| BEFORE FORMULA ONE | ||
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1984
Fiat Panda? You've GOT to be kidding... |
Born in Augusta, Italy on 18 February 1958, Giovanni Lavaggi waited until 1984 before beginning his racing career in the rather embarrassing Italian Fiat Panda championship, where he only came 2nd.
This alone should say something about his ability - not an auspicious start to his career! |
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1988-91
Not a stellar stint in F3000 |
The next that anyone heard of him was in the Sports Prototype Championship in 1988 and 1989, driving for the famous Kremer team. In 1990 he raced in the European Interserie Championship, and drove in F3000 without success.
He continued in that formula in 1991 with the competitive Crypton team, without distinguishing himself. |
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1992-94
Tests for March, no joy in Indy cars |
In 1992 he landed a role as F1 test driver for March whilst finishing 7th at Le Mans. Reverting to the European Interserie Championship in 1993, he won that series before making a foray into Indy racing in America in 1994.
There he raced 4 times, and failed to qualify on many other occasions. He did, however, come a commendable 13th at Elkhart Lake in a year-old car. |
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| FORMULA ONE | ||
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1995 Pacific Deep pocket leads to F1 debut |
In 1995, when the Pacific F1 team fell increasingly short of cash, team driver and shareholder
Bertrand Gachot stepped down to give Lavaggi a chance to buy his way into a grand prix drive.
In the four races for which he was contracted, he qualified 23rd in Belgium out of 24, and in the other three he qualified 24th. The closest he came to being on the pace was 8 seconds off pole time at Monza. |
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1995
Gearbox and ineptitude hamper Giovanni |
There was an interesting symmetry to his results. In Germany he retired after 27 laps with a gearbox failure; in Hungary he spun after 5 laps; in Belgium he had another gearbox failure after 27 laps; in Italy he only just failed to repeat the pattern, spinning out after 6 laps (picture above).
On the Friday night of that Monza meeting, Lavaggi and his sponsor Air Sicilia invited all members of the media to a cannoli party at the Pacific motorhome. Just thought you might like to know that. |
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1995
Non championship races at Bologna |
Anyway, at the end of 1995 Lavaggi was invited by the Forti F1 team to drive one of their cars in the pursuit races at the Bologna motor show, in which only
Minardi and Forti bothered to
participate.
Andrea Montermini and Vittorio Zoboli also drove Fortis, while Giancarlo Fisichella, Pierluigi Martini and eventual winner Luca Badoer drove Minardis. These races, though, did not constitute a grand prix start of any sort. |
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1996 Minardi Dazzling display of ultra-slow driving |
But it's fairly likely that during these events, either Lavaggi's money or ability must have impressed Minardi. I'm guessing that it was the former. When
Tarso Marques and Fisichella failed to come up with much-needed funds half way through 1996, Lavaggi was given a second chance to drive in F1 in six events from Germany onwards.
He failed to record a lap time within 107% of pole time in Germany, Belgium and Japan, which meant he was not allowed to start. He qualified 20th and last in Hungary, Italy and Portugal. On these three occasions he was only around 5 seconds off pole time, and around a second slower than the man ahead, so it was an OK effort. NOT. |
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1996
Plays a pivotal role in the race - while being lapped |
In those three races, he had an engine failure at Monza, but finished 10th in Hungary (albeit 8 laps down) and 15th in Portugal (4 laps down). However, he was involved in the most spectacular passing move of the year, if not of the decade. At Estoril, he balked Michael Schumacher going into the treacherous last bend, allowing
Jacques Villeneuve in the Williams to try to go around the outside of the Ferrari.
Using his oval-racing skills, he pulled off the move. How nice to know that even if Lavaggi was "a chicane disguised as a Minardi" (in the words of 'Autosport'), he could still have an effect on Grand Prix racing! |
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| AFTER FORMULA ONE | ||
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1996-97
Sterling 21st in Global GT, DNQ at Le Mans |
In his post-F1 career, Lavaggi has surprisingly found his niche in sports car racing, that rather odd category which seems to cater for ex-F1 stars as well as for gentlemen drivers, also-rans and F1 rejects. Sometimes they can be all of the last three simultaneously.
During his Minardi shenanigans, Lavaggi also found time to drive a Porsche 911 GT2 in the Global GT championship rounds at Monza and at Nurburgring, in the latter case sharing the car with Renato Mastropietro and Vincenzo Polli and coming 21st. In 1997 he attempted to qualify a Kremer K8 at Le Mans with Jean-Luc Maury-Laribiere and Bernard Chauvin, but failed to do so. |
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1998-99
Best a 2nd in the Sports Racing World Cup |
In 1998, he competed in the International Sports Racing Series (ISRS), driving a Ferrari 333SP with a number of different drivers. He came 4th at Anderstorp with Marco Werner, 5th at the Le Mans Bugatti track with Thorkild Thyrring, and 5th at Kyalami with
Andrea Chiesa.
In 1999, the ISRS was renamed the Sports Racing World Cup. Driving a 333SP for the Monaco-based GV Brums team, usually with Minardi test driver Gaston Mazzacane, and on occasions with Dr Thomas Bscher, Lavaggi's best results have been 2nd at Donington and 4th at Barcelona. |
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Personal
Visit the G.L. fan club! |
On a personal note, Lavaggi is 1.81 metres tall and weighs 71kg. His blood type is A+. On the Internet, he even has a FAN CLUB!
Ironically, just about the only pic on their site is of him in the gravel! You can check this site out at: |
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