🇮🇹 Nicola Larini

Nicola Larini is an established professional who raced single-seater and touring car championships across three decades. His primary indexed career spanned Formula 1 from 1987 to 1997, where he made 50 starts for Sauber, and the World Touring Car Championship from 2005 to 2009, where he drove for Chevrolet across 107 starts. He also made five starts in International Formula 3000 in 1986 and 1987 and one endurance appearance in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie in 2018.[1]

In Formula 1, Larini scored a single podium finish from his 50 races for Sauber. His touring car career proved more consistent; he took 13 podiums in the World Touring Car Championship and won once, finishing 13th in the final championship standings in 2009. His only other podium came from his single endurance start in 2018.[2]

Larini's touring car record placed him in a field that included multiple world champions. He was a regular opponent of Andy Priaulx, a three-time World Touring Car Championship title holder, and of Gabriele Tarquini, the 2009 WTCC champion, though he typically finished behind both drivers. In Formula 1, he proved capable of running with front-running talent; he finished ahead of Mika Häkkinen, a two-time Formula 1 world champion, in two races, and beat Gerhard Berger, an established Formula 1 driver with 210 starts, twice.