Max Papis
Massimiliano "Max" Papis ( born October 3, 1969 in Como ) is an Italian racing driver who was in the most diverse racing series at the start and is. He drove in Formula 1 and in the Champ Car World Series, and currently runs in the ALMS and in the NASCAR series.
Formula 1
Max Papis came in 1995 in Formula 1, when he for seven races in the actual master driver Gianni Morbidelli replaced at Footwork Arrows. Papis brought much sponsor money that the team needed chronically poorly funded urgently.
Papis, who was able to enter some wins in Formula 3000, came with the car but only unwieldy and had not cope well in the qualifiers against his much-maligned teammates Taki Inoue few times in the cold. On top of that he was unlucky in the race. Making its debut at the Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone he retired after a fraction of the suspension, caused by a puncture, spectacularly through a spin out. Also in Hockenheim Grand Prix of Germany, he retired already in the initial phase after a gearbox failure again by accident from.
A possible championship point he came at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza next. Here, the race for him began extremely unfavorable. The pole sitter David Coulthard came still in the warm-up lap with his Williams -Renault into the Ascari chicane into the gravel. Papis turned on his thrown on the road sand and also sparked a collision of three vehicles from. The race was stopped and restarted with another formation lap. Papis was until a lap to go in the sixth position, but had to let just before the finish of the Sauber drivers Jean -Christophe Boullion and thus lost one seemed to be sure championship point. After the Grand Prix of Europe, the sponsor money was exhausted and had to vacate Papis, who promptly took the Arrows at the end of the season in Australia in third place the cockpit for Morbidelli again.
Champ Car
As of the 1996 season went Papis several years successfully in the Champ Car World Series. The door to the series opened in mid-season, when he replaced the Toronto fatally injured Jeff Krosnoff. The successes came in 1999. The change to the team of Bobby Rahal brought the first victory and fifth overall in the championship. In 2000 he won the first race though, but could be later in the year hardly put more and a top ten ranking in the championship remained unmatched. Despite two victories 2001 Papis had to leave the team Rahal end of the year after two unnecessary collision with his teammate Kenny Bräck again.
Papis began in 2001 intensified in the sports car scene to get involved. His appearances at the Champ Cars were rare. In 2003, when most of the big teams alternated the competition series Indy Racing League, he returned to Champ Cars with the words "The series needs me more than I ' fully back. Papis drove in 2002 and 2006 for the team of Eddie Cheever 500 miles of Indianapolis and is in 2006 celebrating the race in Watkins Glen made his debut in the NASCAR Busch Series.
Corvette Racing
Since 2004, Papis drives for the Corvette Racing Corvette C5 -R or C6.R. Since he denies every year, the 12 - hour race at Sebring, the. 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Petit Le Mans His partners were abwechselend Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta, Johnny O'Connell and Ron Fellows. The greatest successes were there two class wins at Sebring ( 2004, 2007 ), and one at Road Atlanta in 2007.
Mad Max
Since the 24 Hours of Daytona 1996, the U.S. racing fans "Mad Max" call him. Papis drove a Ferrari 333SP there, and before his last stint the car was higher in the second place, but was badly damaged after the accident. The body was more or less only held together by duct tape. Nevertheless delivered Papis an idea of the highest class. First he rounded back ( in the lead was a Riley & Scott Oldsmobile, driven by Wayne Taylor), he reduced his deficit by a record number of rounds to a few seconds. Taylor dragged his prototype, who suffered from an overheated engine, only more slowly around the course. What Taylor, who now also drove at the limit, finally rescued, was the enormous fuel consumption of the Ferrari, triggered by the record rounds of Papis. As Papis few laps came to refuel again, witnessed the race one of his most amazing events. Papis raced full speed - measured 320 km / h - through the pit lane ( a speed limit was only a year later introduced ) to get fuel. He lost the race with just under a minute behind Taylor, but his bravura performance earned him the nickname Mad Max.