International Draco Racing was a
motorsport team. It was most well known for operating in the
World Series by Renault, but had also taken part in
Formula Opel Lotus,
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 ...
and
Euro Formula 3000.
Career
Formula Opel Lotus Euroseries
Draco was founded in 1989 by Adriano and Nadia Morini, and entered the Formula Opel Lotus Euroseries. In its first year, the Italian takes Brazilian driver Eduar Neto to second place in F. Opel, with five wins. The team continued to be one of the most competitive in the series for the following years, winning the F. Opel championship in 1990 with
Rubens Barrichello
Rubens "Rubinho" Gonçalves Barrichello (, ; born 23 May 1972) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who competed in Formula One between and . He currently competes full-time in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series, driving the No. 111 T ...
, 1991 with
Pedro Lamy, 1993 with
Patrick Crinelli and 1994 with
Marco Campos (in 1992,
Gualter Salles
Gualter Salles (born September 28, 1970, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), is an open wheel race car driver. He raced in the 1997-2000 and 2003 CART seasons, with 49 career starts. His best finish came in his last race, the Gold Coast Indy 300 at Surfers ...
was second).
International Formula 3000
Draco stayed in Formula Opel until the championship's demise in 1996, but the year before Adriano Morini took his team to Formula 3000, creating the outfit specifically for Marco Campos. Morini took a gamble on the Brazilian driver's talent, but he ultimately lost it when 18-year-old Campos died in the race at
Magny-Cours. Draco was never so successful in F3000, even with drivers such as
Ricardo Zonta (in 1996) and
Bruno Junqueira (in 1998) and left the series after the 1999 season.
Euro Formula 3000
In 2000, Draco moved down to the Italian F3000 Championship (now Euro 3000), for older 1996 cars. This proved to be the wisest move, as
Felipe Massa
Felipe Massa (, born 25 April 1981) is a Brazilian racing driver. He competed in 15 seasons of Formula One between 2002 and 2017, where he scored 11 Grand Prix victories, 41 podiums and finished as championship runner-up in 2008 by one poi ...
completely dominated the series in 2001, taking the championship title, a performance repeated in 2003 with
Augusto Farfus
Augusto Farfus Jr. (born 3 September 1983) is a Brazilian professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He lives in Monaco.
Early years
Born in Curitiba, Farfus first tasted racing in minibike races and won the local champions ...
and 2004 with
Nicky Pastorelli
Nicky Pastorelli (born 11 April 1983) is a Dutch professional racing driver.
Motorsports career
Euro Formula 3000
Born in The Hague, Pastorelli participated in Euro Formula 3000 for Scuderia Fama in 2003. He finished on the podium twice and p ...
.
Formula Renault 3.5 Series
In
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...
, Draco changed series, again, to the World Series by Renault, where their lead drivers
Pastor Maldonado and
Miloš Pavlović finished third in the
2006 and
2007 seasons. In 2008 the drivers was Bertrand Baguette and Marco Barba. In 2009 the Draco Team won the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship with the Team Title and the Driver Title with Bertrand Baguette. Following funding issues midway through the
2015 Formula Renault 3.5 Series season
The 2015 Formula Renault 3.5 Series season was a multi-event motor racing championship for open wheel, formula racing cars held across Europe. The championship featured drivers competing in Formula Renault 3.5 formula race cars that conformed t ...
, the team closed down at the end of the year.
Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results
(
key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
Complete former series results
3000 Pro Series
Italian/Euro Formula 3000
International Formula 3000
Notes:
*1. - Martini scored 3 points in 1 race for Sighinolfi Autoracing.
*2. - Sauvage also entered in 4 races for Monaco Motorsport.
External links
Draco Racing official websiteDraco Racing official website
Renault Sport official website*
{{s-end
Italian auto racing teams
1989 establishments in Italy
World Series Formula V8 3.5 teams
International Formula 3000 teams
Auto racing teams established in 1989
Auto GP teams
2015 disestablishments in Italy
Auto racing teams disestablished in 2015