Álvaro Parente

In 2007, Álvaro Parente won the championship title in Formula Renault 3.5 for Tech 1 Racing

Parente at the Nürburgring in the GP2 series 2009

Álvaro Parente won his debut race in the GP2 series at the Circuit de Catalunya in 2008

Álvaro Parente in the victorious McLaren at the Bathurst 12 Hours in 2016

Álvaro Parente (born October 4, 1984 in Porto ) is a Portuguese racing driver . He became British Formula 3 Champion in 2005 and Formula Renault 3.5 Champion in 2007 . From 2008 to 2011 he started in the GP2 series . In 2012 he competed in the FIA GT1 World Championship and has been driving GT and sports car races ever since .

Career

Parente began his motorsport career in karting in 1994 , where he was active until 2000. In 2001 he made his debut in the Spanish Formula 3 championship and was twelfth of the championship in his first season. In 2002 Parente stayed in Spanish Formula 3 and with a win he improved to fourth place in the drivers' championship. In 2003 Parente switched to the Formula 3 Euro Series . He scored only one point and finished 25th overall at the end of the season. He also took part in two races each of the British and the Italian Formula 3 championship and he managed to win the Italian championship.

In 2004 Parente switched to Carlin Motorsport and he started a full season in the British Formula 3 Championship. With one win and another three podium finishes, he finished seventh overall at the end of the season. In 2005 Parente stayed with Carlin Motorsport and contested his second season in British Formula 3. Parente dominated the season with eleven wins and won the championship title ahead of his teammate Charlie Kimball .

After winning the title, Parente started in the A1GP series for the Portuguese A1 team in winter 2005/2006 . He didn't win a race for himself, but was on the podium in three races. After the end of the season, Parente switched to Formula Renault 3.5 for Victory Engineering . With three wins he finished fifth overall at the end of the season. Only the master Alx Danielsson had more victories than him. After returning to the A1GP series for six races in the 2006/2007 season in winter , he contested his second season in Formula Renault 3.5 in 2007 for the French Tech 1 Racing team . With two victories, including the prestigious race in Monte Carlo , the Portuguese won the championship ahead of Ben Hanley . In addition, he competed in several races in the Spanish GT Championship and finished fourth in the Super GT classification with two wins.

In 2008 Parente drove for Super Nova Racing in the GP2 series . The season started off perfectly for him as he won the first race of the season at the Circuit de Catalunya . Thus Parente was the first Portuguese to win a race in the GP2 series. In the remaining races of the season Parente stood on the podium three times. With 34 points he finished eighth overall at the end of the season.

In February 2009 Parente switched to the GP2 Asia series and replaced Earl Bamber at Qi-Meritus Mahara . He got one point and was 21st overall. In the GP2 series 2009 Parente started for Ocean Racing Technology , the team of his compatriot Tiago Monteiro . After missing points in the first eight races and being distanced from his team-mate Karun Chandhok , the team-internal duel at the Nürburgring turned , where Parente scored points in both races and was second on the podium in the sprint race. In Spa-Francorchamps Parente won the main race and gave his team their first victory in the GP2 series. At the end of the season, he finished eighth overall. With 30 points he also scored three times as many points as his teammate Chandhok. He also competed in two Superleague Formula races , one of which he won, and in some races in the Spanish GT Championship.

At the end of 2009, the new Formula 1 team, Virgin Racing Parente , signed a contract as the official test driver for the 2010 season . However, this contract was terminated before the start of the season. After the failure of his Formula 1 involvement, Parente entered the GP2 Asia series for the Scuderia Coloni for the third race weekend of the 2009/2010 season and finished eighth overall at the end of the season, although he had only contested half of the races. He then switched to the Superleague Formula, in which he participated in the 2010 season . He started in this series for the Reid Motorsport team at FC Portos . He won three races and was on the podium in another race. In addition, Parente returned to the eighth race weekend of the 2010 season in the GP2 series and replaced Alberto Valerio at Scuderia Coloni. While Coloni was mostly to be found in the back of the field in the previous races of the season, Parente immediately managed to finish the first two races in Spa-Francorchamps in second and third on the podium. He was unable to compete in the last race of the season because of an ear infection. At the end of the season he finished 15th in the drivers' championship. Parente also won the International GT Open as a guest starter and took part in a Le Mans Series race. He also finished third in the Spanish GT Championship.

In 2011 , Parente for Racing Engineering took part in two GP2 race weekends as a representative for Christian Vietoris, who was suffering from health problems . He finished the main race at the Circuit de Monaco in second place. He then switched to Carlin within the series and completed four racing weekends for this team. He finished the season in 16th place overall. He also took part in three races in the Blancpain Endurance Series as a McLaren works driver . In 2012 Parente will be a McLaren works driver for Hexis Racing in the FIA GT1 World Championship together with Grégoire Demoustier .

statistics

Career stations

1994-2000: Karting 2001: Spanish Formula 3 (12th place) 2002: Spanish Formula 3 (4th place) 2003 : Formula 3 Euro Series (25th place) 2003: British Formula 3 (22nd place) 2003: Italian Formula 3 (9th place) 2004: British Formula 3 (7th place) 2005: British Formula 3 (champions) 2006 : A1GP

2006: Formula Renault 3.5 (5th place) 2007 : A1GP 2007: Formula Renault 3.5 (champion) 2007: Spanish GT Championship, Super GT (4th place) 2008 : GP2 series (8th place) 2009 : GP2 Asia Series (21st place) 2009 : GP2 series (8th place) 2009 : Superleague Formula 2009: Spanish GT Championship, Super GT (8th place)

2010 : GP2 Asia Series (8th place) 2010 : GP2 series (15th place) 2010 : Superleague Formula 2010 : Le Mans Series , LMGT2 (21st place) 2010: Spanish GT Championship (3rd place) 2011 : GP2 series (16th place) 2011 : Blancpain Endurance Series 2012 : FIA GT1 World Championship

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2014	RAM Racing	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	Matt Griffin	Federico Leo	failure	Gearbox damage
2017	Clearwater Racing	Ferrari 488 GTE	Richard Wee	Hiroki Kato	Rank 40

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2018	Michael Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian	Acura NSX GT3	Katherine Legge	Trent Hindman	Rank 24

Web links

Commons : Álvaro Parente  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Álvaro Parente's official blog
• Career statistics of Alvaro Parente (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Parente wins at the start of the season" (Motorsport-Total.com on April 26, 2008)
2. ↑ "Virgin Racing presented its driver trio on Tuesday: Timo Glock, Lucas di Grassi and Alvaro Parente." (Motorsport-Magazin.com on December 15, 2009)
3. ^ "Formula 1 - Parents no longer Virgin substitute drivers" (Motorsport-Magazin.com on February 11, 2010)
4. ↑ "Parente: From Virgin to the Superleague" (Motorsport-Total.com on March 29, 2010)
5. ^ "Parente celebrates comeback in Spa" (Motorsport-Total.com on August 24, 2010)
6. ↑ "Jakes replaces Parente in Abu Dhabi" (Motorsport-Total.com on November 11, 2010)
7. ↑ "Strong headache: Vietoris not at the start in Spain" (Motorsport-Total.com on May 19, 2011)
8. ↑ “Parente joins Carlin” (gp2series.com on June 21, 2011)
9. ↑ "Hexis WM-driver quartet stands" (speedweek.de on February 1st, 2012)