35 Facts About Gabriele Tarquini

Gabriele Tarquini was born on 2 March 1962 and is an Italian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between 1987 and 1995, and World Touring Car from 2005 to 2021.

In touring car racing, Tarquini won the World Touring Car Championship in 2009 with SEAT; he won the British Touring Car Championship in 1994, the European Touring Car Championship in 2003, and the World Touring Car Cup in 2018.

Gabriele Tarquini participated in 78 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting at the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix.

Gabriele Tarquini scored a single championship point at the 1989 Mexican Grand Prix, and holds the record for the most failed attempts to qualify.

Gabriele Tarquini subsequently competed in touring cars, winning the 1994 British Touring Car Championship with Alfa Romeo, and the 2003 European Touring Car Championship with Nordauto.

Gabriele Tarquini later won the 2018 World Touring Car Cup with BRC, aged 56.

Gabriele Tarquini joined Coloni's Grand Prix team for 1988, having driven for them in F3000 in 1986.

Gabriele Tarquini drew good notices for his performance overall, however - his 8th place at the Canadian Grand Prix would stand as the team's best ever result and his eight starts the most ever garnered by a Coloni driver.

Gabriele Tarquini signed to drive for the FIRST team and drove for them at the Formula One Indoor Trophy, but when their car failed crash tests he started 1989 without a ride.

Gabriele Tarquini was then one of the stars of the weekend in Monaco, threatening to qualify in the top 6 before ending up 13th on the grid.

At the following Mexican Grand Prix he finished 6th, though the team's joy was tempered after Williams and Scuderia Italia successfully appealed against their Imola disqualification and Gabriele Tarquini lost his point.

At the wet Canadian Grand Prix Gabriele Tarquini again ran well until being shoved off the track by Rene Arnoux.

Gabriele Tarquini made it through into three races, finishing a worthy 8th in the season opener at Phoenix but financial constraints meant after Monaco the AGS didn't make the grid again.

Gabriele Tarquini was signed for a full year in 1992, showing some good speed in the neat but underdeveloped Fondmetal GR02 chassis.

Gabriele Tarquini replaced Ukyo Katayama for the European round as the Japanese driver was injured from his start line accident in the previous race.

Gabriele Tarquini failed to pre-qualify on a record 25 occasions, mainly because he was a regular in the pre-qualifying era, usually in cars which were so slow as to struggle to qualify.

In 1995 Alfa Corse decided to move him back to Italian Superturismo Championship but after 2 victories, 4 third place and 6 DNF, Gabriele Tarquini left the series and joined to Prodrive to help Alfa Romeo to achieve better results in BTCC.

In 1996 Gabriele Tarquini raced in Class 1 Touring Cars with Alfa Romeo in ITC, where he achieved best results of 1 victory and 1 second place.

In 1998 and 1999 Gabriele Tarquini raced in Germany with JAS Motorsport in STW Cup where he got 2 victories and several podium.

Gabriele Tarquini remained with Alfa Romeo as the ETCC became the World Touring Car Championship in 2005.

In November 2005, Gabriele Tarquini was confirmed as one of six drivers at SEAT Sport for 2006.

Gabriele Tarquini finished fifth in the championship that year with one win.

Gabriele Tarquini finished 8th in the standings in 2007, winning just one race.

SEAT withdrew from the WTCC for 2010, but provided funding to introduce the new semi-works SR-Sport team, with whom Gabriele Tarquini attempted to retain his crown.

Gabriele Tarquini scored five wins during the season to finish runner-up to ex-SEAT Sport teammate Yvan Muller in the drivers standings.

In 2011, Gabriele Tarquini drove for the Lukoil-SUNRED team alongside Aleksei Dudukalo.

Gabriele Tarquini started the year with the SEAT 2.0 TDI engine but switched to the SUNRED 1.6T for Brno onwards.

Gabriele Tarquini finished the season 5th in the standings with just one win in a year dominated by the Chevrolet RML team.

In January 2012 it was confirmed that Gabriele Tarquini would drive for Lukoil Racing in a SEAT Leon powered by the new SEAT Sport turbocharged engine.

Gabriele Tarquini started from pole position at the first race of the season in Italy but finished third behind Yvan Muller and Rob Huff in race one, he retired from the second race.

In July 2012, it was confirmed that Gabriele Tarquini would drive a factory supported Honda Civic run by the returning JAS Motorsport team, alongside Tiago Monteiro in 2013.

Gabriele Tarquini finished race one in fourth and race two in third.

Gabriele Tarquini gave the Honda team its first pole position in the WTCC at the Race of Morocco.

Gabriele Tarquini finished second in race one but retired from race two when he lost control over one of the kerbs and collided with Alex MacDowall.

Gabriele Tarquini announced his retirement from racing at the 2021 Race of Italy.