Luca Badoer

Badoer was regarded as something of a prodigy when, aged only 19, he made his mark in Italian Formula 3 by winning the final ound of the 1990 seas

Naturally all eyes were on the former Italian karting champion from Montebelluna the following season and, after a quiet start in the early rounds, Luca reeled off four wins in a row amid growing acrimony as rival teams questioned the legality of his car. In fact the last of these victories was wiped out due to the team running a non-scrutineered tyre and Badoer's season never recovered thereafter.

He had done enough, however, to move up to F3000 for 1992 and, at the wheel of the superbly engineered Team Crypton Reynard, Luca was a convincing champion, winning three of the early rounds and overcoming the effects of a nasty shunt at Spa to clinch the title with another victory at Nogaro.

The slightly built Badoer then found himself pitched into the big time with the newly formed Lola Scuderia Italia team for 1993. The season was a fiasco with the car floundering at the back of the grid and the only question to be answered at most of the early Grands Prix was which of the two unfortunate drivers - Luca or Michele Alboreto - would fail to qualify. With the team folding after the Portuguese GP, Badoer was left looking for a drive for 1994 and an unimpressive winter test for Benetton left him out in the cold.

Despite this setback Badoer was back in business with Minardi the following season, the little Faenza team pluckily picking up the pieces in spite of their devastating loss to Ligier of a projected works Mugen engine deal. Running customer Ford V8s meant the drivers were consigned to the grid's lower reaches and the pursuit of the occasional point, but Luca managed to stay on board while the veteran Martini was dropped in mid-season. With his replacement, the well-sponsored Pedro Lamy, proving evenly matched with the shy and quiet Milanese driver, Badoer was forced to take his chances with back-markers Forti Corse in 1996.

It was a gamble that failed to pay off when the struggling team collapsed in financial ruin by mid-season, leaving Badoer largely unemployed (with the exception of a couple of sports car outings in a GT Lotus) over the next eighteen months.

In 1998 he won the role of Ferrari test driver, which precluded any chance of a return to Grand Prix racing, but a year later he was allowed to rejoin the Minardi family to resurrect his Grand Prix career.

It was to be a season of huge disappointments for Luca, who suffered a broken wrist in a testing accident at Fiorano and was then devastated to be passed over by Ferrari after Michael Schumacher had broken his leg at Silverstone. To add to the driver's woes, a fourth place and three World Championship points slipped away at the European Grand Prix when his Minardi's gearbox failed. Badoer was left in tears beside his stricken car, one of the saddest sights of the 1999 season.

In 2000 Badoer opted to revert to testing role at Ferrari and he became a key and much-valued member of the Maranello team as Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barichello steam-rollered the opposition for five consecutive seasons up to the end of 2004. Luca continues in this no doubt, well-remunerated stipend, and his wealth of experience will called upon as Ferrari begin to start the post-Schumacher era in 2007.