Giovanni Lavaggi

Giovanni Lavaggi
Born	18 February 1958 (age 63); Augusta, Italy
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Italian
Active years	1995–1996
Teams	Pacific, Minardi
Entries	10 (7 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1995 German Grand Prix
Last entry	1996 Japanese Grand Prix

Lavaggi driving his self designed Lavaggi LS1 at Spa in 2009

Giovanni Lavaggi (born 18 February 1958) is an Italian racing driver.

Despite Lavaggi being a nobleman by background, he couldn’t count on personal financial resources; therefore he started racing only at the age of 26.^[1] Nevertheless, he managed to reach the top class of motorsport, racing in Formula One in ‘95 and ‘96. First approach to F1 was in 1992 when, being a mechanical engineer, he was official test driver for March F1 team. In 1995, he drove for Lotus-Pacific only for 4 races in which he was forced to retire due to gearbox problems. In the second part of 1996 racing season, he joined Minardi Team for 6 races. His best result was a 10th place at Hungaroring, which was the second best result of the year for Minardi team.

He lives in Monte Carlo.^[1]

Early life[]

Lavaggi was born in Augusta, Sicily on 18 February 1958, being of noble heritage.^[2]^[3] He studied mechanical engineering at Milan Polytechnic.^[2]

Racing career[]

Lavaggi's racing career started in 1983 in Formula Junior Monza, he finished 14th out of 16 drives overall ^[4]. Having not enough sponsors to afford a whole championship in Formula 3, he did just a few races in the F3 Italian championship every year from 1986 until 1986 but he was always far too slow to score a point. ^[5]

In this category, soon he became a driver of Porsche Kremer Team: he was the 1993 Interserie Champion winning 6 races on a total of 12 together with Austrian Franz Konrad and being other 4 times on the podium but it was not a very competitive championship.

In 1991 Giovanni tried his hand at F3000 but this was far out of his depth. On 12 races he only managed to qualify in two of them. ^[6]

His first race in F1 was in 1995 as a paydriver. How a driver who could not even qualify for a race in F3000 was able to get a Super Licence is still a mistery. Lavaggi was always driving completely at the back in F1 but at least his money kep the teams he drove for alive. He is considered as one of the worst driver to ever drive in Formula 1, the only reason that he got to drive in it is that the teams he drove for were desperate for money. On three occassions Lavaggi was so slow in the Minardi F1 car that he couldn't qualify the car because it was outside the 107% norm. In Hockenheim, Spa & Suzuka Lavaggi was 2 seconds slower as his team mate Pedro Lamy.

He was nicknamed "Johnny Carwash" (an approximate translation of his name from Italian to English, John Washes) by people in the paddock;^[7] US talk show host David Letterman helped bring the nickname to popular attention.^{[citation needed]}

Family[]

The Lavaggi noble family moved from Genova to Sicily (Palermo) in 1420 and then from Palermo to Augusta in 1711. A cousin of Giovanni’s grandfather, also called Giovanni Lavaggi, was a war hero. He was a pilot of the Italian air force and he died because of the sabotage of his airplane, while bringing to Asmara the Italian minister of public works Luigi Razzi, who also was killed in the crash. In the cities of Catania and Augusta, Via Giovanni Lavaggi (Giovanni Lavaggi Road) is named after him.^{[citation needed]}

Racing record[]

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results[]

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1989	Porsche Kremer Racing	Kunimitsu Takahashi Bruno Giacomelli	Porsche 962C	C1	303	DNF	DNF
1990	Team Davey	Max Cohen-Olivar Tim Lee-Davey	Porsche 962C	C1	306	19th	19th
1992	Porsche Kremer Racing	Manuel Reuter John Nielsen	Porsche 962CK6	C3	334	7th	2nd
1993	Porsche Kremer Racing	Jürgen Lässig Wayne Taylor	Porsche 962CK6	C2	328	12th	7th
2000	Repsol Racing Engineering	Tomás Saldaña Jesús Diez Villaroel	Porsche 911 GT3-R	GT	78	DNF	DNF

Complete International Formula 3000 results[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
1991	Crypton Engineering	VAL DNQ	PAU DNQ	JER DNQ	MUG DNQ	PER Ret						NC	0
1991	Roni Team						HOC DNQ	BRH DNQ	SPA DNQ	BUG DNQ	NOG 12	NC	0

American Open-Wheel racing results[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest race lap)

PPG Indycar Series[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
1994	Euromotorsports	Lola T9300	Ilmor C	SRF	PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	DET DNQ	POR										38th	0
1994	Leader Cards Racing	Lola T9300	Ilmor C								CLE 30	TOR	MCH	MDO	NHA	VAN	ROA 15	NAZ	LAG DNQ	38th	0

Complete Formula One results[]

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
1995	Pacific Grand Prix Ltd	Pacific PR02	Ford V8	BRA	ARG	SMR	ESP	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR	EUR	PAC	JPN	AUS	NC	0
1996	Minardi Team	Minardi M195B	Ford V8	AUS	BRA	ARG	EUR	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER DNQ	HUN 10	BEL DNQ	ITA Ret	POR 15	JPN DNQ		NC	0

References[]

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b D'Agata, Julian (3 June 2020). "Giovanni Lavaggi si racconta a 'Circus!': "Laurearmi mi ha permesso di realizzare il mio sogno"". LiveGP.it (in Italian). Retrieved 20 August 2021.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b D'Agata, Julian (11 April 2020). "Giovanni Lavaggi: il pilota-costruttore sulle orme di Bruce McLaren". LiveGP.it (in Italian). Retrieved 20 August 2021.
^ Bucci, Alessandro (3 November 2016). "F1 | Giovanni Lavaggi: "La F1 dovrebbe rispolverare l'estro umano"". F1Sport.it (in Italian). Retrieved 20 August 2021.
^ https://www.driverdb.com/championships/standings/formula-junior-monza/1983/
^ https://www.driverdb.com/drivers/giovanni-lavaggi/
^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_International_Formula_3000_Championship
^ "From 'The Iceman' to 'The Monza Gorilla' - the best nicknames in F1 history". www.formula1.com. Retrieved 20 August 2021.

External links[]

[:1-1] Jump up to: ^a ^b D'Agata, Julian (3 June 2020). "Giovanni Lavaggi si racconta a 'Circus!': "Laurearmi mi ha permesso di realizzare il mio sogno"". LiveGP.it (in Italian). Retrieved 20 August 2021.

[:0-2] Jump up to: ^a ^b D'Agata, Julian (11 April 2020). "Giovanni Lavaggi: il pilota-costruttore sulle orme di Bruce McLaren". LiveGP.it (in Italian). Retrieved 20 August 2021.

[3] Bucci, Alessandro (3 November 2016). "F1 | Giovanni Lavaggi: "La F1 dovrebbe rispolverare l'estro umano"". F1Sport.it (in Italian). Retrieved 20 August 2021.

[4] ttps://www.driverdb.com/championships/standings/formula-junior-monza/1983/

[5] ttps://www.driverdb.com/drivers/giovanni-lavaggi/

[6] ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_International_Formula_3000_Championship

[7] "From 'The Iceman' to 'The Monza Gorilla' - the best nicknames in F1 history". www.formula1.com. Retrieved 20 August 2021.

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show v t Winners of the 24 Hours of Daytona
run as the Daytona 3 Hour Continental (1962–63) Daytona 2000 (1964–65) 6 Hours of Daytona (1972) 24 Hours of Daytona (1966–71 / 1973 / 1975–present)
Five-time	Hurley Haywood Scott Pruett
Four-time	Peter Gregg Pedro Rodríguez Rolf Stommelen Bob Wollek
Three-time	João Barbosa Derek Bell Scott Dixon Christian Fittipaldi Butch Leitzinger Juan Pablo Montoya Brian Redman Memo Rojas Andy Wallace
Two-time	Filipe Albuquerque Max Angelelli Mauro Baldi Terry Borcheller Elliott Forbes-Robinson A. J. Foyt Al Holbert Kamui Kobayashi Jan Lammers Ken Miles John Paul Jr. Lloyd Ruby Scott Sharp Jordan Taylor Ricky Taylor Wayne Taylor Didier Theys Al Unser Jr. Renger van der Zande
One-time	Allmendinger Alonso Amon J. Andretti Ma. Andretti Ballot-Léna Bandini Barber Beretta Bergmeister Bernhard Boesel Bouchut Bourdais Boutsen Briscoe Brown Brundle Buckler Castroneves Collard Dalziel Derani Dismore D. Donohue M. Donohue Dupuy Durán Duxbury Dyson Elford Fellows Field Fitzpatrick Franchitti Fréon García Garretson Gentilozzi Gordon Graves Gurney Hand Hasemi Helmick Henn Herrmann Hezemans Hill Hoshino Ickx Jelinski Joest D. Jones P. J. Jones Kanaan Kimball Kinnunen Kneifel Krages Larson Lässig Lavaggi Law Lienhard Luyendyk Martin McMurray Mears Merl Millen Moran Moretti Neerpasch Negri Nielsen O'Connell Oliver Ongais Pace Papis C. Parsons Paul Sr. Pescarolo Pew Pilgrim B. Rahal G. Rahal Rice Robinson Rockenfeller Rossi Schneider Schrom Siffert Suzuki Unser Sr. Van der Merwe Van Overbeek Weaver Wendlinger Werner Wheldon Wilson

Formula One World Championship career
Born	(1958-02-18) 18 February 1958 (age 63) Augusta, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Active years	1995–1996
Teams	Pacific, Minardi
Entries	10 (7 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1995 German Grand Prix
Last entry	1996 Japanese Grand Prix