Luca Badoer (born 25 January 1971) is an Italian Formula One driver who has raced for the Scuderia Italia, Minardi, Forti Corse and most recently, Ferrari teams. In addition to his racing duties, Badoer has been active as one of the test and reserve drivers for Ferrari since 1997 and in 2009 stood in for Ferrari's regular race driver Felipe Massa at the European Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix, after the Brazilian was injured during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix and his original replacement, Michael Schumacher, pulled out due to injury.

   As of September 2009, Badoer holds the record for the most Grand Prix starts — 50 — without a point, although all of his races before his 2009 comeback came during a period when only the top six finishers scored points. He nearly achieved a points finish in the 1999 European Grand Prix when a strong drive saw him lying in fourth place, but the gearbox on his Minardi failed with 13 laps remaining. Badoer was born in Montebelluna, Veneto. He raced karts in his youth, winning the Italian championship in the 100cc international class in 1988. In 1990, Badoer moved to single-seater racing, joining the Trivellato team in the Italian Formula Three Championship.[5] He beat Alex Zanardi to win the final race of the 1990 season. In 1991 he won four races in a row, but was disqualified after a technicality concerning his tyres. For 1992 he was picked to drive by Crypton Engineering for the Formula 3000 Championship, in which he emerged as champion, winning four races en route to the title.

   Badoer driving for Minardi at the 1995 British Grand Prix.His debut Formula One season in 1993 was mired by BMS Scuderia Italia's uncompetitive Lola chassis, which, despite Ferrari engines, was the slowest car in the championship in terms of qualifying pace. He regularly beat his experienced team-mate Michele Alboreto, but lost out to him for the second drive when Scuderia Italia merged with Minardi for the 1994 season. He was retained as test driver, and took over in 1995 when Alboreto retired. In the underfunded team his best results were eighth places in Canada and Hungary and ninth in Japan. In 1996 he switched to Forti Corse, where he was only able to qualify for six of the ten races the team entered. In the 1996 Argentine Grand Prix Badoer was involved in a heavy collision with Pedro Diniz, whose Ligier struck him from behind and flipped his Forti upside down. He emerged from the collision unhurt, but Argentine safety marshals were heavily criticised for failing to assist Badoer in a timely manner. Forti Corse folded after that year's British Grand Prix.

   Badoer testing for Ferrari at the Circuit de Catalunya in 2008In 1997 Badoer moved to the new FIA GT Championship, driving a Lotus Elise GT1 for GBF Engineering with codriver Mimmo Schiattarella. While driving for GBF, Badoer was hired as Scuderia Ferrari's test driver, a role he continues to perform. He returned to racing for one season in 1999, with the Minardi team. In the July of that season, Ferrari's number one driver Michael Schumacher broke his leg in an accident at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. As Ferrari's test driver, Badoer expected to be promoted to the race seat in Schumacher's absence, but the team opted for Mika Salo instead, prompting criticism from former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi, who had himself turned the position down. Badoer started 48 races for backmarkers Scuderia Italia, Minardi and Forti Corse between 1993 and 1999, without scoring any points.

   Unable to find a satisfactory race seat in Formula One after 1999, Badoer focussed on his job as the permanent test driver for Ferrari. He covers thousands of kilometres at the Mugello and Fiorano test circuits each year and has probably driven more kilometres in a Ferrari Formula One car than any other Italian in history. He is credited with making a vital contribution to Ferrari's first Formula One Drivers' Championship win for 21 years in 2000.

   At the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Badoer demonstrated one of the team's 2005 cars in the centre of the stadium. After the pit crew assembled the car, Badoer revved the engine, and performed several doughnuts, creating a large cloud of tyre smoke, and leaving five circular black marks on the white platform, making up the Olympic rings. The event was witnessed by millions of television viewers worldwide.

   Badoer took part in his first Formula One race for ten years at the 2009 European Grand Prix.On 11 August 2009 it was confirmed that Badoer would return to Formula One racing after almost 10 years, to replace the injured Felipe Massa at the 2009 European Grand Prix in Valencia. Massa was injured during the qualifying session for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix when a piece of suspension fell from the rear of Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP car and struck Massa's helmet, fracturing his skull, knocking him unconscious and causing him to crash into a tyre wall. Michael Schumacher was set to replace Massa, but a neck injury Schumacher sustained in a German superbike test earlier in the year forced him to pull out. Ferrari confirmed that Badoer (Ferrari's longest-serving test driver) would replace the injured Massa instead. The BBC reported that Badoer was given the job "as a thank you for his commitment to the team". His previous Formula One appearance was in the 1999 Japanese Grand Prix, where he qualified last and retired late in the race. While Badoer had waited almost 10 years since his last drive, this gap is shorter than the 10 years and three months between Jan Lammers's appearances at the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix and the 1992 Japanese Grand Prix.

    In the first practice session for the 2009 European Grand Prix at the Valencia Street Circuit, where he had never driven before, Badoer came last and was three seconds off the pace of fastest man Rubens Barrichello and 2.5 seconds down on team mate Kimi Räikkönen. He was 1.3 seconds down on Räikkönen in second practice, and 1.9 seconds off in final practice. He qualified 20th and last for the race, with a time almost 1.5 seconds slower than Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari, who was 19th.

    Badoer was dropped in favour of Giancarlo Fisichella after the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix.He was also caught speeding in the pit-lane four times during Friday practice. These offences earned him a reprimand and three separate fines totalling €5,400. Badoer explained: "I am used to a 100kph limit in testing and so when I pressed the speed limiter button at the usual point in the pitlane, it did not give the car enough time to slow to the right speed".

   A number of drivers defended Badoer's performance. Lewis Hamilton said: "I think he's done a good job. He's not put it in the wall; he's kept it on the track. It's an incredibly tall order to jump into the footsteps of Felipe Massa. He hasn't even raced for ten years, so I think anyone who has taken that long out of the car is going to struggle, but instead I think he has done a good job just to keep it on the track and bit-by-bit he will catch up". Heikki Kovalainen stated, "I don't know what else you could have expected. Sometimes the tyres warm up, or they overheat or they don't warm up, and it's much more complicated than a few years ago where they brought out tyres that worked straightaway in different conditions. I think that knocks the driver's confidence very easily – if the tyres are not working 100 per cent you can't push if you don't feel you have the grip".

    In racing at Valencia, Badoer became the first Italian to drive for Ferrari in 15 years. BBC commentator and former F1 driver Martin Brundle argued in The Sunday Times that the inclusion of Badoer and Romain Grosjean in the race was dangerous, since new rules that ban further testing until 1 January 2010 mean that they have been unable to gain the experience necessary to race. Badoer had last been able to test the Ferrari F60 at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão, Portugal in December 2008.

    Elsewhere, Brundle stated: "It is surprising to some that Ferrari has not elected to use fellow tester Marc Gené who once stood in pretty successfully at Williams. The problem is that, with the testing ban for 2009, none of the test drivers are really up to speed. I personally would have tried a sharp and fit up-and-coming star of which there are many around". During his race commentary, Brundle suggested that Ferrari should use Massa's absence to give a potential future star a drive. Badoer made up six places at the start of the race and ran 14th on the first lap before he was hit from behind by Grosjean and spun. He eventually finished in 17th place out of 18 finishers, posting a fastest lap which was faster than both Toro Rossos. Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali indicated after the race that Badoer would keep the seat for the Belgian Grand Prix.

    At the Belgian Grand Prix, Badoer again qualified last after a spin on his last lap of the first qualifying session. At the start of the race, Badoer avoided the first-lap accidents, but he finished in 14th place, last of those drivers to finish the full race distance, despite setting the fastest sector one time of the race. Badoer was replaced by Force India driver Giancarlo Fisichella starting at the Italian Grand Prix. Badoer blamed the negative media coverage of his driving for Ferrari's decision to replace him.

(c) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2009