Gabriele Tarquini — BrandWiki

Gabriele Tarquini

podiums	0

points	1

poles	0

fastest laps	0

first race	1987 San Marino Grand Prix

last race	1995 European Grand Prix

Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian former racing driver and motorsport executive who competed in Formula One between and, and World Touring Car from to 2021. In touring car racing, Tarquini won the World Touring Car Championship in 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.[1][2][3] He later won the 2018 World Touring Car Cup with BRC, aged 56. He has served as sporting director for Genesis Magma Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship since.

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 second 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.

Tarquini 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 eighth 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 eighth on the road, being promoted to sixth after the exclusion of Thierry Boutsen and Alex Caffi. He was then one of the stars of the weekend in Monaco

Touring Cars

Italian Superturismo 1993

Alfa Romeo (1993)

With the adaption of the Super Touring regulations dominated by D-segment cars in 1993, Tarquini joined Alfa Romeo, becoming their number one driver and finishing third in Italian Superturismo behind Roberto Ravaglia and Fabrizio Giovanardi.

Alfa Romeo (1993)

BTCC 1994/1995

Alfa Romeo (1994–1995)

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.[14]

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

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

External links

References

TARQUINI: EXPERIENCE AND CONSISTENCY The Official FIA World Touring Car Championship Website, 23 November 2009^
WTCC: Tarquini – A Historic World Champion TouringCarTimes, 24 November 2009^
Tarquini And SEAT Crowned at Gala FIA official website, 11 December 2009

WTCC

Alfa Romeo (2005)

Tarquini 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.[4] He finished fifth in the championship that year with one win. He finished eighth 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)

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.[5] He started the year with the SEAT 2.0 TDI engine but switched to the SUNRED 1.6T for Brno onwards.[6] He finished the season fifth 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.[7] 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.[8]

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.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12]

Lada (2016)

In his last season of WTCC, Tarquini moved to the uncompetitive Lada team, where he was able to score two victories.

wins
embed	yes
nationality	🇮🇹 Italian
years	–,
teams	Osella, Coloni, First, AGS, Fondmetal, Tyrrell
races	78 (38 starts)
championships	0

Formula One

Touring Cars

Italian Superturismo 1993

Alfa Romeo (1993)

Alfa Romeo (1993)

BTCC 1994/1995

Alfa Romeo (1994–1995)

Management career

Racing record

Career summary

Complete International Formula 3000 results

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete Formula One results

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

External links

References

Alfa Romeo (1994–1995)

ITC 1996

Alfa Romeo (1996)

Alfa Romeo (1996)

BTCC 1997

Honda (1997)

Honda (1997)

STW 1998/1999

Honda (1998–1999)

Honda (1998–1999)

BTCC 2000

Honda (2000)

Honda (2000)

Euro STC 2001

Honda (2001)

Honda (2001)

ETCC 2003/2004

WTCC

Alfa Romeo (2005)

SEAT Sport (2006–2009)

Sunred (2010–2011)

Lukoil Racing (2012)

Honda (2013–2015)

Lada (2016)

Alfa Romeo (2005)

SEAT Sport (2006–2009)

Sunred (2010–2011)

Lukoil Racing (2012)

Honda (2013–2015)

Lada (2016)

WTCR

Hyundai (2018-2021)

Hyundai (2018-2021)

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft results

Complete International Touring Car Championship results

Complete Super Tourenwagen Cup results

Complete European Touring Car Championship results

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

Complete World Touring Car Cup results

Complete Scandinavian Touring Car Championship results

Complete TCR International Series results