Gastón Mazzacane
Gastón Hugo Mazzacane is an Argentine racing driver. He participated in 21 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting in the 2000 Australian Grand Prix. His father, Hugo Mazzacane, named him after the late Argentine touring car racer Gastón Perkins.
Mazzacane has also raced in Turismo Carretera and was the first TC Pick Up champion in 2018.
Racing career
Mazzacane is often known as a "pay driver". He began his Formula One career in 1999 as the test driver for Minardi. In late February, it was announced that he would be the teammate of Marc Gené in the race team. "I intend to learn over the first half of the season and then I feel I will have the confidence to perform well," Mazzacane told the press at the launch of the Minardi M02. His debut year in Formula One began with a broken gearbox at his first race, the 2000 Australian Grand Prix, followed by a tenth place in Brazil. He went on to outqualify Mazzacane at Imola, a feat he later accomplished twice more. The German Grand Prix was a relative high point for him; after outqualifying his teammate, he finished 11th. His highlight in the spotlights this season was on a damp Indianapolis track, when he famously overtook Mika Häkkinen, who was struggling after an early gamble on dry tyres. After running up to third without stopping, he ran over his pitcrew and dropped out of the race later. Nevertheless, he finished 11 of the 17 races that year and ranked third among drivers with the most kilometres raced.At the start of 2001, Mazzacane tested for Arrows, but finally settled into the Prost team, taking over the seat of the Sauber-bound Nick Heidfeld. He beat CART's Oriol Servia for the Prost spot, and was announced as the second driver in January. However, the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix was his final Formula One race. Alain Prost fired him by using a performance clause in his contract, and the vacancy was filled by Luciano Burti, who had recently been sacked from Jaguar Racing.
Mazzacane would be the last Argentinian to drive in Formula One until the 2024 Italian Grand Prix when Franco Colapinto drove for Williams.
Mazzacane signed a contract with the reformed DART team a/k/a Phoenix, which had plans to race in the season. However, it was not to be as the team was barred from racing.
Mazzacane then went to the US and competed in the last half of the 2004 Champ Car season with the Dale Coyne Racing #19 car.