Gabriele Tarquini

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. He made his Grand Prix debut in a one-off drive for Osella at the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix.

For 1988, Tarquini joined Coloni's Grand Prix team — having driven for them in F3000 in 1986. That season introduced a prequalifying system for the slowest new entrants (Coloni, Rial, Dallara and EuroBrun), who were eliminated after the Friday morning session regardless of overall position. Tarquini failed to prequalify several times despite often being faster than some exempt entrants such as the Osella and Zakspeed cars. His eighth place at the Canadian Grand Prix stood as the team's best ever result, and his eight starts were the most ever by a Coloni driver.

For 1989, Tarquini signed with the FIRST team (again a former employer in F3000), but when their car failed crash tests he started the year without a ride. Following Philippe Streiff's career-ending pre-season testing crash, Tarquini joined Joachim Winkelhock at AGS from the second round. At Monaco he was threatening to qualify in the top six before ending up thirteenth on the grid; in the race he advanced to fourth before being sidelined by an electrical problem. At the Mexican Grand Prix he finished sixth, though the team's points were tempered when Williams and Scuderia Italia successfully appealed against their Imola disqualification and Tarquini lost his championship point. At Phoenix he held sixth despite technical problems before being passed on the final lap by Thierry Boutsen. At the wet Canadian Grand Prix he ran well until being put off the track by René Arnoux. As the series moved to faster circuits the AGS was less competitive, and Tarquini would not qualify again that year.

For 1990, AGS attempted larger premises but suffered late delivery of the JH25. Tarquini made it into only four races, finishing just once — thirteenth in the Hungarian Grand Prix. The team was under even more severe financial constraints for 1991, initially avoiding prequalifying; Tarquini made it through into three races, finishing a worthy eighth in the season opener at Phoenix, before financial constraints meant the AGS did not make the grid again after Monaco.

Late in 1991, the cash-strapped AGS sold Tarquini's contract to Gabriele Rumi's Fondmetal outfit. He was signed for a full year in 1992, showing good speed in the Fondmetal GR02 chassis, though his car only finished once (fourteenth at Silverstone, hindered by clutch problems). Despite outqualifying Ivan Capelli's Ferrari in Belgium, the team struggled to find funding and folded after the Italian Grand Prix, leaving Tarquini without a drive.

Despite being 33 years old and firmly involved in a successful touring car career, Tarquini was signed by Tyrrell for 1995 as a test driver, thanks to Fondmetal's presence as a sponsor. He replaced the injured Ukyo Katayama for the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. Out of practice with single-seaters due to the team's financial constraints limiting actual testing, he finished fourteenth, six laps down on winner Michael Schumacher. It was his final Grand Prix — and, to that date, the last occasion a reigning BTCC Champion competed in Formula One.

Tarquini failed to pre-qualify on a record 25 occasions out of a total of 40 failures to qualify; he was considered by many to be a talented driver with uncompetitive machinery.

With the adaptation of Super Touring regulations dominated by D-segment cars, Tarquini joined Alfa Romeo in 1993 as their number one driver, finishing third in Italian Superturismo behind Roberto Ravaglia and Fabrizio Giovanardi.

Tarquini moved to the British Touring Car Championship for 1994, winning the title at his first attempt in an Alfa Romeo with controversial aerodynamic enhancements. In 1995, Alfa Corse moved him back to Italian Superturismo, but after two victories, four third places and six DNFs, Tarquini left the series and joined Prodrive to help Alfa Romeo achieve better results in the BTCC.

In 1996, Tarquini raced in Class 1 Touring Cars with Alfa Romeo in the ITC, achieving one victory and one second place as his best results.

With the end of Class 1, Tarquini left Alfa Romeo and signed a five-year contract with Honda, racing in the BTCC again with Prodrive. His first season with Honda ended sixth in the standings with one victory, one second and three third places.

In 1998 and 1999, Tarquini raced in Germany with JAS Motorsport in the STW Cup, taking two victories and several podiums. In 2000, he raced in the BTCC for a third time. In 2001, his last season with Honda, he raced in the Euro STC, finishing third behind the Alfa Romeos of Giovanardi and Larini despite taking nine victories.

After spending 2002 without a car, Tarquini returned to Alfa Romeo in 2003 for the ETCC and won the title at his first attempt — mirroring his 1994 BTCC success. In the 2004 final ETCC season he was again Alfa's best driver, finishing third behind the two BMWs of Andy Priaulx and Dirk Müller.

Tarquini remained with Alfa Romeo as the ETCC became the World Touring Car Championship in 2005, finishing seventh overall with two victories.

In November 2005, Tarquini was confirmed as one of six drivers at SEAT Sport for 2006. He finished fifth in the championship that year with one win, and eighth in 2007 with one win. In 2008 he finished runner-up to Yvan Muller, winning three races. In 2009, he won the WTCC championship at the last race of the year in Macau — becoming, aged 47 years and 266 days, the oldest FIA World Champion.

After SEAT withdrew from the WTCC for 2010, the manufacturer funded the new semi-works SR-Sport team. Tarquini scored five wins during the season to finish runner-up to ex-teammate Yvan Muller; four victories plus an inherited win in Belgium from Jordi Gene after Gene's disqualification. His crash in Japan race two ended his title hopes.

In 2011, Tarquini drove for the Lukoil-SUNRED team alongside Aleksei Dudukalo, starting the year with the SEAT 2.0 TDI engine before switching to the SUNRED 1.6T for Brno onwards. He finished fifth in the standings with one win in a year dominated by the Chevrolet RML team.

In January 2012, it was confirmed Tarquini would drive for Lukoil Racing in a SEAT León powered by the new SEAT Sport turbocharged engine, again alongside Aleksei Dudukalo. He started from pole at the first race in Italy but finished third behind Yvan Muller and Rob Huff in race one, then retired from race two. In Portugal, contact with Huff in race two left him nineteenth with damage.

In July 2012, it was confirmed Tarquini would drive a factory-supported Honda Civic run by the returning JAS Motorsport alongside Tiago Monteiro in 2013. He received a five-place grid penalty for race one at the season-opening Race of Italy after tapping René Münnich into a spin during qualifying, finishing race one fourth and race two third. He gave the Honda team its first WTCC pole position at the Race of Morocco, finished second in race one, and retired from race two after colliding with Alex MacDowall over a kerb.

In his last WTCC season, Tarquini moved to the Lada team, where he scored two victories.

After spending the entirety of 2017 developing the new Hyundai i30 N, Tarquini raced in the new WTCR following the fusion of the WTCC and the International TCR series. In 2018, after a battle with Muller, he won his fourth career title — adding to BTCC, ETCC and WTCC. He announced his retirement from racing at the 2021 Race of Italy.

In a 2005 poll by Motor Sport magazine, Tarquini was voted the 11th greatest touring car driver ever.

Tarquini serves as Sporting Director of Genesis Magma Racing, which joined the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship with the Genesis GMR-001 chassis.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.