Giancarlo Fisichella
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Place of Birth: Rome
Resides: Monte Carlo
Status: Engaged to Luna (1 daughter, Carlotta).
Height: 1.72m
Weight: 69.5kg
Career previous to F1: 1994 Italian F3 Champion
Races: 108
Wins: 0 (0.0%)
Podiums: 9 (8.3%)
Pole Positions: 1 (0.9%)
Retirements: 39 (36.1%)
Points Accumulated: 82.000
Debut: 10 Mar 1996
Last Race: 09 Mar 2003
First Pole: 26 Jul 1998
Last Pole: 26 Jul 1998 |
View a complete listing of Giancarlo Fisichella's Formula 1 results
Driver History
Giancarlo broke in to F1 with Minardi in 1996 after being their
test driver, he then moved to the Jordan team in '97 and showed
glimpses of excellence in a fractious season with teammate Ralf
Schumacher.
His off-season move to Benetton for '98 team was a controversial
one with Benetton chief Flavio Briatore taking the Jordan team to
court to secure his services. In his first season with the Italian
outfit he got off to a shaky start but slowly found his feet towards
the end of the season including a pole position at the A1-Ring in
Austria.
Much vaunted as a young pretender to the F1 crown a couple of seasons
back, Giancarlo has (thus far) failed to show the sort of class
needed to reach the highest level. However, a lot of this is down
to the poor equipment at his disposal. 1999 brought a couple of
promising performances - most notably Canada.
2000 started off well, with five points finishes in the first eight
races, but some high profile collisions coupled with mechanical
failures meant that the Italian's season took a serious nose dive
from then onwards.
Benetton's last season before metamorphosing into Renault was not
a good one. A flexing chassis hindered the power output from the
radical new Renault engine making the car dreadfully slow. Fisi
and new boy Jenson Button struggled. Gradually Mike Gascoyne's technical
team got a grip on things and Giancarlo managed 3rd at Spa and 11th
in the Championship, before leaving for Jordan-Honda.
2002 was a similar case of 'career on hold' as his natural talent
languished in a car that was under-developed due to Jordan's lack
of resources. Coupled with the fact that the Honda engine needed
little encouragement to grenade itself and an inexperienced team-mate
(Sato) who wrecked a lot of the available chassis, it was another
year with little to show. Apart from a spectacular accident in practice
for the French GP which sidelined him from the race.
Fisi finished 11th in the Championship with 7 points, his best
results coming in Montreal, Monte Carlo and Austria.
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