Motorsports Mondial

Pic of the Day

Photo. BBC

Charles Pic. F1 Driver in 2012

The 2011 Formula 1 season saw no French Grand Prix and no Gallic drivers on the grid. Fast forward to 2012. The season opener in Albert Park will see no less than three drivers representing the land of birth of Grand Prix racing.

Romain Grosjean is back in F1 courtesy of Gravity Management and his staunch supporter Eric Boullier. The Swiss-born racer stamped his authority in the GP2 Championship last season against some seasoned and young talented drivers.

Jean-Eric Vergne has made a strong case for a seat in the top tier after destroying the competition in the 2010 British F3 Championship, and last year came close to winning the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship, losing out to Canadian Robert Wickens in the season finale. In Abu Dhabi, Vergne was noticeably quick in the Young Driver Test at the wheel of Red Bull’s world championship winning machinery.

Charles Pic completes the French trio. Born in Montélimar on February 15, 1990 Pic got his start in motorsports when he was presented a kart for his 12th birthday by his godfather and ex-GP racer, Eric Bernard.

In 2005, he was 3rd in the European Championship (Junior ICA), 2nd in the Italian Championship and won the prestigious Andrea Margutti Trophy, named in the memory of Giancarlo Fisichella’s boyhood friend and fellow kart-racer.

This level of success gave him the confidence to step into single-seaters. Pic continued his race and pole winning ways in the 2006 French Formula Campus Championship. A pair of race wins and pole positions would help him to third place in the championship.

The 2007 Formula Renault Euro Cup saw Pic take his first International victory at the Nurburgring. He finished the season in a very impressive third position with five podiums and two pole positions. In the French version of the same series he would finish 4th and was the second best rookie.

The next two seasons Pic campaigned in Formula Renault 3.5 with Simon Abadie’s Toulouse-based Tech 1 Racing. In the 2008 season Pic claimed two victories, Le Mans and Monaco, and four additional podium finishes helped him to claim sixth in the championship, ahead of Esteban Guerrieri and Robert Wickens.

In 2009, Pic improved on his championship standings and finished third with a pair of victories, Britain and Germany.  

Photo. GP2 Series

The shifting of sands of time in the Middle East saw last year’s season finale of GP2 Asia

series take place at Imola. Here Pic powers his way for the Barwa Addax team at

Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

His next step was GP2, the official feeder series to F1. He endured a tough season with Christian Horner’s Arden International in 2010 despite winning the season opener in Barcelona. It would be another ten races before he would be on the podium again after finishing third in Germany in the feature race.

Pic finished 10th in the championship. Not satisfied with the performance he switched to Barwa Addax for his second season of GP2 in 2011.

Again he was victorious in the Barcelona feature race. In the next round at Monte Carlo, Pic was eighth in the feature which gave him pole for the sprint race as the grid is reversed for the top eight for the sprint race. He triumphed over Josef Kral and Romain Grosjean.

Three second place finishes, Germany, Hungary and Italy, helped him to fourth place in the championship. He was only two points behind second place man Luca Filippi. Champion Grosjean collected 89 points.

Pic said at the time of his F1 announcement, “I’m very happy but this is just the beginning. I know that a lot of hard work is ahead of me to reward this chance.”

In 1996, Olivier Panis won the Monaco Grand Prix which to this day has remained the last French victory in Formula 1. The Lyon-born racer would love to see Charles Pic become the next French driver to win a Grand Prix.

Panis is now part of Pic’s management team. The 2012 season starts with the Australian Grand Prix on March 18th. The Marussia F1 Team will be powered by Cosworth engines and dreams of its two drivers; Timo Glock and Charles Pic.

 

— Nasir Hameed

 

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