Gastón Mazzacane

Former F1 driver


image-size = 150
pixels = 150
Name = Gastón Mazzacane
Nationality = flagicon|Argentina Argentinian
Years = F1|2000 - F1|2001
Team(s) = Minardi and Prost
Races = 21
Championships = 0
Wins = 0
Podiums = 0
Points = 0
Poles = 0
Fastest laps = 0
First race = 2000 Australian Grand Prix
First win =
Last win =
Last race = 2001 San Marino Grand Prix

Gastón Mazzacane (born May 8, 1975 in La Platacite web |url=http://www.oldracingcars.com/bydriver/watn.asp?letter=M |title= The World Championship drivers - Where are they now? |accessdate=2007-07-29 |last=Jenkins |first=Richard |publisher=OldRacingCars.com] ) is a racing driver from Argentina. He participated in 21 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on March 12, 2000. He scored no championship points.

He is Argentina's most recent F1 driver, but is unfortunately best known as a "pay driver". He began his F1 career in 1999 as the test driver for Minardi. In late February F1|2000, it was announced that he would be the teammate of Marc Gené in the race team. "I intend to learn over the first half of the season and then I feel I will have the confidence to perform well," Mazzacane told the press at Minardi's car debut at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. His debut year in F1 was average. A broken gearbox at his first race, the 2000 Australian Grand Prix was tempered with a 10th place in Brazil. He went on to outqualify Gené at Imola, a feat he would accomplish four more times. The German Grand Prix was a relative high point for him. After outqualifying his teammate, he ran well and finished 11th. He finished 11 of the 17 races that year and ranked third among drivers with the most kilometres raced.

At the start of 2001, Mazzacane tested for Arrows, but finally settled into the Prost team, taking over the seat of the Sauber-bound Nick Heidfeld. He beat CART's Oriol Servia for the Prost spot, and was announced as the second driver in January F1|2001. However, the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix would be his final F1 race. Alain Prost fired him by using a performance clause in his contract. The vacancy was filled by Luciano Burti, who had recently been sacked from Jaguar Racing.

Mazzacane signed a contract with the reformed DART team a/k/a Phoenix, which had plans to race in the F1|2002 season. However, it was not to be as the team was barred from racing.

He then went to the US and competed in the last half of the 2004 Champ Car season with the Dale Coyne Racing #19 American Medical Response car.

Motorsports Career Results

Complete Formula One results

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American Open-Wheel

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

Champ Car

External links

* [http://www.gastonmazzacane.com Official site] es
* [http://www.mazzacanefansclub.com.ar Official Fans Club site] es
* [http://www.f1rejects.com/drivers/mazzacane/index.html Profile on F1 Rejects] (ironic) en
*youtube|id=sCbRNPyZq_Y

References