Gastón Hugo Mazzacane (born 8 May 1975) is an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

racing driver 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 ...

. He participated in 21

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 ...

Grands Prix, debuting in the 2000 Australian Grand Prix. His father, Hugo Mazzacane, named him after the late Argentine touring car racer

Gastón Perkins Gastón Carlos Perkins (April 15, 1928– April 19, 2006) was an Argentina, Argentine racing driver. He won the Turismo Carretera championship in 1969. Racing career Perkins started his racing career in 1952. He was one of the Argentine drivers ...

. Mazzacane has also raced in

Turismo Carretera Turismo Carretera ( Road racing, lit., ''Road Touring'') is a popular stock car racing series in Argentina, and the 2nd oldest auto racing series still active in the world. The series is organized by Asociación Corredores de Turismo Carretera. ...

and was the first

TC Pick Up TC Pick Up (ACTC code: TCPK) is a pickup truck racing series in Argentina. It was created at the initiative of the president of the Asociación Corredores de Turismo Carretera, Hugo Mazzacane, who in October 2017 expressed the intention of creat ...

champion in 2018.

Racing career

Mazzacane is often known as a "

pay driver A pay driver is a driver for a professional auto racing team who, instead of being paid by the owner of their car, drives for free and brings with them either personal sponsorship or personal or family funding to finance the team's operations. Th ...

". He began his Formula One career in 1999 as the test driver for

Minardi Minardi was an Italian automobile racing team and constructor founded in Faenza in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. It competed in the Formula One World Championship from 1985 until 2005 with little success, nevertheless acquiring a loyal following ...

. In late February , it was announced that he would be the teammate of

Marc Gené Marc Gené i Guerrero (born 29 March 1974) is a Spanish professional racing driver. He is best known as a tester for Williams Grand Prix Engineering, Williams and Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari in Formula One, Minardi Formula One driver and factory ...

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 the launch of the

Minardi M02 The Minardi M02 was the car with which the Minardi Formula One team competed in the 2000 Formula One World Championship. Development The M02 was designed by Gustav Brunner. The car was a clear development from the M01 featuring new pointed nos ...

. His debut year in Formula One began with a broken gearbox at his first race, the 2000 Australian Grand Prix, followed by a 10th place in Brazil. He went on to outqualify Gené at

Imola Imola (; or ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, located on the river Santerno, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. The city is traditionally considered the western entrance to the historical region Romagna ...

, a feat he later accomplished twice more. The

German Grand Prix The German Grand Prix () was a motor race that took place most years since 1926, with 75 races having been held. The race has been held at only three venues throughout its history: the Nürburgring in Rhineland-Palatinate, Hockenheimring in B ...

was a relative high point for him; after outqualifying his teammate, he finished 11th. His highlight in the spotlights this season was on a damp Indianapolis track when he famously overtook

Mika Häkkinen Mika Pauli Häkkinen (; born 28 September 1968) is a Finnish former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Nicknamed "the Flying Finn", Häkkinen won two Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in and with M ...

, who was struggling after an early gamble on dry tyres. After running up to third without stopping, he ran over his pitcrew and dropped out of the race later. Nevertheless, 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 Sauber Motorsport AG, currently competing in Formula One as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, and also known simply as Kick Sauber or Sauber, is a Swiss motorsport engineering company. It was founded in 1970 (as PP Sauber AG) by Peter Sauber, who pro ...

-bound

Nick Heidfeld Nick Lars Heidfeld (; born 10 May 1977) is a German former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Born and raised in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia, Heidfeld began competitive kart racing aged 11. He progressed to Formu ...

. He beat CART's

Oriol Servia Oriol () is a Catalan name, which can be found as a given name or a surname. It derives from the Latin word ''aureus'' (golden). It was originally just a surname, but started to be used as a given name in honour of Saint Joseph Oriol. It may refe ...

for the Prost spot, and was announced as the second driver in January . However, the

2001 San Marino Grand Prix The 2001 San Marino Grand Prix (formally the Gran Premio Warsteiner di San Marino 2001) was a Formula One motor race held before between 80,000 and 100,000 spectators at the Imola Circuit, Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Ita ...

was his final Formula One race. Alain Prost fired him by using a performance clause in his contract, and the vacancy was filled by

Luciano Burti Luciano Pucci Burti (born 5 March 1975) is a Brazilian former racing driver who raced in Formula One in 2000 and 2001. He was later a commentator for TV Globo. Early career Burti's early career saw him graduate through the usual channels and ...

, who had recently been sacked from

Jaguar Racing Jaguar Racing is the name given to Jaguar Land Rover's racing interests. The Jaguar brand currently competes in Formula E under the name Jaguar TCS Racing for sponsorship reasons. It is the defending Formula E World Teams' Champion, having wo ...

. He would be the last Argentinian to drive in Formula One until the

2024 Italian Grand Prix The 2024 Italian Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio d'Italia 2024) was a Formula One motor race held on 1 September 2024 at the Monza Circuit in Monza, Italy. It was the sixteenth round of the 2024 Formula One Wor ...

when

Franco Colapinto Franco Alejandro Colapinto (; born 27 May 2003) is an Argentine racing driver who competes in Formula One for Alpine F1 Team, Alpine. Born and raised in Pilar, Buenos Aires, Colapinto began competitive kart racing aged nine, winning several reg ...

drove for Williams. Mazzacane signed a contract with the reformed DART team a/k/a Phoenix, which had plans to race in the 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 Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., a Governing body, sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing T ...

season with the

Dale Coyne Racing Dale Coyne Racing (DCR) is an American professional open-wheel racing team that currently competes in the IndyCar Series and Indy NXT. The team was founded in 1984 and is owned by former driver Dale Coyne. From 1995 to 2000, the team was known ...

#19 car.

Motorsport career results

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

Complete Formula One results

( key) ^† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.

American Open-Wheel

( key)

Champ Car

References

External links

Gastón Mazzacane in focus

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mazzacane, Gaston Argentine racing drivers Argentine Formula One drivers Argentine sportspeople of Italian descent Champ Car drivers Sportspeople from La Plata Racing drivers from Buenos Aires Province 1975 births Living people Minardi Formula One drivers Top Race V6 drivers TC 2000 Championship drivers FIA GT Championship drivers Prost Formula One drivers International Formula 3000 drivers Rolex Sports Car Series drivers Turismo Carretera drivers BVM Racing drivers Team Astromega drivers Dale Coyne Racing drivers Piquet GP drivers