Giovanni Lavaggi

File:Lavaggi LS1 Spa 2009.JPG

Lavaggi driving his self designed Lavaggi LS1 at Spa in 2009

Giovanni Lavaggi (born 18 February 1958) is an Italian racing driver.

Despite Lavaggi being a nobleman by background, he could not count on personal financial resources; therefore he started racing only at the age of 26. Nevertheless, he managed to reach the top class of motorsport, racing in Formula One in 1995 and 1996. His first involvement in F1 was in 1992 when, being a mechanical engineer, he was official test driver for the March F1 team. In 1995, he drove for Lotus-Pacific for four races in which he was forced to retire due to gearbox problems. In the second part of 1996 racing season, he joined the Minardi team for six races. His best result was a tenth place at the Hungaroring, which was the second best result of the year for Minardi team.

Lavaggi lives in Monte Carlo.

Early life

Lavaggi was born in Augusta, Sicily on 18 February 1958, being of noble heritage. He studied mechanical engineering at Milan Polytechnic.

Racing career

Lavaggi's racing career started in 1984, inspired by Henry Morrogh who judged him the best student he ever had at his racing school. That year he was official driver of the constructor Ermolli in the Italian Formula Panda championship where he was classified second, winning more races than any other driver. Not having enough sponsorship to afford a whole season in Formula Three, he did a few races in the Italian Formula Three Championship before turning to Group C sports cars, in order to gain international experience. In this category, he soon became a driver for the Porsche Kremer Team, for whom he became the 1993 Interserie champion, winning six of the season's total of 12 races and taking four further podium finishes. He also won the 1995 Daytona 24 Hours, driving nine hours in a team of four drivers. He scored two more wins in the FIA Sportscar Championship, including the 1000 km of Monza, where he drove five of the race's six hours and took five more podium places and two pole positions.

Lavaggi's first race in F1 was at the German Grand Prix for Pacific in 1995. Prior to this, he was a test driver for March during the 1992 season. He tested the Pacific PR02 twice before his first race for the British team - once at Silverstone and once at Snetterton. He was a rookie, but, at the same time, being 35 years old, he was the oldest driver in the field; therefore, he had to fight against the scepticism of the F1 media. The Pacific PR02 was an unreliable machine and he retired from all 4 races in 1995. His last experience in F1 was the 1996 Bologna Motorshow. Racing in a Minardi against two Benettons (driven by Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella), two Ligiers (Olivier Panis and Shinji Nakano) and the other Minardi (Tarso Marques), he finished second, losing the final against Fisichella by a nose.

After his F1 career, Lavaggi founded his own team “Scuderia Lavaggi” and in 2006 he became a constructor designing and building his own Le Mans Prototype, the Lavaggi LS1. He raced the car in the Le Mans Series until 2009 and he scored a pole position at 2008 Vallelunga 6h. Lavaggi is the only example of a driver-constructor in the modern era of motorsport at high-level.

Lavaggi was nicknamed "Johnny Carwash" (an approximate translation of his name from Italian to English, John Washes) by people in the paddock; US talk show host David Letterman helped bring the nickname to popular attention.

Family

The Lavaggi noble family moved from Genoa to Sicily (Palermo) in 1420 and then from Palermo to Augusta in 1711. A cousin of Giovanni’s grandfather, also called Giovanni Lavaggi, was a war hero. He was a pilot of the Italian Air Force and he died because of the sabotage of his airplane, while bringing to Asmara the Italian minister of public works Luigi Razza, who also was killed in the crash. In the cities of Catania and Augusta, Via Giovanni Lavaggi (Giovanni Lavaggi Road) is named after him.

Racing record

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1989	Template:Flagicon Porsche Kremer Racing	Template:Flagicon Kunimitsu Takahashi Template:Flagicon Bruno Giacomelli	Porsche 962C	C1	303	DNF	DNF
1990	Template:Flagicon Team Davey	Template:Flagicon Max Cohen-Olivar Template:Flagicon Tim Lee-Davey	Porsche 962C	C1	306	19th	19th
1992	Template:Flagicon Porsche Kremer Racing	Template:Flagicon Manuel Reuter Template:Flagicon John Nielsen	Porsche 962CK6	C3	334	7th	2nd
1993	Template:Flagicon Porsche Kremer Racing	Template:Flagicon Jürgen Lässig Template:Flagicon Wayne Taylor	Porsche 962CK6	C2	328	12th	7th
2000	Template:Flagicon Repsol Racing Engineering	Template:Flagicon Tomás Saldaña Template:Flagicon Jesús Diez Villaroel	Porsche 911 GT3-R	GT	78	DNF	DNF
Sources:

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
1991	Crypton Engineering	VAL DNQ	PAU DNQ	JER DNQ	MUG DNQ	PER Ret						NC	0
	Roni Team						HOC DNQ	BRH DNQ	SPA DNQ	BUG DNQ	NOG 12
Source:

American Open-Wheel racing results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest race lap)

PPG Indycar Series

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	No.	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points	Ref
1994	Euromotorsports	50	Lola T9300	Ilmor C	SRF	PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	DET DNQ	POR										38th	0
	Leader Cards Racing	23										CLE 30	TOR	MCH	MDO	NHA	VAN	ROA 15	NAZ	LAG DNQ
Sources:

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
Template:Ifnumber	Pacific Grand Prix Ltd	Pacific PR02	Ford V8	BRA	ARG	SMR	ESP	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR	EUR	PAC	JPN	AUS	NC	0
Template:Ifnumber	Minardi Team	Minardi M195B	Ford V8	AUS	BRA	ARG	EUR	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER DNQ	HUN 10	BEL DNQ	ITA Ret	POR 15	JPN DNQ		NC	0
Source:

External links

• Profile on F1 Rejects
• Driver Website
• Race Team Website
• Template:Racing-Reference driver
• Template:DriverDB driver