| Alex Hofmann | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Alex Hofmann in 2005 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | German | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 25 May 1980 Mindelheim, West Germany | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Alexander Hofmann (born 25 May 1980) is a retired Grand Prix motorcycle racer, who now works on German television coverage of the sport. He is nicknamed 'The Hoff' in English-speaking countries, a nod to David Hasselhoff.
He successfully raced in Motocross in his early teens, before entering the German 125cc championship for the first time in 1995, and the European series alongside it a year later. In 1997 he was runner-up in the German series, and also started the German 125cc World Championship race as a wild card.
In 1998 he moved up to 250cc, winning every race in the German championship and also winning the European title, as well as coming 10th in a one-off in the 250cc World Championship. From 1999 to 2001 Hofmann was a regular in this series, although without taking a podium finish, and missing 8 races in 2000 due to injury.
He started 2002 without a ride, but made his MotoGP debut as a stand-in rider for Garry McCoy at the WCM Red Bull team, also filling in for Loris Capirossi for Sito Pons' team. He was hired to be Kawasaki's test rider role in 2003. In two starts, he scored points both times. He and Shinya Nakano replaced McCoy and Andrew Pitt as full-time racers in 2004. The next two years were difficult, mainly due to injuries, [1] partly through his love of Motocross. Points were rare and Kawasaki chose Randy de Puniet for 2006 over Hofmann.
In 2006 he joined the D'Antin Pramac team, riding on a 2006 customer version of the works Ducati alongside José Luis Cardoso. When their factory rider Sete Gibernau was injured at the Circuit de Catalunya (a race in which Alex finished 8th, helped by 3 riders not starting the resumption of the race), Hofmann was appointed as his replacement for the next 2 races, before returning to D'Antin for his home race at Sachsenring, [2] dropping out early.
In 2007 he remained with D'Antin, alongside the veteran Alex Barros. Fifth place at Le Mans took him to 10th in the championship after five rounds, ahead of reigning champion Nicky Hayden. He was a strong 8th at Assen. Preparation for his home round at the Sachsenring were hampered by a hand injury suffered when a friend closed a car door onto it, but he scored minor points in the race. He injured his hand in practice at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. [3] He was replaced at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca by Chaz Davies and by Iván Silva at Brno. He returned to racing at Misano but he was fired by the team following the Portuguese Grand Prix, after pulling out of the race while in with a chance of scoring points, due to a lack of motivation. [4] He never raced again.
His girlfriend is called Romina Rados. He loves action sports such as skiing and BMX bikes. At 1.80m he is tall for a motorcycle racer. His favourite food is Italian. He has a two children, a son called Travis (b. 2010) and a daughter called Sienna (b. 2014).
He is fluent in German, English, French, Spanish and Italian.
After his racing career he started working as MotoGP commentator for the German TV station Sport1, where his knowledge from his own racing career and multilingualism prove helpful. He also became a test driver, initially[ when? ] for Aprilia helping to develop the RSV4 and now[ when? ] KTM and their MotoGP project.
| Seas | Class | Moto | Team | Race | Win | Pod | Pole | FLap | Pts | Plcd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 125cc | Yamaha TZ125 | Castor Kapital Racing | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 28th |
| 1998 | 250cc | Honda NSR250 | Racing Factory | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 29th |
| 1999 | 250cc | Honda NSR250 | Racing Factory | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 51 | 16th |
| 2000 | 250cc | Aprilia RSV 250 | Racing Factory | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 25th |
| 2001 | 250cc | Aprilia RSV 250 | Racing Factory | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 55 | 12th |
| 2002 | MotoGP | Yamaha YZR500 | Red Bull Yamaha WCM | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 22nd |
| Honda NSR500 | West Honda Pons | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 2003 | MotoGP | Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR | Kawasaki Racing Team | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 23rd |
| 2004 | MotoGP | Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR | Kawasaki Racing Team | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 51 | 15th |
| 2005 | MotoGP | Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR | Kawasaki Racing Team | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 19th |
| 2006 | MotoGP | Ducati Desmosedici GP5 | Pramac d'Antin | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 17th |
| Ducati Desmosedici GP6 | Ducati Marlboro Team | 3 | ||||||||
| 2007 | MotoGP | Ducati Desmosedici GP7 | Pramac d'Antin | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 65 | 13th |
| Total | 106 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 315 |
| Class | Season(s) | 1st Grand Prix | 1st Podium | 1st Win | Race | Win | Pod | Pole | FLap | Pts | WCh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 125cc | 1997 | 1997 Germany | N/A | N/A | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 250cc | 1998–2001 | 1998 Germany | N/A | N/A | 41 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 124 | 0 |
| MotoGP | 2002–2007 | 2002 Catalunya | N/A | N/A | 64 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 189 | 0 |
| Total | 1997-2007 | 106 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 315 | 0 |
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Class | Bike | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Pos | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 125cc | Yamaha | MAL | JPN | SPA | ITA | AUT | FRA | NED | IMO | GER 14 | BRA | GBR | CZE | CAT | IND | AUS | 28th | 2 | |||
| 1998 | 250cc | Honda | JPN | MAL | SPA | ITA | FRA | MAD | NED | GBR | GER 10 | CZE | IMO | CAT | AUS | ARG | 29th | 6 | ||||
| 1999 | 250cc | TSR-Honda | MAL 17 | JPN 18 | SPA 15 | FRA 8 | ITA 16 | CAT 11 | NED 11 | GBR 13 | GER 9 | CZE Ret | IMO 17 | VAL 10 | AUS 13 | RSA 13 | BRA 12 | ARG 10 | 16th | 51 | ||
| 2000 | 250cc | Aprilia | RSA Ret | MAL 10 | JPN 15 | SPA 17 | FRA 18 | ITA Ret | CAT | NED | GBR | GER | CZE 19 | POR 11 | VAL 18 | BRA DNS | PAC | AUS | 25th | 12 | ||
| 2001 | 250cc | Aprilia | JPN 12 | RSA 10 | SPA 11 | FRA 11 | ITA 18 | CAT 9 | NED 12 | GBR 9 | GER 7 | CZE Ret | POR Ret | VAL Ret | PAC 17 | AUS Ret | MAL 8 | BRA 17 | 12th | 55 | ||
| 2002 | MotoGP | Yamaha | JPN | RSA | SPA | FRA | ITA | CAT Ret | NED 11 | 22nd | 11 | |||||||||||
| Honda | GBR 17 | GER 10 | CZE | POR | BRA | PAC | MAL | AUS | VAL | |||||||||||||
| 2003 | MotoGP | Kawasaki | JPN | RSA | SPA 16 | FRA | ITA 14 | CAT | NED 10 | GBR | GER 17 | CZE 19 | POR | BRA | PAC | MAL | AUS | VAL | 23rd | 8 | ||
| 2004 | MotoGP | Kawasaki | RSA Ret | SPA 13 | FRA Ret | ITA 14 | CAT 11 | NED 13 | BRA 11 | GER 10 | GBR 19 | CZE 13 | POR 13 | JPN 10 | QAT 9 | MAL Ret | AUS 13 | VAL 11 | 15th | 51 | ||
| 2005 | MotoGP | Kawasaki | SPA 11 | POR | CHN | FRA | ITA 12 | CAT 17 | NED Ret | USA 12 | GBR 8 | GER Ret | CZE 15 | JPN Ret | MAL | QAT | AUS | TUR | VAL 14 | 19th | 24 | |
| 2006 | MotoGP | Ducati | SPA 15 | QAT 15 | TUR 16 | CHN 15 | FRA 13 | ITA Ret | CAT 10 | NED 12 | GBR 13 | GER Ret | USA 14 | CZE 16 | MAL 15 | AUS 13 | JPN 16 | POR 11 | VAL Ret | 17th | 30 | |
| 2007 | MotoGP | Ducati | QAT 11 | SPA DSQ | CHN 9 | TUR 9 | FRA 5 | ITA 11 | CAT 13 | GBR 9 | NED 8 | GER 9 | USA DNS | CZE | RSM 11 | POR Ret | JPN | AUS | MAL | VAL | 13th | 65 |
| Year | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | Pos. | Pts | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | ||||
| 2002 | Kawasaki | SPA | SPA | AUS | AUS | RSA | RSA | JPN | JPN | ITA | ITA | GBR | GBR | GER 13 | GER 15 | SMR | SMR | USA | USA | GBR | GBR | GER | GER | NED | NED | ITA | ITA | 34th | 4 |
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