Verstappen Justin Wilson Alex Yoong Alessandro Zanardi Notable rookies Alessandro Nannini Giancarlo Fisichella Jarno Trulli Fernando Alonso Mark Webber Formula One cars M185 M185B M186 M187 M188 M188B M189 M190 M191 M192 M193 M193B M194 M195 M195B M197 M198 M01 M02 PS01 PS02 PS03 PS04 PS04B PS05

Forti Corse Founder Guido Forti Drivers Pedro Diniz Roberto Moreno Luca Badoer Andrea Montermini Formula One cars FG01 FG01B FG03

Scuderia Ferrari Founder Enzo Ferrari President Sergio Marchionne Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene Current key personnel James Allison Luca Baldisserri Loïc Bigois Mattia Binotto Jock Clear Simone Resta Massimo Rivola Lorenzo Sassi 2015 Race drivers 5. Sebastian Vettel 7. Kimi Räikkönen 2015 Test and reserve drivers Marc Gené Esteban Gutiérrez Davide Rigon Jean-Éric Vergne Ferrari Driver Academy Antonio Fuoco Raffaele Marciello Lance Stroll Guanyu Zhou World Champions   Alberto Ascari   Juan Manuel Fangio   Mike Hawthorn   Phil Hill   Niki Lauda   Kimi Räikkönen   Jody Scheckter   Michael Schumacher   John Surtees Former drivers See category Drivers' titles: 1952 1953 1956 1958 1961 1964 1975 1977 1979 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2007 Constructors' titles: 1961 1964 1975 1976 1977 1979 1982 1983 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2007 2008 Former personnel Mario Almondo Luca Badoer John Barnard Ross Brawn Gustav Brunner Rory Byrne Carlo Chiti Gioacchino Colombo Aldo Costa Stefano Domenicali Chris Dyer Alfredo Ferrari Cesare Fiorio Mauro Forghieri Pat Fry Hirohide Hamashima Vittorio Jano Aurelio Lampredi Claudio Lombardi Luca Marmorini Neil Martin Paolo Martinelli Marco Mattiacci Luca Cordero di Montezemolo Marco Piccinini Harvey Postlethwaite Enrique Scalabroni Michael Schumacher Gilles Simon Rob Smedley Nigel Stepney Jean Todt Nicholas Tombazis Formula One cars 125 212 166 275 340 375 500 553 625 555 D50 801 246 246P 156 158 1512 246 F1-66 312 312B 312T 126C 156/85 F1/86 F1/87 640 641 642 643 F92A F93A 412 T1 412 T2 F310 F300 F399 F1-2000 F2001 F2002 F2003-GA F2004 F2005 248 F1 F2007 F2008 F60 F10 150° Italia F2012 F138 F14 T SF15-T IndyCar/CART cars 375 Indy 637 Sports racing cars 166MM 195 S 340 America 212 Export 225 S & 250 S 250MM 340 MM 375 MM 250 Monza 750 Monza 860 Monza 118 LM & 121 LM 410S 500 TR 625 LM 500 TRC 290 MM 315 S 335 S 250 Testa Rossa Ferrari 250 TR 61 250 GT SWB 250 GTO 330 LMB 250 P, 275 P & 330 P 275 P2, 330 P2 & 365 P2 250 LM 330 P2 330 P3 330 P3/4 & P4 212 E 312P 512S & 512M 312PB 512 BB LM 333 SP