Gabriele Tarquini

Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian former racing driver and motorsport executive who competed in Formula One between 1987 and 1995, and World Touring Car from 2005 to 2021. In touring car racing, Tarquini won the World Touring Car Championship in 2009 with SEAT; he also won the British Touring Car Championship in 1994, the European Touring Car Championship in 2003, and the World Touring Car Cup in 2018.

Born in Giulianova, Tarquini began competitive kart racing aged 14. He participated in 78 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting at the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix. Across seven seasons, he competed for Osella, Coloni, First, AGS, Fondmetal, and Tyrrell. He scored a single championship point at the 1989 Mexican Grand Prix, and holds the record for the most failed attempts to qualify (40).

Tarquini subsequently competed in touring cars, winning the 1994 British Touring Car Championship with Alfa Romeo, and the 2003 European Touring Car Championship with Nordauto. By winning the 2009 World Touring Car Championship with SEAT, he became the oldest FIA World Champion, aged 47 years and 266 days. He later won the 2018 World Touring Car Cup with BRC, aged 56. He has served as sporting director for Genesis Magma Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship since 2026.

Tarquini began karting in 1976. By 1985 he was driving in Formula 3000, spending three seasons with underfunded outfits. His best result was second at Imola in 1987, by which time he had already made his Grand Prix debut in a one-off drive for Osella at the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix.

Tarquini joined Coloni's Grand Prix team for 1988, having driven for them in F3000 in 1986. The season saw a prequalifying system being put in place as there were 31 entrants for a maximum 30 places in qualifying proper. As such, the slowest of the new entrants for the season (Coloni, Rial, Dallara and EuroBrun) would be eliminated from proceedings after the Friday morning session regardless of their overall position - Tarquini failed to prequalify several times despite often being faster than some of the exempt entrants (such as the Osella and Zakspeed cars). He drew good notices for his performance overall, however - his eighth place at the Canadian Grand Prix would stand as the team's best ever result and his eight starts the most ever garnered by a Coloni driver.

Tarquini signed to drive for the FIRST team (again a former employer in F3000) and drove for them at the Formula One Indoor Trophy, but when their car failed crash tests he started 1989 without a ride. Following Philippe Streiff's career-ending pre-season testing crash, Tarquini joined Joachim Winkelhock in the AGS team from the second round of the series. There he finished a fine eighth on the road, being promoted to sixth after the exclusion of Thierry Boutsen and Alex Caffi. He was then one of the stars of the weekend in Monaco, threatening to qualify in the top-six before ending up 13th on the grid. In the race he advanced to a strong fourth before being sidelined by an electrical problem. At the following Mexican Grand Prix he finished sixth, though the team's joy was tempered after Williams and Scuderia Italia successfully appealed against their Imola disqualification and Tarquini lost his point. More bad luck followed at Phoenix where Tarquini was holding sixth despite technical problems before Boutsen passed him on the final lap. At the wet Canadian Grand Prix Tarquini again ran well until being shoved off the track by René Arnoux (who eventually went on to finish fifth). The series then moved to faster tracks where the AGS was less competitive and the results of others meant Tarquini's entry (exempt for the first half of the season thanks to Streiff's efforts in 1988) would have to prequalify for the second half of the season.

The expanding entry list meant prequalifying was very different from 1988, consisting of an hour-long free-for-all session on Friday morning between the less successful cars. Featuring the Larrousse cars of Michele Alboreto and Philippe Alliot, Roberto Moreno's Coloni, the Osellas of Nicola Larini and Piercarlo Ghinzani and the Onyx cars of Stefan Johansson and Bertrand Gachot among others with only the four fastest going through both Tarquini and new teammate Yannick Dalmas struggled and Tarquini would not qualify again that year.

AGS attempted to move to larger premises for 1990 but a lack of resources and the late arrival of the JH25 left Tarquini and Dalmas again struggling to get past prequalifying, Tarquini only making it into four races (finishing just once - 13th in the Hungarian Grand Prix), his early 1989 form long forgotten by most. The team were under even more severe financial constraints for 1991, though they would initially at least avoid prequalifying. Tarquini made it through into three races, finishing a worthy eighth in the season opener at Phoenix but financial constraints meant after Monaco the AGS didn't make the grid again.