Álvaro Maia Parente (born 4 October 1984) is a Portuguese professional racing driver.

Career

Early career

After winning the

Karting Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using 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 full-size motor ...

European Junior Championship in 1998,

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

-born Parente made his debut in

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

in 2001 at the age of 16, driving in the Spanish F3 Championship. In the following year, he was integrated into the Team Portugal project and scored a win on his way to 4th place in the series.

Formula Three

Parente than began a more international career in 2003, moving to the F3 Euroseries with

Team Ghinzani Team Ghinzani is a motor racing team based in Italy, involved in many areas of motorsport. The team was founded in 1992 by Piercarlo Ghinzani, who raced in Formula One between and . History Team Ghinzani have raced in Italian Formula Three C ...

, but the

Mugen-Honda M-TEC Company, Ltd., doing business as Mugen Motorsports (無限), is a Japanese company formed in 1973 by Hirotoshi Honda, the son of Honda, Honda Motor Company founder Soichiro Honda, and Masao Kimura. Mugen, meaning "without limit", "unlim ...

engine proved to be inferior to the Mercedes and he scored a single point. He did better with one-off entries in Italian Formula 3 and at Spa in a round of the British Formula 3 Championship, his first association with Carlin Motorsport, which was repeated that year in the

Macau Grand Prix The Macau Grand Prix (; ) is an annual motorsport road racing event for automobiles and motorcycles held on the Guia Circuit in Macau. The event includes the Formula Regional and Motorcycle Grand Prix title races, with other races for Touri ...

. This brief contact paved the way for a contract with Carlin for the 2004 season, where he took part in the British series, scoring another win and finishing 7th in the championship standings. He also took part in the Marlboro Masters and at

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

, but in the former the

could not take the fight to the Mercedes drivers and in the latter he was taken out in the first lap. Parente stayed in the British Formula 3 for another season, and his experience helped him to win the championship with four races to go, scoring a total of 11 wins. This result made him the natural candidate to represent A1 Team Portugal for the new

A1 Grand Prix A1 Grand Prix Operations Ltd. operated as A1 Grand Prix (A1GP) was a "single-make" open-wheel auto racing series that ran from 2005 until 2009. It was unique in its field in that competitors solely represented their nation as opposed to themse ...

series.

Formula Renault 3.5 Series

For 2006, Parente joined the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with the Victory Engineering team, and achieved his first win at

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

in only his fifth race in the category. He took two further wins at the

Nürburgring The () is a 150,000-person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long configuration, built in the 1920s ...

and

Circuit de Catalunya The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya () is a motorsport race track in Montmeló, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. With long straights and a variety of corners, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is seen as an all-rounder circuit. The track has stands ...

to finish fifth in the final standings. He had hoped to progress onto the

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 Ecc ...

in 2007, but a lack of sponsorship scuppered his plans. He did, however, return to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with the French Tech 1 Racing team, having signed a contract on the eve of the first pre-season test. Alvaro Parente 2007 WSBR

During the 2007 season Parente took five podium finishes, including two race victories at

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

and Spa, and was crowned World Series by Renault champion at the final round in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

on 27 October. As a prize for winning the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, Parente has tested for the Renault F1 team on 17 January 2008 at the

Circuito de Jerez Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto (formerly known as Circuito de Jerez and Circuito de Velocidad Jerez), is a racing circuit located close to the city of Jerez de la Frontera, south of Seville and deep within the sherry-producing region in the ...

GP2 Series

For 2008 Parente moved to the

Super Nova Racing Super Nova Racing was a British racing team that has competed in International Formula 3000, Formula 3000/GP2 Series, GP2 and the A1 Grand Prix series. History Super Nova first entered racing in 1991. Super Nova was a new incarnation of the p ...

team in the

, widely regarded as the primary feeder series to

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

. Alvaro Parente made a stunning start to his GP2 career in the opening round of the season at the

, Parente won the feature race making him the first Portuguese driver to win in

. Alvaro Parente led from start to finish, to claim victory ahead of Bruno Senna and

Andreas Zuber Andreas "Andi" Zuber (born 9 October 1983 in Judenburg, Austria) is a former Auto racing, motor racing driver. An Austrian by birth, he is based in Dubai and once raced under a licence issued by the United Arab Emirates. Career Formula König De ...

. He eventually finished eighth in the drivers' championship. Super Nova team nicknamed Parente as " Chachi", due to his likeness to the famous character in

Happy Days ''Happy Days'' is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marsha ...

. In 2009 Parente participated in the GP2 Asia Series with My Team Qi.Meritus, and competed in the

with

Ocean Racing Technology Ocean Racing Technology (ORT) was a racing team that took part in both the GP2 Main Series and the GP2 Asia Series Championships. The team, owned by Tiago Monteiro and José Guedes, was formed at the end of the 2008 season after being purchased ...

, finishing eighth once again. Parente began the 2010 season without a drive, but replaced Alberto Valerio at the Coloni team from the Belgian round onwards. On his return to the category, he scored a double podium finish, and ended the weekend as the highest scoring driver. He was replaced for the final round by James Jakes. Parente again went into the 2011 GP2 Series season without a drive, but was called up by Racing Engineering for the second round of the championship at Catalunya. He replaced Christian Vietoris, who had complained of recurring headaches following a heavy crash at the first round in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Vietoris returned after two rounds, but Parente remained in the series by switching to the Carlin team, where he took the seat previously occupied by Oliver Turvey. After a further six races, he relinquished the seat to Mikhail Aleshin. He then returned for the season finale at

Monza Monza (, ; ; , locally ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the Lambro, River Lambro, a tributary of the Po (river), River Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the province of Mo ...

, ending up in 16th place in the drivers' championship.

Superleague Formula

Parente agreed to race at the 2009 Estoril round of the

2009 Superleague Formula season The 2009 Superleague Formula season was the second Superleague Formula championship. The series was rebranded the "Superleague Formula by Sonangol Group, Sonangol" for this season and also 2010 Superleague Formula season, 2010 with the Angolan ...

for his

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

squad team, F.C. Porto, and went on to win the second race, on his series debut.

Formula One

Parente was a leading contender for a seat at Campos Meta, other contenders were Vitaly Petrov and Pastor Maldonado. On 15 December 2009, it was officially announced that Parente would join the new

Virgin Racing Virgin Racing (subsequently Marussia Virgin Racing) was a Formula One racing team which was under management of Manor Motorsport, Wirth Research and Richard Branson's Virgin Group and competed in with a List of Formula One constructors#Team's ...

team as a test driver. However, he was not present at the launch of the VR-01 chassis in February 2010, and it was reported that he had left the team due to sponsorship problems. Andy Soucek replaced Parente as the reserve driver.

GT

Since 2012, Parente has regularly been a factory GT3 driver for McLaren customer teams. His highlight was winning the 2016 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour for Tekno Autosports alongside

Shane van Gisbergen Shane Robert van Gisbergen (born 9 May 1989), also known by his initials SVG, is a New Zealand professional auto racing, racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro (sixth generation)#ZL1, C ...

and Jonathon Webb as well as taking the 2016 Pirelli World Challenge Championship title. He has also competed in the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

for Ram Racing in a Ferrari 458 Italia GT2.

Racing record

Career summary

† Guest driver ineligible to score points ‡ Team standings.

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) † Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

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

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

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

Complete GP2 Series results

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

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

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

FIA GT competition results

GT1 World Championship results

FIA GT Series results

Complete Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup results

Complete Stock Car Brasil results

† Ineligible for championship points.

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

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

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete Bathurst 12 Hour results

Complete Indian Racing League results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ‡ Standings based on entry points, not individual drivers. * Season in progress.

References

External links

Official Blog
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parente, Alvaro 1984 births Living people Racing drivers from Porto Portuguese racing drivers Euroformula Open Championship drivers Formula 3 Euro Series drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers A1 Team Portugal drivers GP2 Series drivers GP2 Asia Series drivers Superleague Formula drivers World Series Formula V8 3.5 drivers FIA GT1 World Championship drivers GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup drivers International GT Open drivers Stock Car Brasil drivers FIA World Endurance Championship drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers ADAC GT Masters drivers 24 Hours of Daytona drivers WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers Carlin racing drivers GT World Challenge America drivers Australian Endurance Championship drivers A1 Grand Prix drivers Italian Formula Three Championship drivers Nürburgring 24 Hours drivers Racing Engineering drivers Victory Engineering drivers Tech 1 Racing drivers Team Meritus drivers Scuderia Coloni drivers Ocean Racing Technology drivers United Autosports drivers Bhaitech drivers ART Grand Prix drivers Teo Martín Motorsport drivers Strakka Racing drivers Meyer Shank Racing drivers Sébastien Loeb Racing drivers Mercedes-AMG Motorsport drivers CRS Racing drivers Team Astromega drivers De Villota Motorsport drivers Super Nova Racing drivers AF Corse drivers McLaren Racing drivers 24H Series drivers Indian Racing League drivers