|
As is often the case with F1 drivers it was in Karting that Luca Badoer first made his mark, the Italian winning two of his first races at the age of 14.
A year later and young Luca won his first 100cc Karting Championship, hard to believe but it was in Venice!
A year later and Luca was the Italian 100cc Champion going on to win the Italian and International Super-100 titles in 1988.
Luca spent the next three seasons contesting the Italian F3 Championship, his best season being 1991 when he finished fourth, a result he replicated in the Marlboro Masters.
In 1992 he progressed to F3000 winning the International Championship at the first attempt with Team Crypton, the next step was logical.. F1.
For '93 Luca signed to Scuderia Italia, which was running the Ferrari power-plant in its Lolas. It was a miserable season, the car was well off the pace failing to finish on no less than six occasions, together with two DNQs at Donington and Monaco.
For the ill-fated '94 season Luca joined Minardi as test driver graduating to a full race seat in 1995. It was another frustrating year for the Italian, driving a car that was woefully uncompetitive and unreliable, though he was close to scoring a point in Canada.
Things went from bad to worse in 1996 when Luca joined Forti Ford, the team pulling out of F1 after just ten rounds of the Championship.
Disillusioned, and who wouldn't be, Luca spent much of 1997 competing in the FIA GT Championship in addition to acting as test driver for Minardi. In December '97 just when it was looking bleak for the former F3000 Champion he received a call from Ferrari.
In 1998 Luca fulfilled every Italian schoolboy's dream, well almost, for he was employed as Ferrari's official test driver.
He continued the role in 1999 though the Scuderia allowed him to contest the World Championship with Minardi, albeit with little success.
When Michael Schumacher broke his leg on the opening lap of the British GP, many expected that Luca would finally get his chance to prove himself, but it was not to be. The Italian continued as test driver while Mika Salo was brought in to replace the injured German.
Lesser men would have been despondent, but not Luca. He has continued to serve Ferrari loyally and his part in the Italian team's rise to glory in the 'Schumacher era' is widely, and rightly, recognised.
Having helped Ferrari take the 2008 crown, Luca was retained by the Maranello outfit for 2009, his twelfth season with the legendary Scuderia.
Under the new test rules it's likely that Luca wasn't expecting to don his scarlet overalls too many times in 2009 other than for straightline runs, promotional outings and events such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed. In fact it's fait to say that when the Maranello outfit announced on August 11 that he would be replacing Felipe Massa in the European Grand Prix, Luca was as surprised as the rest of us.
With Felipe Massa ruled out following his accident during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ferrari called on its "development consultant" to fill the void. However, when the legendary German was ruled out by neck pains (cough) it was veteran Luca who got the call.
Had the Italian been able to step into Massa's car and continue where the Brazilian had left off it would have been a fairytale end to Luca's career, the sort of happy ending the former F3000 champion deserved. Sadly, it was not to be.
In two outings the Italian finished seventeenth and fourteenth, having qualified last for both events. Soon the fairytale gave way to nightmare as the media went into full drive with headlines such as "Look How Bad You Are".
After 10 years Luca was bound to be rusty, however, other than the fact that he had had minimal time in the F60 let's not forget that the car was a dog, just like Schumacher had said. Indeed, Giancarlo Fisichella would subsequently prove the point, never getting beyond Q1 and never finishing higher than ninth in five outings.
For a couple of weekends Luca lived every young fan's dream, sadly they are two weekends the popular Italian will want to forget.
The Italian remained with Ferrari for 2010, however, other than lurking at the back of the garage over GP weekends little was seen of him. At the end of the year, Ferrari announced that its sole test and reserve driver for 2011 would be Jules Bianchi. Luca subsequently announced his retirement, ending his 12-year career with Ferrari with a demonstration of the Ferrari F60 at the Bologna Motor Show. Weeks later he took part in another event, this time on ice, at Ferrari's pre-season media get together.
Statistics - at the end of 2009 Season
Drivers' Titles: 0
Seasons in F1: 3
Grand Prix: 51
Wins: 0
Points: 0
Poles: 0
Fastest Laps: 0
Best result in 2009: 14th (Belgium)
Best qualifying 2009: 20th (2 times)
Worst qualifying 2009: 20th (2 times)
2009: Out-qualified Kimi Raikkonen 0 times
2009: Out-qualified by Kimi Raikkonen 2 times
2009: Completed 100 out of 101 laps (99%)
2009: Finished 2 times from 2 starts (100%)
|
