Having spent four years in the Renault Driver Development Programme, Lucas di Grassi becomes the Renault F1 Team's third driver for 2008 and he now stands on the verge of competing at the pinnacle of the spot.
Lucas began his karting career in Brazil with immediate success, becoming Sao Paulo Champion in 1997, Brazilian champion the following year, and finally South American champions in 1999. The winning trend continued in 2000 with a Pan American title and a fifth place in World Cup Formula A.
In 2002 he graduated to cars and was runner-up in the Formula Renault series in Brazil, before moving to Formula 3 in 2003 and finishing runner-up in the South American championship.
From there he headed to Europe and a move to the UK saw Lucas begin his association with the Renault Driver Development Programme. A solid first season in the British F3 championship brought two wins and six podiums
en-route to eighth in the championship with Hitech Racing. A trip to the celebrated Macau circuit also proved fruitful with a third place finish at the Macau Grand Prix.
Again with RDD backing, Lucas moved on to the fiercely competitive F3 Euro Series in 2005 and with seven podiums - including one win - he finished third in the championship, 'best of the rest' after Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil, who dominated for ASM.
The defining moment in '05 though was his victory on the streets of Macau as he took overall victory in the F3 race and was subsequently named best under-21 South American driver by a panel of expert journalists.
In 2006 he stepped up to GP2, F1's feeder category, with Team Durango and ended the year 17th in the standings, having scored 8 points.
That solid first year however provided him with enough experience to launch a title-assault in 2007 when he joined ART Grand Prix. In a closely-fought title race with Timo Glock, the Brazilian competed strongly ending the season as runner-up and only narrowly missing out on securing the GP2 crown.
Now F1 beckons and he will join the Renault F1 team where he will be able to learn the ropes away from the limelight as the official third/reserve driver.
