Giancarlo Fisichella
Giancarlo "Giano" Fisichella, nicknamed Fisico and Fisi, is an Italian racing driver and motorsport executive who competed in Formula One from to. Fisichella won three Formula One Grands Prix across 14 seasons.
Born and raised in Rome, Fisichella is a member of the noble Fisichella family of Sicily. After starting his career in kart racing, he progressed to Italian Formula Three in 1992, winning the title in 1994 with RC Motorsport, as well as the Monaco F3 Grand Prix. Following a season in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, Fisichella graduated to Formula One with Minardi in, debuting at the. He moved to Jordan for, achieving his maiden podium finishes at the Canadian and Belgian Grands Prix. He joined Benetton in with multiple further podiums, as well as his maiden pole position at the. Several podiums followed across his remaining three seasons at Enstone: one in, three in —where he finished sixth in the World Drivers' Championship—and one in.
Fisichella returned to Jordan in, where he claimed his maiden win at the wet-weather the following year; his victory was declared after five days of deliberation and court proceedings due to a timekeeping error classifying him second. He partnered Felipe Massa at Sauber for his campaign, scoring several points finishes. His return to Enstone with Renault in alongside Fernando Alonso was headlined by his debut victory from pole in Australia, claiming multiple further podiums as he finished fifth overall. He achieved a career-best fourth in the World Drivers' Championship in, winning the from pole as he helped Renault win back-to-back World Constructors' Championships. After a winless campaign, Fisichella joined Force India for and, finishing second from pole at the latter ; he replaced an injured Massa at Ferrari for the final five rounds and remained their reserve driver through. Fisichella departed Formula One with three victories, four pole positions, two fastest laps, and 19 podium finishes.
Following his departure from Formula One, Fisichella moved into sportscar racing with AF Corse, winning the Le Mans Series in 2011 and the FIA World Endurance Championship and 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2012 in the GTE class. He again took a class victory at Le Mans in, when he moved to the IMSA SportsCar Championship with Risi Competizione. He later returned to WEC from to, after which he shifted to Italian GT3. Beyond driving, he founded the eponymous Fisichella Motor Sport in 2005, managing the team in the GP2 Series from 2006 to 2009.
Junior racing career
Like most current Formula One drivers, Fisichella began kart racing as a youngster in the Guidonia's Kart circuit. In 1992, he competed in the Italian Formula Three Championship, racing for the RC Motorsport team. He finished runner up in 1993, and in 1994, he won the championship, following race victories in Monaco and Macau. He left open-wheel racing briefly in 1995 and 1996, driving for Alfa Romeo in the International Touring Car Championship.In June 1997, Fisichella made a one-off appearance at Spa in the Belgian Procar Championship, driving for the works Peugeot team. He stood in for Vincent Radermecker and came second.
Formula One career
Minardi (1996)
In, Fisichella made the move to Formula One, making his debut for the Minardi team, after being the official test driver the previous season. However he did not complete the full season since Minardi required a driver who could bring funding to the team, and replaced Fisichella with Giovanni Lavaggi.Jordan (1997)
In 1997, Fisichella made the move to Eddie Jordan's eponymous team, where he drove alongside former F1 champion Michael Schumacher's brother Ralf, himself a former Formula Nippon champion. Fisichella gained his first podium finish at the 1997 Canadian Grand Prix, and went on to finish higher in the points standings than his teammate. At Hockenheim, a victory looked to be within reach for Fisichella, but a puncture and the performance of an on-form Gerhard Berger denied him the win. Fisichella was able to show his talent again at the rain-soaked Belgian Grand Prix in which he finished a commendable second behind Michael Schumacher. Following this race, the Benetton team signed him for 1998.Benetton (1998–2001)
Following Renault's withdrawal from Formula One, Benetton would contest the 1998 season without factory-supplied engines, instead using rebranded development versions of 1997 Renault engines. Despite not having the latest engines, Fisichella still managed second places at Montreal and Monaco, and was in contention for a victory in Canada until gearbox problems slowed him down. In Austria, Fisichella scored his first pole position. However, an on-track clash with Jean Alesi during the race cost him any chance of a good result. He was then able to add only two more points to his total in the second half of the year as Benetton lost ground on their competition.1999 proved to be a similarly inconsistent season. Fisichella did score some points finishes, including second at Montreal, and again came close to a victory in the European Grand Prix, until he spun off whilst in the lead. This would prove to be his best chance of a victory for the next few seasons.
Fisichella's season was to follow a similar pattern in 2000. He again gained some surprise podium finishes early in the year in Brazil, Germany, Monaco, and Canada. However, Benetton's poor second half of the season meant that he failed to score any more points. After his first Benetton year, when he finished one point behind him, Fisichella had comprehensively outperformed his Austrian teammate Alexander Wurz, who would then leave the team to make way for British driver Jenson Button in 2001. Renault had purchased the Benetton team after the start of the 2000 season, but their radical engine design meant Benetton had an uncompetitive 2001 car, and as a result, Fisichella was battling for much of the season with teams such as Minardi and Prost. However, the efforts of technical director Mike Gascoyne and his staff did result in improvements over the year, culminating in a 4–5 finish at the German Grand Prix and a third-place finish for Fisichella at the Belgium race. Although Fisichella had gained the team's best results that season and consistently outperformed Button, he was not retained by the team, so he rejoined Jordan for 2002.
Return to Jordan (2002–2003)
Fisichella scored seven points in 2002, while comfortably outpacing new teammate Takuma Sato, although the Jordan-Honda car of that year was never truly competitive. After Honda withdrew their engine supply, Jordan switched to Ford engines for the 2003 season, but the team were still unable to compete with the top teams on the grid. Despite this lack of performance, Fisichella won his first race at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Battling with McLaren's Kimi Räikkönen amidst heavy rain and numerous crashes, Fisichella took the race lead on lap 54, just before the race was red-flagged. However, he was demoted to second place on the podium, because under the regulations, the race results were declared at two laps before the red flag, at which point Räikkönen was thought to have been the race leader. Several days later, though, the FIA determined that Fisichella had already begun his 56th lap before the red flag, meaning that he, and not Räikkönen, had been leading the race two laps before its premature end, awarding the Italian his first F1 victory, and he became the only F1 driver to have won a race without having stood atop the podium. He collected the winner's trophy at the next race at Imola. Fisichella's only other points finish of 2003 was to be a seventh place at Indianapolis.Sauber (2004)
Unhappy with the Jordan team's performance, Fisichella moved to Sauber in 2004 in the hope of greater results, and using the team as a way of gaining access to drive for the 2003 World Champions Ferrari, who supplied re-badged engines to the Sauber team. Fisichella drove well all year, comfortably outpacing teammate Felipe Massa for much of the season.Renault (2005–2007)
2005
Fisichella's strong performances prompted his former Benetton-Renault team boss Flavio Briatore to re-sign him for the 2005 season as partner to the young Spanish driver Fernando Alonso. A win at the season opening race at Melbourne signalled the Formula One breakthrough that commentators had been predicting, but it proved to be something of a false dawn. A run of poor luck saw Fisichella fall behind his teammate in the championship standings, and at times the pair were achieving noticeably different lap times with the same equipment. It appeared that Fisichella simply did not have the pace to match Alonso.The difference in pace between Fisichella and Alonso was noticeable, and while Alonso's metronomic consistency helped him win the championship, Fisichella's general bad luck was to cost him points finishes. He was overtaken and lost the lead on the final lap of the Japanese Grand Prix by McLaren driver Kimi Räikkönen, despite his race engineer urging him to avoid letting Räikkönen past, which earned him heavy criticism from the press. Nevertheless, his performances alongside Alonso throughout the season enabled Renault to win the World Constructors' Championship ahead of McLaren and Ferrari, the latter of which had won that title the previous six seasons.