Luca Badoer (Italian pronunciation: [ˈluːka baˈdɔɛr]; born 25 January 1971) is an Italian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between 1993 and 2009.
Born and raised in Veneto, Badoer began competitive kart racing at a young age, winning several regional and national titles. Progressing to Formula 3000 in 1992, he won the title at the first attempt. Between 1993 and 1999, Badoer competed in Formula One at 56 Grands Prix for Scuderia Italia, Minardi and Forti. In addition to his racing duties, Badoer was one of the active test drivers for Ferrari from 1998 to 2010; in 2009, he deputised for Felipe Massa at the European and Belgian Grands Prix.
Badoer holds the record for the most starts without scoring a point (50), although all of his races before his 2009 comeback came during a period when only the top six finishers scored points. Under the 2010 scoring system, he would have scored 26 points over his career. He nearly achieved a points finish in the 1999 European Grand Prix, when the gearbox on his Minardi M01 failed whilst running in fourth.
Badoer was born in Montebelluna, Veneto, Italy. He raced karts in his youth starting in 1985 and scored two wins. In 1986, Badoer drove in the 100cc category to become the karting champion of Venice and became national champion the following year. He won the Italian championship in the 100cc international class in 1988.
Formula Three and Formula 3000
In 1989, Badoer moved to single-seater racing, joining the Trivellato team in the Italian Formula Three Championship driving a Dallara/Alfa Romeo. In 1990, he moved to the MRD Team. Driving a Ralt RT33 Alfa Romeo, he defeated Alex Zanardi and Roberto Colciago to win the final race of the 1990 season and finished 10th in the championship. In 1991 he moved to the Supercars team driving a Dallara 391 Alfa Romeo to win four races in succession, but was disqualified after a technicality concerning his tyres. Badoer finished fourth overall in the championship taking 33 points. In 1992, Badoer graduated to the Formula 3000 Championship, where he was selected to drive for Crypton Engineering. Badoer won four races, including a dominating display at Pergusa where he finished 21 seconds ahead of Emanuele Naspetti. While beating a field that included Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard, Badoer became one of only four drivers to win the Formula 3000 title at the first attempt (the others being Stefano Modena in 1987, Christian Fittipaldi in 1991 and Jörg Müller in 1996). winning four races en route to the title.
Badoer had an offer of a long-term contract with Tyrrell to join the team, starting in the 1993 season. Badoer rejected this offer and signed with BMS Scuderia Italia instead.
Badoer's debut in Formula One in 1993 was mired by BMS Scuderia Italia's uncompetitive Lola chassis, which, despite Ferrari engines, was the slowest car in the championship in terms of qualifying pace. In South Africa, Badoer retired after 20 laps due to gearbox failure. In Brazil, Badoer qualified 21st and finished 12th after an incident forced him to pit for a new nose cone. At Donington, he fell victim to a new rule limiting qualifying to the fastest 24 cars (his time was only good enough for 26th). The round at Imola saw Badoer race as high as sixth, but finish seventh. This remained Badoer's best result in Formula One. In Spain, he was unable to finish and at Monaco, Badoer finished the last of the runners. He managed to finish 15th in Canada. At Magny-Cours, Silverstone, Hockenheim and Budapest, Badoer failed to finish, twice to suspension failure. Going into Spa, the Lola team was gaining reliability and Badoer finished 13th. At his home race at Monza he was ahead of Christian Fittipaldi and battled for several laps before the Brazilian hit Badoer's car and eventually finished tenth. At Estoril, Badoer finished 14th after starting last. After the race, Lola did not travel to the races in Japan and Australia after the team announced they were to merge with Minardi in 1994.
Benetton offered both Michele Alboreto and Badoer tests in their cars to see who would partner Michael Schumacher for 1994 but eventually chose JJ Lehto and Alboreto went to Minardi to line up alongside Pierluigi Martini while Badoer became Minardi's test driver.
Badoer took over Alboreto's seat after the latter retired. In the underfunded team using a Ford V8 after a deal with Mugen-Honda fell through, he started with a gearbox failure in Brazil with a good qualifying in Argentina. During the race, Badoer collided with the back of Mika Salo's Tyrrell and hit Rubens Barichello's Jordan later on bringing out the red flag. Badoer did not make the restart, having no spare chassis. His best results were eighth places in Canada and Hungary and ninth in Japan.
In 1996, Badoer switched to Forti Corse to be teammates with Andrea Montermini after Pedro Diniz left to join Ligier. During the season, he was only able to qualify for six of the ten races the team entered. In the 1996 Argentine Grand Prix Badoer was involved in a heavy collision with Diniz, whose Ligier struck him from behind and flipped his Forti upside down. He emerged from the collision unhurt but Argentine safety marshals were heavily criticised for failing to assist Badoer in a timely manner because they feared a fire would break out. At Imola, Badoer had a newer car and outqualified Montermini by more than a second. He finished tenth and the last of the runners. In Monaco, Badoer remained at the back and collided with Jacques Villeneuve at Mirabeau forcing both drivers to retire. He did not qualify in Spain but started 20th in Canada. In France, Badoer started ahead of Eddie Irvine after the Ferrari was relegated to the back. Forti Corse folded after that year's British Grand Prix.
In 1997, Badoer moved to the new FIA GT Championship, driving a Lotus Elise GT1 for GBF Engineering with co-driver Mimmo Schiattarella. Following retirements at Hockenheim and Silverstone, Badoer and Schiattarella finished 20th in Helsinki. The pair retired again at the Nurburgring and Zeltweg and finished 12th at Donington completing 151 laps. A race at Mugello saw Badoer retire with loose bodywork. While driving for GBF, Badoer was hired as Scuderia Ferrari's test driver, a role he maintained until 2010.
Badoer returned to Formula One racing in 1999, again with the Minardi team. At Melbourne, Badoer raced as high as fifth at some point until gearbox problems forced him to retire with 15 laps to go. Prior to Brazil, he suffered a testing accident which left him with a broken hand. Stéphane Sarrazin took his seat for the race. He returned for Imola with his hand still causing problems but managed to finish eighth. He suffered from gearbox problems and a spin in Monaco and Spain. In July, Ferrari's number one driver Michael Schumacher broke his leg in an accident at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. As Ferrari's test driver, Badoer expected to be promoted to the race seat in Schumacher's absence, but the team opted for Mika Salo instead, prompting criticism from former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi, who had himself turned the position down. His best chance to score points came at the chaotic 1999 European Grand Prix, only for gearbox failure to take him out 13 laps from the end when he was running in fourth position; teammate Marc Gené was promoted to sixth as a result (he would finish there to score the point widely believed to be the deciding factor in the 1999 Drivers' Championship, holding off Ferrari's Eddie Irvine after McLaren's Mika Häkkinen had passed him following a car failure that took Jacques Villeneuve out from fifth position). Badoer was so upset he broke down in tears after climbing out of the car.
Badoer overall started 48 races for backmarkers Scuderia Italia, Minardi and Forti Corse between 1993 and 1999.
Unable to find a satisfactory race seat in Formula One after 1999, Badoer focused on his job as the permanent test driver for Ferrari, covering thousands of kilometres at the Mugello and Fiorano test circuits each year. He is credited with making a vital contribution to Ferrari's first Formula One Drivers' Championship win for 21 years in 2000.