Álvaro Parente

Infobox racing driver
name = Álvaro Parente


pixels =
caption =
nationality = flagicon|PRT Portuguese
date of birth = Birth date and age|1984|10|04
place of birth = Porto (Portugal)
current series = GP2 Series
first year = 2008
current team = Super Nova Racing
car number = 8
former teams =
starts = 20
wins = 1
poles = 0
fastest laps = 1
best finish = 8th
year = 2008
prev series = Spanish F3 Championship
F3 Euroseries Championship
British F3 Championship
World Series by Renault
prev series years = 2001-2002
2003
2004-2005
2006-2007
titles = British F3 Champion
World Series by Renault | title years = 2005
2007

Álvaro Parente (born October 4, 1984 in Porto) is a Portuguese racecar driver. Parente's father was also a racer.

Career

After winning the Karting European Junior Championship in 1998, Parente made his debut in auto racing in 2001 at the age of 16, driving in the Spanish F3 Championship. In the following year, he was integrated into the Team Portugal project and scored a win on his way to 4th place in the series.

Parente than began a more international career in 2003, moving to the F3 Euroseries with Team Ghinzani, but the Mugen-Honda engine proved to be inferior to the Mercedes and he scored a single point. He did better with one-off entries in Italian Formula 3 and at Spa in a round of the British Formula 3 Championship, his first association with Carlin Motorsport, which was repeated that year in the Macau Grand Prix.

This brief contact paved the way for a contract with Carlin for the 2004 season, where he took part in the British series, scoring another win and finishing 7th in the championship standings. He also took part in Marlboro Masters and at Macau, but in the former the Mugen-Honda could not take the fight to the Mercedes drivers and in the latter he was taken out in the first lap.

Parente stayed in the British Formula 3 for another season, and his experience helped him to win the championship with four races to go, scoring a total of 11 wins. This result made him the natural candidate to represent A1 Team Portugal for the new A1 Grand Prix series.

For 2006, Parente joined the World Series by Renault with the Victory Engineering team, and achieved his first win at Istanbul in only his fifth race in the category. He took two further wins at the Nürburgring and Circuit de Catalunya to finish fifth in the final standings. He had hoped to progress onto the GP2 Series in 2007, but a lack of sponsorship scuppered his plans. He did, however, return to the World Series with the French Tech 1 Racing team, having signed a contract on the eve of the first pre-season test. [cite news | url = http://www.crash.net/news_view~cid~7~id~144547.htm | title = Parente secures Tech 1 seat | publisher = crash.net | date = 2007-03-15 | accessdate = 2007-03-15]

During the 2007 season Parente took five podium finishes, including two race victories at Monaco and Spa, and was crowned World Series by Renault champion at the final round in Barcelona on October 27. [cite news | url = http://www.crash.net/motorsport/renault/news/156523-0/parente_podium_enough_to_take_title.html | title = Parente podium enough to take title | publisher = crash.net | date = 2007-10-27 | accessdate = 2007-10-28]

As a prize for winning the World Series, Parente has tested for the Renault F1 team on January 17, 2008, at Jerez de la Frontera. [cite news | url = http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/64748 | title = Parente completes Renault test at Jerez | publisher = autosport.com | date = 2008-01-17 | accessdate = 2008-03-06] For 2008 Parente will race with the Super Nova Racing team in the GP2 Series, [cite news | url = http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/65035 | title = Super Nova confirm Parente, Bakkerud | publisher = autosport.com | date = 2008-02-07 | accessdate = 2008-03-06] widely regarded as the primary feeder series to Formula One.

Alvaro Parente made a stunning start to his GP2 career in the opening round of the season at the Circuit de Catalunya, Parente won the feature race making him the first Portuguese driver to win in GP2 Series. [cite news | url = http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/66915 | title = Parente romps to win on debut | publisher = crash.net | date = 2008-04-26 | accessdate = 2008-04-26] Alvaro Parente led from start to finish, to claim victory ahead of Senna and Zuber. He eventually finished eighth in the drivers' championship.

Super Nova team nicknamed Parente as "Chachi", due to his likeness to the famous character in Happy Days [cite journal |last=Buxton |first=Will |year=2008 |month=April |title=GP2: Happy Days for Chachi |journal=GPWeek.com |volume=1 |issue=8 |pages=pp.26 ]

Racing record

Career summary

Racing career

* 1998 - Karting European Championship, Champion
* 2001 - Spanish F3, 12th place
* 2002 - Spanish F3, 4th place
* 2003 - F3 Euroseries, 25th place (also one-offs in Italian F3 and British F3)
* 2004 - British F3 Championship, 7th place (also Macau GP and Marlboro Masters)
* 2005 - British F3 Championship, Champion (also Marlboro Masters); A1 Grand Prix with A1 Team Portugal
* 2006 - World Series by Renault with Victory Engineering, 5th Place
* 2007 - World Series by Renault with Tech 1 Racing, Champion
* 2008 - GP2 Series with Super Nova Racing Team

References

External links

* [http://alvaroparentegp2.wordpress.com Official Blog]
* [http://www.driverdb.com/racingdriver322.html Alvaro Parente career statistics] at Driver Database