Gabriele Tarquini
Template:Short description Template:BLP sources Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person
Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian former racing driver who currently serves as sporting director for Genesis Magma Racing. He competed in Formula One between Template:F1 and Template:F1,Template:Efn and World Touring Car from Template:WTCC to 2021.Template:Efn In touring car racing, Tarquini won the World Touring Car Championship in Template:WTCC with SEAT; he also won the British Touring Car Championship in 1994, the European Touring Car Championship in 2003, and the World Touring Car Cup in 2018.
Born in Giulianova, Tarquini began competitive kart racing aged 14. He participated in 78 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting at the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix. Across seven seasons, he competed for Osella, Coloni, First, AGS, Fondmetal, and Tyrrell. He scored a single championship point at the 1989 Mexican Grand Prix, and holds the record for the most failed attempts to qualify (40).
Tarquini subsequently competed in touring cars, winning the 1994 British Touring Car Championship with Alfa Romeo, and the 2003 European Touring Car Championship with Nordauto. By winning the 2009 World Touring Car Championship with SEAT, he became the oldest FIA World Champion, aged 47 years and 266 days.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He later won the 2018 World Touring Car Cup with BRC, aged 56.
Formula One
Tarquini began karting in 1976. By 1985 he was driving in Formula 3000, spending three seasons with underfunded outfits. His best result was 2nd at Imola in 1987, by which time he had already made his Grand Prix debut in a one-off drive for Osella at the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix.
He joined Coloni's Grand Prix team for 1988, having driven for them in F3000 in 1986. The season saw a prequalifying system being put in place as there were 31 entrants for a maximum 30 places in qualifying proper. As such, the slowest of the new entrants for the season (Coloni, Rial, Dallara and EuroBrun) would be eliminated from proceedings after the Friday morning session regardless of their overall position - Tarquini failed to prequalify several times despite often being faster than some of the exempt entrants (such as the Osella and Zakspeed cars). He drew good notices for his performance overall, however - his 8th place at the Canadian Grand Prix would stand as the team's best ever result and his eight starts the most ever garnered by a Coloni driver.
Tarquini signed to drive for the FIRST team (again a former employer in F3000) and drove for them at the Formula One Indoor Trophy, but when their car failed crash tests he started 1989 without a ride. Following Philippe Streiff's career-ending pre-season testing crash, Tarquini joined Joachim Winkelhock in the AGS team from the second round of the series. There he finished a fine 8th on the road, being promoted to 6th after the exclusion of Thierry Boutsen and Alex Caffi. He was then one of the stars of the weekend in Monaco, threatening to qualify in the top 6 before ending up 13th on the grid. In the race he advanced to a strong 4th before being sidelined by an electrical problem. At the following Mexican Grand Prix he finished 6th, though the team's joy was tempered after Williams and Scuderia Italia successfully appealed against their Imola disqualification and Tarquini lost his point. More bad luck followed at Phoenix where Tarquini was holding 6th despite technical problems before Boutsen passed him on the final lap. At the wet Canadian Grand Prix Tarquini again ran well until being shoved off the track by René Arnoux (who eventually went on to finish 5th). The series then moved to faster tracks where the AGS was less competitive and the results of others meant Tarquini's entry (exempt for the first half of the season thanks to Streiff's efforts in 1988) would have to prequalify for the second half of the season.
The expanding entry list meant prequalifying was very different from 1988, consisting of an hour-long free-for-all session on Friday morning between the less successful cars. Featuring the Larrousse cars of Michele Alboreto and Philippe Alliot, Roberto Moreno's Coloni, the Osellas of Nicola Larini and Piercarlo Ghinzani and the Onyx cars of Stefan Johansson and Bertrand Gachot among others with only the four fastest going through both Tarquini and new teammate Yannick Dalmas struggled and Tarquini would not qualify again that year.
AGS attempted to move to larger premises for 1990 but a lack of resources and the late arrival of the JH25 left Tarquini and Dalmas again struggling to get past prequalifying, Tarquini only making it into four races (finishing just once - 13th in the Hungarian Grand Prix), his early 1989 form long forgotten by most. The team were under even more severe financial constraints for 1991, though they would initially at least avoid prequalifying. Tarquini made it through into three races, finishing a worthy 8th in the season opener at Phoenix but financial constraints meant after Monaco the AGS didn't make the grid again.
Late in the season the cash-strapped team sold his contract to Gabriele Rumi's ambitious Fondmetal outfit in time for the Spanish Grand Prix, soon forming a good relationship with the team. He was signed for a full year in 1992, showing some good speed in the neat but underdeveloped Fondmetal GR02 chassis. However, his car only finished once (14th at Silverstone, hindered by clutch problems) and despite some fine qualifying efforts (including outqualifying Ivan Capelli's Ferrari in Belgium) the team struggled to find funding, folding after the following Italian Grand Prix and leaving Tarquini out of a drive.
Despite being firmly involved in his successful touring cars career and 33 years old, Tarquini was signed up by Tyrrell for the 1995 season as their test driver thanks to the presence of Fondmetal as a sponsor. He replaced Ukyo Katayama for the European round as the Japanese driver was injured from his start line accident in the previous race. Out of practice with single seaters (having done very little actual testing due to the team's financial constraints) he finished 14th, six laps down on winner Michael Schumacher. It was his final Grand Prix, and to date, the last occasion a reigning BTCC Champion has competed in Formula One.
Tarquini failed to pre-qualify on a record 25 occasions (out of a total of 40 failures to qualify), mainly because he was a regular in the pre-qualifying era, usually in cars which were so slow as to struggle to qualify. Despite this record many consider him to have been a talented driver stuck with uncompetitive machinery (much like contemporary Roberto Moreno).
Touring Cars
Italian Superturismo 1993
Alfa Romeo (1993)
With the creation of D2 series in 1993, Tarquini passed to Alfa Romeo becoming their top driver and finishing third in Italian Superturismo behind Ravaglia and Giovanardi.
BTCC 1994/1995
Alfa Romeo (1994–1995)
The following year Tarquini moved to the British Touring Car Championship, winning the title at his first attempt in an Alfa Romeo featuring controversial aerodynamic enhancements. In 1995 Alfa Corse decided to move him back to Italian Superturismo Championship but after 2 victories, 4 third place and 6 DNF, Tarquini left the series and joined to Prodrive to help Alfa Romeo to achieve better results in BTCC.
ITC 1996
Alfa Romeo (1996)
In 1996 Tarquini raced in Class 1 Touring Cars with Alfa Romeo in ITC, where he achieved best results of 1 victory and 1 second place.
BTCC 1997
Honda (1997)
With the end of D1 Class, Tarquini left Alfa Romeo and signed a 5-year contract with Honda where he raced in BTCC again with Prodrive. The first season with Honda saw him finishing 6th in the general standings with 1 victory, 1 second and 3 third places.
STW 1998/1999
Honda (1998–1999)
In 1998 and 1999 Tarquini raced in Germany with JAS Motorsport in STW Cup where he got 2 victories and several podium.
BTCC 2000
Honda (2000)
After 2 years in Germany, Tarquini raced for the third time in BTCC.
Euro STC 2001
Honda (2001)
In his last season with Honda he raced in Euro STC where he finished third behind the 2 Alfa Romeo of Giovanardi and Larini although he got 9 victories.
ETCC 2003/2004
After spending 2002 without a car, in 2003 he came back to Alfa Romeo where he raced in the ETCC and he won the title at the first attempt as it happened 9 years before in BTCC. In 2004 for the last season of ETCC he was again the best of Alfa's driver and he finished third behind the 2 BMW of Priaulx and Dirk Muller.
WTCC
Alfa Romeo (2005)
He remained with Alfa Romeo as the ETCC became the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in 2005. He finished seventh overall, with two victories.
SEAT Sport (2006–2009)
In November 2005, Tarquini was confirmed as one of six drivers at SEAT Sport for 2006.<ref>Three top drivers to SEAT, Touring Car Times.</ref> He finished fifth in the championship that year with one win. He finished 8th in the standings in 2007, once again winning just one race. 2008 saw considerable improvement for Tarquini as he finished runner-up in the championship to Yvan Muller winning three races. His biggest success of his career came in 2009 when he won the WTCC championship at the last race of the year in Macau.
Sunred (2010–2011)
.jpg){kind=link}
SEAT withdrew from the WTCC for 2010, but provided funding to introduce the new semi-works SR-Sport team, with whom Tarquini attempted to retain his crown. He scored five wins during the season to finish runner-up to ex-SEAT Sport teammate Yvan Muller in the drivers standings. This was after four victories, plus an inherited victory in Belgium from Jordi Gene after Gene's disqualification. His crash in Japan race two ended his title hopes.
In 2011, Tarquini drove for the Lukoil-SUNRED team alongside Aleksei Dudukalo.<ref>Dudukalo and Tarquini at SUNRED with Lukoil Template:Webarchive, Touring Car Times.</ref> He started the year with the SEAT 2.0 TDI engine but switched to the SUNRED 1.6T for Brno onwards.<ref>Tarquini and Monteiro to switch to the 1.6 turbo in Brno, Touring Car Times.</ref> He finished the season 5th in the standings with just one win in a year dominated by the Chevrolet RML team.
Lukoil Racing (2012)
In January 2012 it was confirmed that Tarquini would drive for Lukoil Racing in a SEAT León powered by the new SEAT Sport turbocharged engine.<ref>Tarquini and Dudukalo confirmed for Lukoil Racing, Touring Car Times.</ref> His teammate will once again be Aleksei Dudukalo. He started from pole position at the first race of the season in Italy but finished third behind Yvan Muller and Rob Huff in race one, he retired from the second race. Contact with Huff in race two in Portugal left him 19th with damage although no penalties were applied.<ref>No penalty in Huff/Muller/Tarquini clash, TouringCarTimes.</ref>
.jpg){kind=link}
Honda (2013–2015)
In July 2012, it was confirmed that Tarquini would drive a factory supported Honda Civic run by the returning JAS Motorsport team, alongside Tiago Monteiro in 2013.<ref>Honda confirms Tarquini and Monteiro for its first season in the WTCC, Autosport.com.</ref> He qualified fifth for the season opening Race of Italy but was given a five–place grid penalty for race one having tapped René Münnich into a spin during qualifying.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He finished race one in fourth and race two in third. He gave the Honda team its first pole position in the WTCC at the Race of Morocco.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He finished second in race one but retired from race two when he lost control over one of the kerbs and collided with Alex MacDowall.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Lada (2016)
,_Paul_Ricard,_2016.jpg){kind=link}
In his last season of WTCC he moved to the uncompetitive Lada team where he was able to score 2 victories.
WTCR
Hyundai (2018-2021)
After spending the entire 2017 to develop the new Hyundai I30N, Tarquini raced in the new WTCR after the fusion between WTCC and International TCR. The 2018 saw him again protagonist and after an incredible battle with Muller he won his fourth title after BTCC, ETCC and WTCC. He announced his retirement from racing at the 2021 Race of Italy.
In a poll conducted by Motor Sport magazine in 2005, Tarquini was voted the 11th greatest touring car driver ever.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Management career
Tarquini is currently the Sporting Director of Genesis Magma Racing, which will join the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship with the Genesis GMR-001 chassis.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Racing record
Career summary
† As Tarquini was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.
Complete International Formula 3000 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)
† — Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Template:Tooltip | Template:Tooltip |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Template:Flagicon Brun Motorsport | Template:Flagicon Massimo Sigala Template:Flagicon Oscar Larrauri |
Porsche 956 | C1 | 323 | DNF | DNF |
Complete Formula One results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)
† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.
Complete British Touring Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded 1996 onwards all races) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) (* signifies that driver lead feature race for at least one lap – 1 point given 1998 onwards)
‡ Retired before second start of race
Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Pos | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Alfa Corse 2 | Alfa Romeo 155 V6 Ti | HOC 1 |
HOC 2 |
AVU 1 |
AVU 2 |
NOR 1 |
NOR 2 |
DIE 1 |
DIE 2 |
NÜR 1 Template:Small |
NÜR 2 Template:Small |
SIN 1 Template:Small |
SIN 2 Template:Small |
HOC 1 |
HOC 2 |
NC | 0 |
Complete International Touring Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
† — Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
Complete Super Tourenwagen Cup results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete European Touring Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete World Touring Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
† Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
Complete World Touring Car Cup results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
Complete Scandinavian Touring Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Polestar Racing | Volvo C30 | JYL 1 |
JYL 2 |
KNU 1 |
KNU 2 |
MAN 1 |
MAN 2 |
GÖT 1 |
GÖT 2 |
FAL 1 |
FAL 2 |
KAR 1 Template:Small |
KAR 2 Template:Small |
JYL 1 Template:Small |
JYL 2 Template:Small |
KNU 1 |
KNU 2 |
MAN 1 |
MAN 2 |
24th | 2 |
Complete TCR International Series results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | RIM 1 |
RIM 2 |
BHR 1 |
BHR 2 |
SPA 1 |
SPA 2 |
MNZ 1 |
MNZ 2 |
SAL 1 |
SAL 2 |
HUN 1 |
HUN 2 |
OSC 1 |
OSC 2 |
CHA 1 |
CHA 2 |
ZHE 1 Template:Small |
ZHE 2 Template:Small |
DUB 1 Template:Small |
DUB 2 Template:Small |
NC‡ | 0‡ |
‡ As Tarquini was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.
Notes
References
External links
Template:S-start Template:S-sports Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:S-ach Template:Succession box Template:S-end
Template:World Touring Car Champions Template:European Touring Car Champions Template:BTCC champions Template:Autosport National Driver of the Year Template:WTCC teams Template:Coloni
- Pages with broken file links
- 1962 births
- Living people
- Italian racing drivers
- Italian Formula One drivers
- AGS Formula One drivers
- Coloni Formula One drivers
- Osella Formula One drivers
- FIRST Racing Formula One drivers
- Fondmetal Formula One drivers
- Tyrrell Formula One drivers
- British Touring Car Championship drivers
- British Touring Car Championship Champions
- World Touring Car Championship drivers
- World Touring Car Champions
- Italian Formula Three Championship drivers
- International Formula 3000 drivers
- 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
- TC 2000 Championship drivers
- European Touring Car Championship drivers
- World Sportscar Championship drivers
- 24 Hours of Spa drivers
- People from Giulianova
- World Touring Car Cup drivers
- 24H Series drivers
- Sportspeople from the Province of Teramo
- Karting World Championship drivers
- Prema Powerteam drivers
- Hyundai Motorsport drivers
- Cupra Racing drivers
- Engstler Motorsport drivers
- TCR Europe Touring Car Series drivers
- ADAC TCR Germany Touring Car Championship drivers
- Cyan Racing drivers