Zsolt Baumgartner was born on January 1, 1981 in Debrecen,
Hungary. He began racing in karts in 1994 at the age of 13. In 1994 and 1995,
Baumgartner placed second in the Hungarian Go-Kart Intercontinental Junior A
Championship. In 1997 he started racing cars and joined the German Formula
Renault Series in which he finished in third place. In 1999, Baumgartner moved
up to compete in the German and European Formula Renault 2000 Championships and
he was able to win the German championship . For 2000, Baumgartner moved up to
the German Formula 3 Championship in which he drove for GM Motorsport.
Baumgartner was able to achieve a best finish of fourth place in the season but
at the end of the year he place 13th in the championship. He started 2001
staying in the German Formula 3 Championship and achieved a best finish of
sixth but following disappointing results he switched to the Formula 3000
series.
Baumgartner signed up with the Prost Junior team to contest
in second half of the 2001 Formula 3000 series. These races did not produce any
significant results with a best finish of 13th place at Spa-Francorchamps.
Baumgartner remained in the Formula 3000 series for 2002 racing for Nordic
Racing this time. Nordic racing had won the championship with Justin Wilson the
previous season so Baumgartner was hoping for strong results but he did not
manage to score any points until the final round of the season at Monza in
which he finished sixth to score a single point. The highlight of Baumgartner's
2002 season was he got to do a demonstration run in a Jordan Formula 1 car for
the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Baumgartner once again remained in Formula 3000 for the 2003
season this time racing for Coloni Motorsport. Baumgartner did not have many
strong results by securing only two points scoring finished. He placed seventh
at Barcelona and a season best fifth at Monaco. For the Formula 1 German Grand
Prix, Jordan allowed Baumgartner to drive in a Friday test session. At the
Hungarian Grand Prix, Jordan Grand Prix driver Ralph Firman had a massive
accident in Saturday Practice which knocked him unconscious. Since he was
unable to take part in the race, Jordan had to find a replacement quickly and
chose Baumgartner. This made Baumgartner the first ever Hungarian to take part
in a Formula 1 race. With minimal time to prepare for qualifying, Baumgartner
was able to qualify in 19th place for his first Formula 1 race. Baumgartner
failed to finish the race due to his engine failing on lap 34. Firman was not
ready for the next race which was the Italian Grand Prix so Baumgartner got to
take part in that race as well. Baumgartner qualified 18th this time and
managed to finish the race in 11th position. Firman returned for the final two
grand Prix of the year.
It looked like Baumgartner was going to secure a race seat
with Jordan for the 2004 season but negotiations fell through. This led to
Baumgartner coming to an agreement to race with Minardi for the season instead.
At the season opening Australian Grand Prix Baumgartner qualified in 17th
position but he set the slowest time in qualifying and retired from the race
early. Baumgartner once again qualified 17th at the following Malaysian Grand
Prix and recorded his first finish of the season in 16th position despite being
four laps down. For the Bahrain Grand Prix Baumgartner set he slowest time in
qualifying and was over a second slower than his team mate Gianmaria Bruni.
Baumgartner once again retired from this race.
Baumgartner was able to improve on his best result of the
season at the San Marino Grand Prix in which he finished in 15th position once
again four laps down. Following another retirement at the Spanish Grand Prix
Baumgartner was able to set a faster lap in qualifying than team mate Gianmaria
Bruni for the first time in Monaco. This race saw over half the grid not able
to finish and despite being the last car classified Baumgartner finished in 9th
place. Baumgartner finished 15th at the
European Grand Prix and 10th at the Canadian Grand Prix. At the United States
Grand Prix Baumgartner once again set the slowest time in qualifying but in
another race which saw lots of attrition Baumgartner was able to finish a
career best 8th position which scored
Minardi its first points in over two years.
Baumgartner set the slowest qualifying time for the next
three races which were at France, Great Britain, and Germany. Baumgartner
retired from the first two and then finished 16th at the German Grand Prix. For
his home race in Hungary, Baumgartner was able to out qualify his team mate but
was out raced and finished in 15th as the last classified runner. At the
Belgian Grand Prix Baumgartner qualified in 18th but was faster than Giorgio
Pantano's Jordan and Ricardo Zonta's Toyota. His race ended early though as
Jenson Button had a tire explosion and spun out of control into Baumgartner.
Baumgartner ended the season with a 15th place finish at the Italian Grand
Prix, 16th at the Chinese Grand Prix, a retirement in Japan, and then another
16th at the season ending Brazilian Grand Prix. Baumgartner was not retained by
Minardi and did not get any offers to race in Formula 1 which ended his Formula
1 career. Baumgartner does however remain the only Hungarian that has raced in
Formula 1.
If you have a driver you would like to see profiled in the
future, please share in the comments section below.
No comments:
Post a Comment