Davide Valsecchi
Davide Valsecchi ( born January 24, 1987 in Erba, Lombardy ) is an Italian race car driver. He rode from 2008 to 2012 in the GP2 series. Valsecchi won the 2010 championship GP2 Asia Series and 2012 the champion of the GP2 Series.
Career
Valsecchi began his single-seater career in the Formula Renault racing series, in which he drove from 2003 to 2005. It began in the Italian Formula Renault, where he finished 15th overall in his debut season. In 2004, he remained in this series and improved to 14th place in the overall standings. 2005 Valsecchi was in his third season in the Italian Formula Renault with two podium finishes seventh. It began in the Italian Formula Renault, followed by the Formula Renault Eurocup. During the same period he also started in each race of the Italian Formula 3 Championship, in the German Formula 3 Cup, Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and in the 3000 Pro Series. He was with a podium place seventh in the Italian Formula 3 Championship in 2005.
In 2006, Valsecchi in the Formula Renault 3.5 to the Spanish team Epsilon Euskadi and was team-mate Steven Kane. He was third twice and was mostly better than Kane. At the end of the season, he finished tenth in the standings. In addition, he participated in the 2006 three sports car race in the Le Mans Series in the LMP2 class, one of which with a place he finished every race on the podium. 2007 denied Valsecchi for Epsilon Euskadi his second season in Formula Renault 3.5 and was awarded with Filipe Albuquerque a new teammates. Although he had a race win, but he finished only 16th place overall at the end of the season and was thus was of Albuquerque, who finished fourth in the championship, defeated.
2008 Valsecchi moved to the GP2 Series, which was held as part of the Formula 1, and both went into the newly created GP2 Asia Series as well as in the regular series for the Italian team Durango at the start. To have achieved a podium Without Square, he finished the season at the end of the GP2 Asia season in eighth place overall. The Qualifiers for the second race weekend of the 2008 season in European Istanbul Valsecchi raced due to a brake failure at a speed of 280 km / h unabated through the outlet zone and crashed into the barriers. In this accident, he suffered a minor back injury and a concussion. At the next race in Monaco was replaced by his Italian team mate Marcello Puglisi; the race in Magny Cours, the Briton Ben Hanley went for him at the start. At Silverstone, Valsecchi then returned back to the cockpit. In the main race at Spa- Francorchamps Valsecchi had again a serious accident and had to be hospitalized. His injuries were not as bad this time, and he took the very next day in the sprint race in sixth points. At his home race at Monza it was even more successful: After he finished the feature race in eighth place, he competed in the sprint race from pole position and won the sprint race. It was his first victory in the GP2 series. At the end of the season Valsecchi finished with eleven points 15th place in the overall standings.
In September 2008 it was announced that Valsecchi should drive both the GP2 Asia Series season 2008/2009 and the 2009 season of the GP2 Series for Durango. On the first race weekend of the GP2 Asia Series in Shanghai, he won the sprint race. In the rest of the season he went twice to the second place and took a long time to second place in the overall standings. On the last weekend in as- Sachir Valsecchi managed not to defend his second place and eventually finished in fourth place overall. In the regular GP2 Valsecchi moved to twelve races where he once stood in third place on the podium, from Durango to Barwa Addax, where he replaced the Ascended into F1 Romain Grosjean. With his new team Valsecchi had no chance against his team-mate Vitaly Petrov and only once scored points. Thus he took the end of the season 17th overall.
For the season 2009/2010 GP2 Asia Series, Valsecchi was first committed by iSport International for the first race weekend and showed a good performance: After winning the feature race, he was the sprint race from eighth place starting in second. These results convinced his team, which then took him for the remaining races of the GP2 Asia Series and the 2010 season of the GP2 series under contract. Also in the second race weekend, which took place as the first at the Yas Marina Circuit, Valsecchi followed up on the previous achievements: After he was behind his team-mate Oliver Turvey finished second in the feature race, he won the sprint race. With a victory in the feature race of the third race weekend in as- Sachir Valsecchi decided the champion of the GP2 Asia Series three races left in the season prematurely for themselves. He overtook in the last six rounds first second-placed Luca Filippi and then the erstwhile leader Javier Villa. In the regular GP2 Series he lost the team-internal duel against Turvey and had to wait until the last race of the season on a win. With a total of three podium finishes he finished the season in eighth place overall. He also started on a race weekend of the Auto GP. In addition, he made at a test day for HRT his first experience in a Formula 1 car.
2011 Valsecchi was Formula 1 test driver for Team Lotus. In this capacity he was in the first free practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix made its debut at a Grand Prix weekend. He also went for the team AirAsia, the GP2 Team Lotus in the GP2 Asia and GP2 Series at the start. In the GP2 Asia Series, he finished with a third place as best result seventh overall. A disqualification in the main race of the season finale because of a too low subsoil prevented a better overall placement. In GP2 Valsecchi decided the feature race at the Circuit de Monaco for themselves. In the second half of the season he remained but without points. He finished the season on top of the ninth.
2012 Valsecchi moved within the GP2 Series for DAMS. The second and third race weekend, both of which took place in al - Sachir, Valsecchi won three of four races, scoring a pole position, drove the fastest race lap twice and once third. After he had led the championship from the third race, he lost this mid-season on Luiz Razia. At the penultimate race weekend in Monza, where he won the sprint race he went back in the lead, and then secured a race left in the season the champion of the GP2 Series. Valsecchi set with 247 through to 222 points against Razia. Overall, Valsecchi scored in the 2012 season four wins and ten podium finishes. In addition, Valsecchi took part F1 Team Formula 1 test driving for the Lotus.
2013 was awarded a contract as Valsecchi at Lotus Formula 1 test driver.
Career stations
As of end of 2012 season