Julien Gerbi

Julien Gerbi is a French race car driver. He was born in Nice, France on October 3,1985, only 3 days before Alain Prost took his first Formula One world championship.

Sport godson of the Formula One driver Roberto Moreno, Gerbi started driving in karting in 1992, but didn't choose to race, competing only once in Monaco where he won his first competition. He trained many years, before debuting as a test driver in Formula Nissan Junior in 2003 with the GTEC Team.

In 2004, promoted as the new "Draco Target Driver", Gerbi participated to the Formula X Endurance Series, finishing 5th in the European category. He finished 3rd for his first race in Monza, and poleman for the first ever race held in the brand new Dubai Autodrome. He was crowned 'Best Rookie' at the end of the year. He also tested in British Formula Three for the Promatecme Team.

He only appeared in one race of the Spanish Formula BMW championship in 2005, before jumping into another Formula 3 seat in 2006. Racing for Team Active in the Turkish Formula 3 championship, Gerbi scored 3 wins and 5 podiums in eight races, establishing as well the new Izmir track record in May. Competing only half of the championship, his classification was a final 5th position and another rookie title.

Since then, the driver from Nice is now racing in the United States in the Skip Barber Mazda Series. After a 2007 learning season where he finished 10th in the overall championship against 40 other drivers, Julien is now leading the 2008 season, with four podiums in the four first races, and a win in Virginia. He has also been included into the 2007 World 100 Future Racing Stars, among drivers such as Lewis Hamilton, Nelson Piquet Jr or Sebastian Vettel.

External links

* [http://www.juliengerbi.com/ Official Julien Gerbi site]