Gabriele Tarquini

**Gabriele Tarquini**
Nation:	Italy
Formula 1 world championship
First start:	1987 San Marino Grand Prix
Last start:	1995 European Grand Prix
Constructors
	1987 Osella • 1988 Coloni • 1989–1991 AGS • 1991–1992 Fondmetal • 1995 Tyrrell
statistics
World Cup balance:	WM-26. ( 1989 )
World Cup points :	1
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Gabriele Tarquini (born March 2, 1962 in Giulianova ) is an Italian racing driver . Between 1987 and 1995 he took part in 38 Grand Prix races for the Formula 1 World Championship, after which Tarquini became a fixture in touring car racing . In 2009 he won the world title in the WTCC. In 2018 Gabriele Tarquini became world champion in a Hyundai i30 N in the WTCR

formula 1

In 1983 and 1984 Tarquini drove in a number of karting series, and from 1985 to 1987 in Formula 3000 . In 1987 he contested his first Formula 1 race when he drove the second car of the Osella team at the Grand Prix of San Marino . In 1988 Tarquini was a regular driver for Coloni and achieved eighth place in Canada as the best result. For 1989 he was registered as a driver for the planned Formula 1 team First Racing . Tarquini tested the car in February 1989, but the team withdrew its Formula 1 entry before the first race of the year. Tarquini then managed to get a contract with AGS , where he replaced Philippe Streiff , who had just had an accident during test drives in Rio de Janeiro . This period began successfully for Tarquini with a championship point in the third race. As a result, the team proved to be too weak, so that Tarquini was ultimately only able to qualify for a few races - mostly he did not even reach the final training. At the end of 1991 he finally moved to the Fondmetal team , for which he also contested the 1992 Formula 1 World Championship . Tarquini was able to qualify for the races for his new team, but never reached the points. After the Italian Grand Prix he temporarily ended his active Formula 1 career and devoted himself to touring car racing. In 1995 , Tarquini drove another race as a replacement for the Tyrrell pilot Ukyō Katayama .

Gabriele Tarquini holds two inglorious Formula 1 records: a total of 40 times he failed to qualify for the race in practice, 25 times he even failed in the pre-qualification for the actual qualifying . It should be noted, however, that Tarquini mostly drove for teams that were only competitive to a limited extent.

Touring car

In contrast to Formula 1, in which he was only one of the absolute outsiders with no real success, Gabriele Tarquini developed into a permanent fixture in touring car racing . During his Formula 1 career, he drove in the Italian Super Touring Car Championship in 1989 and 1992 and finished fifth overall. Over a period of 22 years (1993 to 2014), with the exception of 2002, he achieved at least one victory in a national or international touring car championship in every season. Outstanding are the championship titles in the BTCC 1994, the European Touring Car Championship 2003 and the WTCC in 2009 . In the latter series, Tarquini has been a works driver for Alfa Romeo , Seat and Honda since it was founded in 2005 . In 2016 he switched to the Lada factory team.