Andrea Piccini (born 12 December 1978 in

Sansepolcro Sansepolcro, formerly Borgo Santo Sepolcro, is a town and ''comune'' founded in the 11th century, located in the Italian Province of Arezzo in the eastern part of the region of Tuscany. Situated on the upper reaches of the Tiber river, the town ...

) is an Italian racing driver who is the part-owner and team principal of the Iron Lynx Motorsport Lab

ELMS Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of Nor ...

and Italian F4 team.

Single Seaters

Piccini began his single seater career in 1994, when he began competing in

go-kart A go-kart, also written as go-cart (often referred to as simply a kart), is a type of sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performance racing ...

races. In 1997, he started competing in Formula Opel Europe. He finished third in the 1998 standings. He went on to race in

International Formula 3000 The Formula 3000 International Championship was a motor racing series created by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) in 1985 to become the final preparatory step for drivers hoping to enter Formula One. Formula Two had become t ...

in 1999 up until 2001, picking up only six points in the three seasons. In 2001, he was signed as a test driver for the

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

Minardi

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

Sports Cars

After a disappointing single-seater career, he went on to race in sports car racing. In 2003, he was signed by Lister Racing to compete in the

FIA GT Championship The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout ...

. He picked up three podiums for the team along with Swiss co-driver

Jean-Denis Délétraz Jean-Denis is a masculine given name, and may refer to: * Jean-Denis Bredin (born 1929), a French attorney * Jean-Denis Délétraz (born 1963), a Swiss racecar driver * Jean-Denis Lanjuinais 200px Jean Denis, comte Lanjuinais (12 March 175313 ...

. He was signed by

Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Racing is a British auto racing team established in 2004 as a partnership between automobile manufacturer Aston Martin and engineering group Prodrive. The partnership was initially created for the purpose of returning Aston ...

in 2006 who wanted to race their new GT1-spec DBR9. He raced two rounds of the

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' hea ...

, scoring in one of those events, being round five. He then went on to compete at the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...

and finished second in the GT1 class with teammates

Tomáš Enge Tomáš Enge (; born 11 September 1976) is a Czech former professional racing driver who has competed in many classes of motorsport, including three races in Formula One. He has twice been sanctioned professionally for drug offences. Career Born ...

and

Darren Turner Darren Turner (born 13 April 1974) is a British professional racing driver and owner of Base Performance Simulators. He races for Aston Martin Racing as a factory driver and also works as a high performance test driver for Aston Martin. He was ...

. He reunited with his 2003 FIA GT teammate Jean-Denis Délétraz for the 2006 season. They raced for Phoenix Racing who ran a DBR9. Piccini finished third in the championship, taking a win at the final round of the season. RacingBox Nr30 LolaB08-80 Piccini Spa2010

RacingBox Nr30 LolaB08-80 Piccini Spa2010

2007 was a slightly quieter year for Piccini, he did not race at Le Mans or in ALMS but did contest the

FIA GT The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout ...

, this time for

Scuderia Playteam Scuderia Playteam (also known as Scuderia Playteam Sarafree) was an Italian racing team owned by Giambattista Giannoccaro. History The team competed in several series. These included the FIA GT Championship in 2007 when the team finished 2nd ov ...

who ran a

Maserati MC12 The Maserati MC12 (''Tipo M144S'') is a limited production two-seater sports car produced by Italian car maker Maserati to allow a racing variant to compete in the FIA GT Championship. The car entered production in 2004, with 25 cars produced. ...

GT1. His teammate was reigning FIA GT co-champion

Andrea Bertolini Andrea Bertolini (born 1 December 1973, in Sassuolo) is an Italian professional racing driver currently driving for AF Corse in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He is the official test driver of the Maserati factory. Bertolini began racing a ...

. The pair finished fifth place with only one win during the season. In 2008, Piccini raced six of the ten rounds of the

, four races in the GT1 class for RBlmmo Racing and two in the GT2 class for CR Scuderia Racing. He did not earn a point for RBlmmo Racing but finished in good points scoring places for CR Scuderia, finishing fourth at the

Spa 24 Hours The 24 Hours of Spa is an Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing event for cars held annually since 1924 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. It is currently sponsored by TotalEnergies. History The Spa 24 Hours was ...

and second place in round eight at Nogaro. He was called upon again by Aston Martin Racing to compete at the years

. He managed to finish the #007 car fourth place in class with veteran teammates

Heinz-Harald Frentzen Heinz-Harald Frentzen (born 18 May 1967) is a German former racing driver. He competed in multiple disciplines including Sportscars, Formula One and DTM. He had his most success in Formula One, entering over 150 Grands Prix and winning three. ...

and

Karl Wendlinger Karl Wendlinger (born 20 December 1968) is an Austrian professional racing and former Formula One driver. Mercedes Juniors Born in Kufstein, Wendlinger started his career in karting and in Formula Ford before entering the German Formula 3 C ...

. He moved on from FIA GT and in 2009, he raced for Italian team

Racing Box In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

in the

Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

, who ran a LMP2-spec

Lola B08/80 The Lola B08/80 is a Le Mans Prototype built by Lola Cars International. It is effectively the LMP2 version of the larger Lola B08/60; they are the first closed-cockpit sports prototypes built by Lola since the T92/10 of 1992. The B08/80 is o ...

- Judd. He was joined by fellow Italian compatriots and former FIA GT champions

Matteo Bobbi Matteo Bobbi (born 2 July 1978 in Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

and

Thomas Biagi Thomas Biagi (born 7 May 1976, in Bologna), is an Italian professional racing driver. Biagi started his career in single seaters, driving in Formula Alfa Boxer and Italian Formula Three Championship, where he was 5th best in 1995, with two wins. ...

for the season. They picked up a class win in the opening round at Catalunya but the success was short-lived. Piccini finished fifth in the standings. Racing Box then entered the

with the same car but unfortunately retired after 203 laps. 2010 saw Piccini contest only the first two rounds of the Le Mans Series season for Racing Box, before returning to GT racing in the form of the

FIA GT1 World Championship The FIA GT1 World Championship was a world championship sports car racing series, developed by the SRO Group and regulated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), that was held from 2010 to 2012. It featured multiple grand to ...

. He was reunited with Phoenix Racing who he raced with in FIA GT in 2006, but raced a

Chevrolet Corvette C6.R The Chevrolet Corvette C6.R is a grand tourer racing car built by Pratt & Miller and Chevrolet for competition in endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing. It is a replacement for the Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, Corvette C5-R racing car, app ...

rather than the DBR9. He contested three of the ten rounds, earning an impressive podium finish at the opening round in Abu Dhabi alongside

Mike Hezemans Mike Hezemans (born 25 July 1969, in Eindhoven) is a professional racecar driver from the Netherlands. Mike is the son of Toine Hezemans and brother of Loris Hezemans. Mike started in karting in 1981, and won the Dutch National Championship in 1 ...

. He is now back behind the wheel of an Aston DBR9 for

Hexis AMR Hexis Racing is an auto racing team based in Lédenon, France. Hexis Racing was founded by Michel Mateu, CEO of Hexis S.A. in 2001, initially for participation in the French Formula Renault Championship. Hexis later moved into grand tourer racin ...

for the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship season.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

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

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete GT1 World Championship results

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Piccini, Andrea 1978 births Living people People from Sansepolcro Italian racing drivers FIA GT Championship drivers American Le Mans Series drivers European Le Mans Series drivers FIA GT1 World Championship drivers EFDA Nations Cup drivers Blancpain Endurance Series drivers ADAC GT Masters drivers International GT Open drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers Sportspeople from the Province of Arezzo International Formula 3000 drivers DAMS drivers Phoenix Racing drivers Aston Martin Racing drivers CRS Racing drivers Ombra Racing drivers AF Corse drivers W Racing Team drivers Nürburgring 24 Hours drivers