Claudio Langes

Claudio Langes (born July 20, 1960 in Brescia ) is a former Italian racing driver .

Career

Kart and Formula 3

In 1978 Claudio Langes was the Italian kart champion in the class up to 125 cm³. He then rose to European Formula 3 . In 1982 he drove a Dallara 382 Alfa Romeo and an Anson SA3C Toyota . He scored 10 points and was tied with John Nielsen eighth of the championship. In 1983 he stayed in European Formula 3 and drove an Anson SA4 with an Alfa Romeo engine. With 11 points he finished the championship in ninth place.

In 1984 he initially drove for Eddie Jordan Racing and the Dutch Barron Racing team. He achieved third place in Donington , second places in Monza , Enna and on the Österreichring and a victory in Knutstorp . With 36 points he finished the championship in fourth place behind Gerhard Berger , Johnny Dumfries and the champion Ivan Capelli .

Formula 3000

In 1985 he switched to the newly founded Formula 3000 and drove there for Barron Racing in an old Formula 1 - Tyrrell 012 . After only two bad races at Silverstone and Thruxton , he went back to Italy and started the Formula 3 championship there . At the Curacao F3000 Grand Prix, he returned to Formula 3000 for this one race. For Eddie Jordan Racing he drove a March 85B Cosworth . Starting from fifth on the grid, he achieved third place.

In 1986 he started a full season in Formula 3000 for BS Automotive in a Lola T86 / 50-Cosworth. With a fifth and a sixth place in Enna and Le Mans , respectively , he scored 3 points and ended the season tied with Richard Dallest in 17th place.

In 1987 he moved to First Racing , where he drove a March 87B Cosworth. He had a disastrous season in which he could not score a point. In 1988 he went to GA Motorsport and drove a Lola T88 / 50 Cosworth. With a fifth and a fourth place in Birmingham and Enna, he scored 5 points and was 15th in the championship, tied with Volker Weidler .

In 1989 he moved to Forti Corse and drove a Lola T89 / 50 Cosworth. In Enna, he achieved his first podium finish with second place and finished the season in 12th place overall.

formula 1

Claudio Langes' car 1990: EuroBrun ER189B

For 1990, Langes had the budget for a Formula 1 start with the EuroBrun team, which did not qualify for a single race in the 1989 season . In 1990 the financially troubled team was similarly weak. Langes, who was Roberto Moreno's team-mate , did not succeed in any of his 14 attempts to pre-qualify. Langes kept the team alive with his sponsorship money. On the other hand, EuroBrun repeatedly failed to give him serious opportunities to make quick laps. Sometimes he was only allowed to drive one or two laps or was instructed to drive slowly in order to save the car, engine or tires. Almost all the funds went into Moreno's car, which was prepared as well as possible for the pre-qualifications. Langes, on the other hand, regularly got the worse of the two cars, and he had to keep his car ready as a replacement car for Moreno in case something broke in his car during training. During the pre-qualification, technical components were repeatedly removed from Langes' car and attached to Moreno's car. At the German Grand Prix , for example, this concerned the engine cover that Moreno had lost during a spin in the pre-qualification. As a result, Langes was repeatedly significantly slower than Bertrand Gachot in the Coloni C3B , which - apart from the Life L190  - was the worst car of the season and was mostly described as "unfit for racing". Team boss Walter Brun tried from summer 1990 to replace Langes with Marco Greco or Allen Berg ; However, Lange managed to stay with the team until the end of the year thanks to new donors. However, this destroyed his reputation as a racing driver: After his involvement with EuroBrun, he was no longer given another cockpit in Formula 1. Claudio Langes holds a negative record: With 14 failed pre-qualifications in a total of 14 attempts, he has gone down in history as the most unsuccessful driver in Formula 1.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Motorsport Aktuell, issue 25/1990, p. 29.
2. ↑ Motorsport Aktuell, issue 27/1990, p. 7.
3. ^ For example, at the Grand Prix of Canada in 1990, cf. Motorsport Aktuell, issue 25/1990, p. 29.
4. ↑ Motorsport Aktuell, issue 32/1990, p. 10.
5. ↑ Motorsport Aktuell, issue 32/1990, p. 8.
6. ↑ Motorsport Aktuell, issue 26/1990, p. 22.
7. ↑ Claudio Langes' biography on the website www.f1rejects.com ( Memento of the original from May 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on August 22, 2011).