Giancarlo Fisichella
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Giancarlo Fisichella (born January 14, 1973 in Rome, Italy) is a formula one race car driver for the Force India formula one team. Fisichella is one of the more experienced drivers that will line up this season, yet the Italian has so much left to prove after switching teams from the highly-touted Renault squad to the "weaker" Force India team.
In his 13-year career, Fisichella has proven to be quite an accomplished racer, with his share of podium finishes and victories that include his very first in Brazil in 2003. However, former (and younger) teammates seemed to have caught up, and in some instances, outraced him in the world of F1, with Fernando Alonso taking the edge on his first two years at Renault, then Heikki Kovalainen outplacing him in his last stint with the team. Fisichella will no doubt be out to prove himself in his first year at Force India when he gets teamed up with an inexperienced Adrian Sutil.
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Personal Life
Giancarlo, nicknamed Fisico or Fisi, is married to Luna and has two children with her, namely, Carlotta and Christopher. The 5-foot-6, 145-pound Italian likes to play soccer, tennis, and billiards, and also fishes during his spare time.
Early Career
Fisichella grew up around cars at an early age when he played among the machines in his father's garage workshop. It's no surprise therefore that at ten, he was already competing in the national Minikart series, even winning the Italian Minikart Championship (60cc) in 1984. Like almost everyone in the racing world, he soon found his way into the karting ranks with success, placing runner-up in the European karting championship in 1989 and 1991 followed by another second-place finish in the world karting championship in 1990. In 1992, he moved on to the Italian Formula Three and it didn't take long for him to pile up titles with a win at the Imola Grand Prix and an 8th overall finish in the Italian F3 Championship in his first season. He spent a couple more years at the Italian F3, claiming 10 wins out of the 20 rounds, with 5 runner-up finishes, 3 third place finishes, 11 pole positions, and victories at the prestigious Monaco and Macau races.
Minardi was then able to get ahold of the talented Fisi, signing him to a long-term contract in 1995 which paved the way for his eventual entry into Formula One. While doing test-driving duties with the team, Fisichella honed his skills in the International Touring Car Championship series with an Alfa Romeo 156, placing second in the race at Mugello while also placing second in the Motor Show Challenge. In 1996, Fisichella completed his final season in the high-tech category, placing 6th in the ITC Championship with 5 podium finishes. He also won the Bologna F1 Supersprint with Benetton.
Formula One
Minardi (1996)
Fisichella finally made the roster in 1996, teaming up with the more experienced Pedro Lamy in the Minardi squad. He made his debut in the 1996 Australian Grand Prix but was retired, then returned in the European Grand Prix where he earned his first placing after finishing 13th in the race. After retiring in San Marino, Fisi and Lamy were on the verge of scoring for Minardi in the Monaco Grand Prix, unfortunately the teammates collided and they were eventually forced to retire. After getting retired for the fourth time in Spain, he went on to claim his best finish yet with his 8th place in Canada, before getting retired for the last time in France. After his 11th place stint in the British Grand Prix, Fisichella was eventually replaced by Giovanni Lavaggi since the team required a driver who could bring funding to the team.
Jordan (1997)
Fisichella's stint with Minardi has proven what he can do on the race track and so he eventually landed a job to team up with another youngster in Ralf Schumacher, who was a former Formula Nippon Champion. Fisichella however seemed to be sharper than his youthful teammate, landing points in races at San Marino and Monaco before tallying his first podium finish in Canada. Four races later, he recorded a season best 2nd place finish in the Belgian GP behind his teammate's brother Michael. After the race, Fisi was swayed over by Benetton to compete for them in 1998 with Benetton head honco Flavio Briatore taking the Jordan team to court to secure his services. He ended his season with Jordan with 4th place finishes in Italy and Austria, ending the season with an 8th place finish in the Driver's Championship with 20 points.
Benetton (1998-2001)
Despite racing the season without factory-supplied engines after Renault's withdrawal from F1, team Benetton managed to race well on their rebranded development versions of 1997 Renault engines as evident by Fisichella's two second place finishes, including a near victory in Canada that was hampered by gearbox problems. He also gained pole position in Austria but was derailed by a collision with Jean Alesi. He ended the season scoring 16 points and a 9th place finish in the World Championship.
The following year, teaming up with Alex Wurz, Fisi was able to score points in three of the first four races, and notch a podium in Canada with his second place finish. However, the rest of the season was a disappointing one for both Fisi and the team in general as they struggled to collect points, with the Italian ranking 9th in the World Championship on his 13 points.
The 2000 season looked much more promising for the Benetton squad, employing the new B200 machine which looked to be a much enhanced version of its predecessor. It certainly looked like the team was on track for a championship as Fisi placed 5th in the inaugural race in Australia then inherited the #2 spot after David Coulthard's DSQ in Brazil. He even gained podium finishes in Monaco and Canada which certainly improved his chances at a title that season. Unfortunately, like the previous season, Fisi went on a slump on the second half of the season with some high profile collisions and mechanical failures sending him to five retirements, including four straight in Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Belgium. Fisi ended the year placing 6th with 18 points in the World Championship.
Changes came upon the team for the 2001 season as Fisichella was paired up with British rookie Jenson Button and Benetton getting purchased by Renault at the start of the year. However, Renault's investment came too late to implement changes in Benetton's previous vehicle and so the team had to compete with a flexing chassis that hindered the power output from the radical new Renault engine which made the car dreadfully slow. After placing 13th and 6th in Australia and Brazil, Fisi struggled with a total of five retirements midway through the season. Thankfully, technical director Mike Gascoyne and his crew was able to resolve some issues resulting to a better performance in the second half of the season that include a podium in Belgium. He outperformed his teammate Button that season and finished 11th in the World Championship with 8 points.
Jordan (2002-03)
Fisichella made a return to the Honda-powered Jordan team for 2002 alongside former British F3 Champion Takuma Sato in hopes of another fresh start with the team that gave him his first break in F1. The Italian however never really made strides that season as he struggled with four retirements in his first five races, and eight out of the total 17 not including the French Grand Prix where he was not able to compete after suffering from a heavy crash during practice prior to qualifying. He instead settled for three straight 5th place finishes and a total of 7 points which was good for an 11th place finish in the Driver's Championship.
The following year, the Jordan team switched to Ford engines but with less desirable results, including two retirements in Australia and Malaysia to open up the season. In the third race of the year, Fisi was able to snag a win after the rain-and-crash-filled race was red-flagged. The race was halted and initially, Räikkönen was declared the race winner and Fisi the runner-up as regulations state that the race leader two laps prior to the red flag would be the winner. However, upon review by the FIA, it was foud out that Fisi was starting on his 56th lap meaning that he, and not Räikkönen, had been leading the race two laps before its premature end, awarding the Italian his first F1 victory. Fisi got a hold of his trophy fourteen days later at the next race at the 2003 San Marino Grand Prix.
The win was the lone bright spot for the team that year as it managed only 13 points in the constructor's championship, with Fisi collecting 12 points and a 12th place finish in the Driver's Championship.
Sauber (2004)
A disappointing stint at Jordan forced the Italian's move to Sauber to hopefully regain his winning form and in a way improve his chances of driving for previous World Champion team Ferrari which has been supplying re-badged engines to the Sauber team. In contrast with his drives with Renault, Fisichella's maiden year at Sauber had him finishing all but one race (in Monaco), consistently placing himself just within the top ten for most of the season, and ending the year with scores on five of the last six races for a grand total of 22 points which was good for 11th place and ten points ahead of outpaced teammate Felipe Massa.
Renault (2005-07)
Fisichella's objective when he joined Sauber in 2004 was clearly accomplished as he attracted offers from both Flavio Briatore and Frank Williams. In the end, the Italian decided to renew ties with former team boss Briatore at Renault, signing up for the 2005 campaign with Spanish driver Fernando Alonso completing the pair.
Fisi began the season on a very high note, claiming pole position and a win at the season-opener in Melbourne which gave the impression of a breakout year for the Italian. However, driver errors and reliability issues greatly affected Fisi's chances at the championship and not long after, teammate Alonso has continued to surge ahead. His second career win was soon followed by three straight retirements which slowed him down in the championship race. His two other podium finishes in Italy and Japan with third and second place finishes was not enough to salvage his championship aspirations and in the end, Alonso would snag the title with a remarkable 133 points tally, 75 points ahead of fifth place Fisi. Their combined efforts was still enough to give Renault the World Constructors' Championship to beat previous six-time champion Ferrari.
Alonso's dominant performance in 2005 raised the bar for both drivers the next season and Fisi was faced with an unenviable task of matching up with his world champion teammate. Fisichella struggled consistency-wise although he did manage to pull off a flag-to-flag win in Malaysia. However, his title aspirations were hurt when he failed to reach the top ten in qualifying for two races and was penalized for allegedly impeding David Coulthard in Monaco. Nevertheless, Fisi was able to score points in ten occassions excluding his lone win of the season, and his third place finishes in Spain, Indianapolis, China, and Japan to finish 4th place with 72 points in the driver's championship with five podiums. His 4th place finish, his best thus far, was still 62 points behind two-time world champion Alonso.
On a side note, Fisi dedicated his final podium to his best friend Tonino Visciani, who died of a heart attack on the Thursday before the race.
2007 marked not only the Italian's final year of his contract, but also the year Fisi was christened as the team's lead driver with Alonso's departure for the McLaren-Mercedes team. Finn Heikki Kovalainen, who was elevated from test driving status, was paired with Fisi while Nelson Piquet Jr. took over Kovalainen's old job. Fisichella was expected to dominate and spearhead the team but several factors, like the driver and tyre changes, affected his and his teammate's chances. Fisi continued to pace the team at the early stages of the season with point-scoring finishes in Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain, and Monaco but his Finn teammate edged him out at the Candian and United States Grands Prix where the Italian was disqualified for exiting the pit lane while the traffic light was showing red on the former, and placed only 9th on the latter. Despite the team making progress in terms of pace, the Italian and Finn combo failed to take advantage and both were never really able to improve on their performance with Fisi closing out the season getting retired in Brazil and managing only an 8th place finish in the Driver's Championship with 21 points, even behind his younger teammate Kovalainen who scored 30 and ended up 7th.
Force India (2008)
Renault's fourth place finish in 2007 forced the team to reacquire the services of their world-champion driver Fernando Alonso and elevating test driver Nelson Piquet Jr. to the main roster, eventually displacing Fisi from the championship-caliber team. His impressive testing in Spain however landed him a seat at the renamed Spyker team to compete alongside Adrian Sutil.
Results and Records
Career Summary
Complete Formula One Results
References
- Fisichella wins Force India drive
- Giancarlo Fisichella Crash.Net Profile
- Giancarlo Fisichella PlanetF1.com Profile
- Giancarlo Fisichella The Formula One Database Profile
- Giancarlo Fisichella Wikipedia
- Giancarlo Fisichella: A Driver's Driver in a Make or Break Year
