Massimiliano Papis
Beginning in karting, Papis then spent three years racing in Italian Formula 3, culminating in sixth place overall in 1992. He stepped up to F3000 the following year with the Vortex team and enjoyed a solid first season. He switched to Mythos for another crack the following year and jaws soon dropped when the Italian proved utterly dominant at Barcelona with a performance he could not repeat throughout the year.
Taken under the wing of former Lotus boss Peter Collins (who had given him an F1 test in 1994), Papis proved that he had more to offer than many would have supposed once he got behind the wheel of a Footwork in 1995, and Max certainly relished his chance to join the Grand Prix ranks. Only the late challenge of Boullion, who pipped him for sixth place, denied Papis a championship point at Monza.
The Italian raced Gianpiero Moretti's Ferrari 333SP sports car in America in 1996 and his impressive performances caught the eye of the Arciero-Wells team, who gave him his CART chance after the tragic death of Jeff Krosnoff. For much of 1997 and 1998 Max was handicapped by the lack of horsepower from the Toyota engine, but he comfortably eclipsed his team-mates Matsushita and Gordon. The big breakthrough came for Papis when Bobby Rahal put him into one of his cars for 1999. Only cruel luck robbed him of a deserved victory on the last lap of the US 500, but throughout the season he had consistently shown that his day would surely come. And so it did in 2000 at the season opener at Homestead with the Italian scoring a close win from Roberto Moreno. However the rest of the season was something of a let-down, only a second place finish at Detroit being the most noteworthy. The Italian picked up another two wins the following season (in the wet at Portland and at Laguan Seca), but Papis had unfortunately blotted his copybook in tangling with team-mate Kenny Bräck on more than one occasion. Despite a second place finish in the finale at Fontana, to finish 6th in the final points standings, Rahal dispensed with Max's services.
Max started 2002 on a high note sharing the winning Dallara Judd in the Daytona 24 Hour race but was left without much in the way of a ride thereafter. He threw in his lot with the fledgling Sigma Autosport Team and despite the lack of resources he managed the extraordinary feat of gaining podium placings in Long Beach and Milwaukee before the team folded in mid-season. This allowed him to fill in for both Penske and Cheever in the Indy Racing League during the rest of the season.
Papis then turned his sights on the American Le Mans Series, the standout result being a splendid second place in the Panoz at Road Atlanta. Max also returned briefly to Champ Car duties in 2003 for a seven race mid-season stint with PK Racing, his best finish in this discipline was a fourth place at Road America.
Since then the Italian has mainly raced in the American Le Mans Series racing a Chip Ganassi entered Riley-Lexus, a works backed Chevrolet Corvette, and latterly a Krohn Riley-Pontiac. He also put in an appearance for Italy in the A1GP race at a wet Laguna Seca in March 2006, finishing seventh in the feature race.
