Christian Vietoris

Christian Vietoris
Vietoris in 2007
Nationality	German
Born	April 1, 1989 (1989-04-01) (age 22) Gerolstein (Germany)
2011 GP2 Series
Debut season	2010
Current team	Racing Engineering
Car no.	8
Starts	31
Wins	3
Poles	1
Fastest laps	2
Best finish	7th in 2011
Previous series
2011 2009–10 2008–09 2007 2006–07 2005–06	DTM GP2 Asia Series Formula Three Euroseries German Formula Three A1 Grand Prix Formula BMW ADAC
Championship titles
2006–07 2006	A1 Grand Prix (w/Hülkenberg) Formula BMW ADAC

Christian Vietoris (born April 1, 1989 in Gerolstein, Rhineland-Palatinate) is a German racing driver.

Career

Karting

Vietoris started his career through karting, the most common entry point and all racing drivers, in 1994. Nine years after starting his karting career, the young German was the national Junior Kart champion and a year later came second Western German Karting Championship.

Formula BMW

In 2005, Vietoris moved up to Formula BMW ADAC with Eifelland Racing. Vietoris finished his first FBMW campaign sixteenth in the Drivers' Championship with fifteen points, sharing his position with fellow German Dominik Wasem.

In 2006, Vietoris moved to Josef Kaufmann Racing, where he won the Drivers' Championship with 277 points and taking nine race wins, his nearest rival being Finland's Mika Mäki. As well as his German FBMW title, Vietoris won the Formula BMW World Final, ahead of other FBMW champions such as Robert Wickens, the 2006 US FBMW champion, and the British Formula BMW champion, Niall Breen, winning himself a test for the BMW Sauber F1 team.

Following his impressive performances in Formula BMW, Vietoris was picked by A1 Team Germany to replace Nico Hülkenberg for the Mexican round of the 2006–07 season.

Formula Three

Vietoris competing at the opening round of the 2008 Formula Three Euroseries season at Hockenheim.

In 2007, Vietoris competed in the ATS Formel 3 Cup for Josef Kaufmann Racing, finishing in fifth.

Vietoris moved on to the Formula Three Euroseries in 2008 for Mücke Motorsport. He had a solid season, ending up eighth in the championship with one win coming at the Norisring. He also set a pair of fastest laps – at Mugello and Brands Hatch – and was on pole at the Nürburgring.

He continued in the F3 Euroseries in 2009 with Mücke Motorsport, finishing as runner-up to the dominant Jules Bianchi. Vietoris won four races over the course of the season, adding a further four podiums and a fastest lap at Brands once again, as he helped keep Mücke in contention for the teams title until he left for GP2 Asia.

GP2 Series

Vietoris missed the final round of the F3 Euroseries season to join up with the DAMS team for a GP2 Asia Series test at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. He raced in the 2009–10 season for the team. He moved to Racing Engineering for the 2010 main series, winning one race on route to ninth place in the drivers' championship. He missed the final round of the season due to appendicitis; his seat was taken by Ho-Pin Tung.

Vietoris remains with Racing Engineering for the 2011 GP2 Series season, alongside Dani Clos. After crashing heavily during the first round of the season at Istanbul, he complained of recurring headaches and was replaced by Álvaro Parente until he recovered and returned to the cockpit in Valencia.^[1] At Spa-Francorchamps, he took his first series pole position and converted it into victory, also setting his first fastest lap in the process. He also won the sprint race finale at Monza, rising to seventh in the drivers' championship.

DTM

Vietoris is dovetailing his 2011 GP2 campaign with a season driving a Persson Motorsport Mercedes in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Poles	Wins	Points	Position
2005	Formula BMW ADAC	Eifelland Racing	19	0	0	17	16th
2006	Formula BMW ADAC	Josef Kaufmann Racing	18	9	9	277	1st
2007	German Formula Three	Josef Kaufmann Racing	12	2	1	62	6th
2008	Formula Three Euroseries	Mücke Motorsport	20	1	1	36	6th
2009	Formula Three Euroseries	Mücke Motorsport	18	0	4	75	2nd
2009–10	GP2 Asia Series	DAMS	8	0	1	9	10th
2010	GP2 Series	Racing Engineering	18	0	1	29	9th
2011	GP2 Series	Racing Engineering	14	1	2	35	7th
	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	Persson Motorsport	7	0	0	0	15th

Complete A1 Grand Prix 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	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2006–07	Germany	NED SPR	NED FEA	CZE SPR	CZE FEA	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	IDN SPR	IDN FEA	NZL SPR	NZL FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	MEX SPR Ret	MEX FEA 9	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	GBR SPR	GBR SPR	1st	128
2007–08		NED SPR 6	NED FEA 9	CZE SPR 7	CZE FEA 8	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	ZHU SPR	ZHU FEA	NZL SPR 2	NZL FEA 1	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	SHA SPR	SHA FEA	GBR SPR	GBR SPR			8th	83

Complete GP2 Series 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	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2010	Racing Engineering	ESP FEA Ret	ESP SPR 18	MON FEA 14	MON SPR DNS	TUR FEA 7	TUR SPR Ret	VAL FEA 12	VAL SPR Ret	GBR FEA 6	GBR SPR 10	GER FEA Ret	GER SPR 10	HUN FEA 2	HUN SPR 2	BEL FEA 11	BEL SPR Ret	ITA FEA 4	ITA SPR 1	ABU FEA	ABU SPR	9th	29
2011	Racing Engineering	TUR FEA 11	TUR SPR Ret	ESP FEA	ESP SPR	MON FEA	MON SPR	VAL FEA Ret	VAL SPR 13	GBR FEA 2	GBR SPR Ret	GER FEA Ret	GER SPR 4	HUN FEA 8	HUN SPR 10	BEL FEA 1	BEL SPR 13	ITA FEA 6	ITA SPR 1			7th	35

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	DC	Points
2009–10	DAMS	ABU1 FEA 6	ABU1 SPR 1	ABU2 FEA Ret	ABU2 SPR 14	BHR1 FEA 14	BHR1 SPR 9	BHR2 FEA Ret	BHR2 SPR 14	10th	9

Complete DTM results

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

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pos.	Points
2011	Persson Motorsport	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2008	HOC1 13	ZAN 15	SPL 15	LAU 9	NOR 11	NÜR 13	BRH 13	OSC 5	VAL 12	HOC2 Ret	14th	4

Records

Vietoris is the youngest driver ever to win an A1 Grand Prix race. He took the chequered flag during the 2007–08 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, New Zealand at Taupo Motorsport Park at just 18 years, nine months and 19 days old, beating the previous record for youngest A1GP winner by exactly five months. That record was held by the team's former driver, Nico Hülkenberg, who won on his debut at Zandvoort in 2006.^[2]

References

1. ^ O'Leary, Jamie (2011-05-19). "Vietoris to miss Barcelona". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91503. Retrieved 2011-05-24. 
2. ^ "Record Breakers". A1GP.com News. 2008-01-21. http://www.a1gp.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?newsId=40120. Retrieved 2008-01-22. 

External links

• Official website (German)

Sporting positions
Preceded by Nico Hülkenberg	Formula BMW ADAC Drivers' Champion 2006	Succeeded by Jens Klingmann
Preceded by Marco Holzer	Formula BMW World Final Winner 2006	Succeeded by Philipp Eng
Preceded by Nicolas Lapierre Alexandre Prémat (Team France)	A1 Grand Prix Champion with Nico Hülkenberg (Team Germany) 2006–07	Succeeded by Neel Jani (Team Switzerland)

Persondata
Name	Vietoris, Christian
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	April 1, 1989
Place of birth	Gerolstein (Germany)
Date of death
Place of death