Michael Herck (born 4 August 1988 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

) is a

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

retired racing driver.

Career

Early life

Herck was adopted at the age of one and a half years by millionaire André Herck, a Belgian citizen born in Bucharest. Herck grew up in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

, and began his racing career in

karting Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on f ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Formula Renault

After karting, Herck moved to the Formula Renault Monza Winter Series in 2003 and competed in the full series the next year. He won the 2004 championship with five wins and 375 points. He also competed in the Belgian and Spanish 1.6-litre series in 2004, winning the latter championship. In

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

he drove in the

Formula Renault 3.5 Series The World Series Formula V8 3.5, formerly the World Series by Nissan from 1998 to 2004, the Formula Renault 3.5 Series from 2005 to 2015 and the Formula V8 3.5 in 2016 and 2017, was a motor racing series promoted by RPM Racing (1998–2004) and R ...

for the

Comtec Racing Comtec Racing is a motor racing team based in the United Kingdom. It competes in three championships — Formula Renault, World Series by Renault and the Auto GP World Series. History The team started out in Formula Ford from the ashes of ...

team, but failed to score any points.

Formula Three

Herck moved to

Formula Three Formula Three, also called Formula 3, abbreviated as F3, is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One driv ...

for 2005, winning the Austrian championship. He also made selected appearances in that year's

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

championships. In 2006 he competed in the

Formula 3 Euro Series The Formula 3 Euro Series was a European-based junior single seater formula for Formula Three chassis that was launched (in its current form) in 2003 as a merger of the French Formula Three Championship and German Formula Three Championship. The ...

with backing from compatriot

Bas Leinders Bas Leinders (born 16 July 1975) is a retired professional racing driver from Belgium. He was a Formula One test and reserve driver in for the Minardi F1 team, taking part in the Friday practice sessions during Grand Prix weekends, making 17 appe ...

, scoring twelve points to finish fifteenth in the championship.

GP2 Series

Herck competed in the first eight races of the inaugural

GP2 Asia Series The GP2 Asia Series was a form of open wheel motor racing as a result of a spin-off from the GP2 series. The series was officially announced during the weekend of the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix. GP2 series organiser Bruno Michel commented that "It ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

for the

FMS International Coloni Motorsport, also known as Scuderia Coloni, was an auto racing team from Italy. Formed by Enzo Coloni in 1983, the team participated in Formula Three between 1983 and 1986, before racing in Formula One as Enzo Coloni Racing Car Systems bet ...

team before breaking his wrist in an accident, missing the last round of the season. He was scheduled to drive in the main

GP2 Series The GP2 Series was a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The GP2 format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Eccle ...

for

as well, but was initially replaced by

Giacomo Ricci Giacomo Ricci (born 30 March 1985 in Baveno) is an Italian racing driver. Career Formula BMW Ricci began his car racing career by driving in the German-based Formula BMW ADAC series in 2001 and 2002, with a best finish of seventh in the drivers ...

in the

David Price Racing David Price Racing (commonly referred to as DPR) is a British motor racing team, founded by David Price. The team competed in various forms of motorsport from their foundation in 1976 until 2008. The team was sold in April 2009, but continued ...

team until his wrist healed. After two rounds of the championship, Ricci was dropped in favour of

Andy Soucek Andy may refer to: People *Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds *Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and piano ...

as Herck continued to recover. He finally made his GP2 début at

Magny-Cours Magny-Cours () is a Communes of France, commune in the Nièvre Departments of France, department in central France. It is the home of the ''Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours'', a famous Motorsport#Motor racing, motor racing circuit (whose name is of ...

. He continued with DPR for the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season, and also the

2009 GP2 Series season 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

. At the

Autódromo Internacional do Algarve The Algarve International Circuit ( pt, Autódromo Internacional do Algarve), commonly referred to as Portimão Circuit, is a race circuit located in Portimão, Algarve region, Portugal. The development includes a karting track, off-road tra ...

, Herck finished sixth on the road during the feature race. However, his first GP2 points were stripped from him due to irregularities with his DPR machine. His first points eventually came during the 2009–10 GP2 Asia Series, finishing seventh in the feature race of the second

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi (, ; ar, أَبُو ظَبْيٍ ' ) is the capital and second-most populous city (after Dubai) of the United Arab Emirates. It is also the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the centre of the Abu Dhabi Metropolitan Area. ...

round. After overtaking

Max Chilton Maximilian Alexander Chilton (born 21 April 1991) is a British racing driver who last competed for Carlin Motorsport in the IndyCar Series, before announcing his retirement from IndyCar in February 2022. Prior to IndyCar, he competed in Formula ...

at the start of the sprint race, Herck was heading to his first podium and victory in the series, but

Davide Valsecchi Davide Valsecchi (born 24 January 1987) is an Italian former racing driver and the 2012 GP2 Series champion. Career Formula Renault Valsecchi drove in Renault-based series from 2003 to 2007, rising from Italian Formula Renault and the Formula ...

passed him just before the race's conclusion. Herck ultimately finished thirteenth in the championship standings. Herck continued his improved form in the 2010 main series, finishing in the points on a number of occasions. He also qualified on

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

for his "home" race in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, but lost it due to an infringement. He finished sixteenth in the drivers' championship. Following the withdrawal of DPR from GP2, Herck switched to the Coloni team for 2011. In the

Asia series The Asia Series was an international club baseball competition, contested by the champions of all four of the professional leagues that are associated with the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) — Australian Baseball League (ABL), ...

, he was partnered variously by

James Jakes James Jakes (born 4 August 1987 in Leeds, West Yorkshire) is a British racing driver. Career T-Cars Jakes started his racing career in 2002 competing in 5 rounds of the T-Car Championship. In 2003 James continued in T-cars, finishing 2nd ...

and

Luca Filippi Luca Filippi (born 9 August 1985 in Savigliano, Italy) is an Italian auto racing driver. He competed in GP2 Series from 2006 to 2012, and the IndyCar Series from 2013 to 2016. In 2008 he was the official Honda Racing F1 test driver. Career Formu ...

, and finished eighth in the championship after scoring points in three of the four races. In the main series, he scored only a single point and finished 21st in the standings.

Retirement

Following a disappointing

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

season in the main

, Herck decided not to compete in the

2011 GP2 Final The 2011 GP2 Final was a special round of the 2011 GP2 Series, supporting the 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 12 and 13 November 2011. The race was originally scheduled to be the first round of the 2012 GP2 Asia championship, but with the GP2 Asia s ...

non-championship race in

, and retired from professional motor racing in order to focus on his studies, as later confirmed by adoptive parent André Herck.

Racing record

Career summary

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series 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 GP2 Series results

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(

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

References

External links

Official websiteCareer statistics
from ''driverdb.com''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Herck, Michael Living people 1988 births Sportspeople from Bucharest Belgian racing drivers Romanian racing drivers Belgian Formula Renault 1.6 drivers Italian Formula Renault 1.6 drivers Italian Formula Renault 2.0 drivers GP2 Series drivers Formula 3 Euro Series drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers German Formula Three Championship drivers GP2 Asia Series drivers Austrian Formula Three Championship drivers Belgian people of Romanian descent World Series Formula V8 3.5 drivers David Price Racing drivers Scuderia Coloni drivers Comtec Racing drivers Pons Racing drivers Team Lazarus drivers