Despite Lavaggi being a nobleman by background, he could not count on personal financial resources; therefore he started racing only at the age of 26.[1] Nevertheless, he managed to reach the top class of motorsport, racing in Formula One in 1995 and 1996. His first involvement in F1 was in 1992 when, being a mechanical engineer, he was official test driver for the March F1 team. In 1995, he drove for Lotus-Pacific for four races in which he was forced to retire due to gearbox problems. In the second part of 1996 racing season, he joined the Minardi team for six races. His best result was a tenth place at the Hungaroring, which was the second best result of the year for Minardi team.
Lavaggi was born in Augusta, Sicily on 18 February 1958, being of noble heritage.[2][3] He studied mechanical engineering at Milan Polytechnic.[2]
Racing career
Lavaggi's racing career started in 1984, inspired by Henry Morrogh who judged him the best student he ever had at his racing school. That year he was official driver of the constructor Ermolli in the Italian Formula Panda championship where he was classified second, winning more races than any other driver. Not having enough sponsorship to afford a whole season in Formula Three, he did a few races in the Italian Formula Three Championship before turning to Group Csports cars, in order to gain international experience. In this category, he soon became a driver for the Porsche Kremer Team, for whom he became the 1993 Interserie champion, winning six of the season's total of 12 races and taking four further podium finishes. He also won the 1995 Daytona 24 Hours, driving nine hours in a team of four drivers. He scored two more wins in the FIA Sportscar Championship, including the 1000 km of Monza, where he drove five of the race's six hours and took five more podium places and two pole positions.
Lavaggi's first race in F1 was at the German Grand Prix for Pacific in 1995. Prior to this, he was a test driver for March during the 1992 season. He tested the Pacific PR02 twice before his first race for the British team - once at Silverstone and once at Snetterton. He was a rookie, but, at the same time, being 35 years old, he was the oldest driver in the field; therefore, he had to fight against the scepticism of the F1 media. The Pacific PR02 was an unreliable machine and he retired from all 4 races in 1995. His last experience in F1 was the 1996 Bologna Motorshow. Racing in a Minardi against two Benettons (driven by Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella), two Ligiers (Olivier Panis and Shinji Nakano) and the other Minardi (Tarso Marques), he finished second, losing the final against Fisichella by a nose.
After his F1 career, Lavaggi drove in several endurance racing championships. In 2001, he competed in the FIA Sportscar Championship, winning a race at Monza after benefiting from multiple reliability issues for cars ahead.[4] He raced in the series again in 2003. After entering several races of the Le Mans Endurance Series in 2004 and 2005, Lavaggi founded his own team "Scuderia Lavaggi" ahead of the 2006 Le Mans Series season.[5] With that, he also became a race car constructor, designing and building his own Le Mans Prototype, the Lavaggi LS1.[6] He raced the car in the Le Mans Series until 2009.
Lavaggi was nicknamed "Johnny Carwash" (an approximate translation of his name from Italian to English, John Washes) by people in the paddock;[7] US talk show host David Letterman helped bring the nickname to popular attention.[citation needed]
Family
The Lavaggi noble family moved from Genoa to Sicily (Palermo) in 1420 and then from Palermo to Augusta in 1711. A cousin of Giovanni’s grandfather, also called Giovanni Lavaggi, was a war hero. He was a pilot of the Italian Air Force and he died because of the sabotage of his airplane, while bringing to Asmara the Italian minister of public worksLuigi Razza, who also was killed in the crash. In the cities of Catania and Augusta, Via Giovanni Lavaggi (Giovanni Lavaggi Road) is named after him.[citation needed]
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