Diego Álvarez Torrente

Diego Álvarez Torrente

Nationality	Spanish
Born	4th July 1996 (age 23) Granada, Spain
DEC Holder	Ataxia
Current Series	Formula One
Current Team	TRILUX AMG Precision Motorsport
Car Number	63
Former Teams	N/A

Diego Álvarez Torrente (born 4th July 1996 in Granada, Spain) is a Spanish Formula One driver who races for Precision Motorsport where he is currently the reigning World Drivers Champion for 2020. He won the F2RWRS championship in 2016 for Plus One Racing Engineering, and raced for Jones Racing in F1RWRS. His younger siblings Jorge and Carmen are also racing drivers. Torrente is notably the first Formula One World Champion to have first debuted at the top level in the AutoReject World Series.

Early life

Diego was born to José Álvarez, a former racing driver, and Ximena who was a store manager in Granada. He first tried karting at the age of 9, and won various Spanish and European titles.

While his father was employed as a consultant to the Epsilon Euskadi racing team, he suggested to them that they try a then 14-year-old Diego out in a Eurocup Formula Renault car and would pay out of his wages. The team agreed, and became impressed by his natural affinity with the car and his technical feedback after an argument with the race engineers, who initially refused to make the setup changes that Diego requested. They waived the fee that José had volunteered to pay, and promptly signed Diego up.

Racing Career

As Epsilon Euskadi renamed to EPIC Racing, Torrente joined the team for the new-in-2012 Formula Renault 2.0 España series and managed to win 3 races in his first season on his way to 4th in the championship. He stayed for another season and managed to win the competition overall with an impressive 7 victories in all.

He was then signed by Fusion Motorsports in early 2014, who loaned him out to AV Formula to race the second half of the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 season.

2015: Rejects of LFS

As Fusion got an entry into the 2015 RoLFS season, Torrente became their driver after electing to become a one-car operation. After proving he was more than capable in preseason testing, Torrente made a good start in Blackwood by qualifying 1st in his heat. He was leading that heat, before the erratic driving of Martin McGovern put paid to those chances as he was about to be lapped. However, he managed to get a 3rd place in the feature race.

Westhill was also quite successful and saw Torrente take his first heat win. He also took another 3rd place in the feature race at a circuit that suited the Goodyear-Zytek combination.

However, the next two races were a disappointment. Although the race at Fern Bay had potential, Torrente was caught up behind traffic and only managed 4th. He retired from the feature race after an accident that involved Dean Melville. The same results occurred at South City; 4th in the heat was followed by another feature race retirement.

As the lower power Zytek engine began to become a drawback, it was obvious that Fusion's good pace had come to an end, resulting in Torrente managing not to qualify for the Kyoto feature race. In the Nippon 200 final, it was not expected that Torrente would qualify, but due to his natural one-lap pace he managed to get in despite many of his adversaries using jokers to get into the race. However, Nathan McKane hit Cave Johnson early on in the race, and the latter took Torrente into the wall; the Spaniard requiring a pitstop to sort out the damage to his car. This put him a lap down and out of the running for points.

2016: F2RWRS

Having got some decent backing from KH-7 and El Corte Inglés, Torrente had a budget ready to secure an F2RWRS drive. He got a seat to replace Alexey Buyvolov at Dofasco, as the Polish team signed a deal with leading engine company Lancia. He will be partnered by fellow Spaniard Judd McAllister. After failing to pre-qualify for the first two races, Torrente managed to take 2nd at Brands Hatch, partnering fellow Astro Racing Star Marko Jantscher on the podium. After a poor race at Monza which only saw him take home the point for fastest lap, Torrente became disillusioned with the Dofasco setup and moved to the new Plus One operation. It was immediately successful, as he clocked up another 2nd place at Austria having started on pole.

An off-day at Istanbul Park saw the Plus One team fail to pre-qualify; neither Torrente or team-mate Martyn Rietacher had enough pace to haul themselves into qualifying proper. However, Torrente's arrival saw Plus One rise out of pre-qualifying for the next three rounds, to which they wouldn't return for the rest of the season. A strong 4th place at Long Beach helped Torrente climb up the table, before a maiden victory came for the Spaniard at the notoriously tricky Norisring; Torrente was on a crucial one-stop strategy which saw him recoup the places he'd lost at the start and put him on top of the F2RWRS championship. After a rare accident at Zandvoort, a strong pair of races at Monaco and Belgium saw Torrente begin to assert himself at the top of the standings. A second win came at Mexico later in the season, ensuring he was the first repeat winner of 2016. After another pair of strong points finishes in China and Japan which gave the Plus One driver a 25-point lead, Torrente went into the Tropico rounds with the 2016 championship in the bag.

2017-2018: F1RWRS/ARWS

After showing plenty of potential during 2016, Torrente was a man in demand. He signed a contract with Jones Racing for 2017, partnering three-time world champion Mark Dagnall at the British team. Despite obvious testing pace, Torrente had an inauspicious start to like in F1RWRS after making multiple errors at the first race at Adelaide, breaking a number of front wings. Although the Spaniard was still on course for points, his errors exacerbated a suspension issue causing him to retire. After some coaching from team principal Sammy Jones, Torrente drove a more measured race at the following Bathurst round, watching Fredo Mestolio ahead of him push too hard and lose his front wing. After leader Alexey Buyvolov suffered technical issues that put him out of the race with three laps to spare, Torrente took his first F1RWRS victory, having barely put a foot wrong all afternoon. Torrente won again at the Austrian Grand Prix, and briefly led the World Championship in the early rounds. He eventually finished 5th overall in his debut season.

Torrente remained at Jones for 2018, with the team retaining both he and Dagnall for a second consecutive season. The season was a lot more difficult, and Jones was saddled with an uncompetitive Ford engine. Torrente's best results were a pair of 2nd place finishes, scoring 24 points overall.

2019-: Formula One

In the middle of 2018, Torrente signed a contract with Formula 1 team Precision Motorsport to replace the departing Dave Cassidy for 2019. Partnering Jules Bianchi at the works-Mercedes team, Torrente enjoyed a dream start to life in F1 by winning the second race of the opening United States Grand Prix round at Las Vegas. Torrente would then follow this up with his second win of the season at the San Marino Grand Prix which sent him towards the top of the standings. Torrente took a further three wins in order to finish his debut season in fourth place.

Torrente's sophomore season in 2020 saw Precision as the team to beat in pre-season testing - with Torrente taking the flag at the second race of the season in Brazil. From the beginning, the die was set that it was set to be a two-horse race between Torrente and Bianchi - with Torrente's French teammate going on a good run to take a strong lead in the championship. Torrente was excluded from the Turkish Grand Prix after misconduct in Cyprus which saw his replacement Esteban Ocon take an unexpected win in his place. Torrente returned with a win in the following race in Finland but went on a dry spell until well into the second half of the season. Torrente ended his poor run with four wins in the final five races - the last win of the season managing to put Torrente at the top of the table for his first World Championship with a five point lead over Bianchi after the latter suffered a heartbreaking retirement with three laps to spare.

Complete Results

Rejects of LFS

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	DC	Pts
2015	Fusion Motorsports	Scaven S15	Toyota-Zytek 3.0 V8	BLA HEA 5	BLA FEA 3	WES HEA 1	WES FEA 3	FER HEA 4	FER FEA Ret	SOU HEA 4†	SOU FEA Ret	AST HEA 4	AST FEA 14	KYO HEA 13	KYO FEA DNQ	KYO 300 20	10th	16.5

F2RWRS

Year	Team	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Pts
2015	Dofasco Racing	Audi AF2-1	TAS	RSA	TUR	MON	FRA	GBR	GER	BEL	AUT	ITA	NDS	SIN	JPN	USA DNPQ	100		44th	0
2016	Dofasco Racing	Chrysler 016/2	AUS DNPQ	PAC DNPQ	GBR 2	ITA 12	AUT	TUR	USA	GER	NDS	MON	BEL	MEX	CHN	JPN	100	100	1st	64
	Plus One Racing Engineering	Maserati 016/2	AUS	PAC	GBR	ITA	AUT 2	TUR DNQ	USA 4	GER 1	NDS Ret	MON 5	BEL 3	MEX 1	CHN 4	JPN 5	100 16	100 Ret

F1RWRS/ARWS

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	DC	Pts
2017	National Jones Ford Team	Jones 109	Ford XR8C	AUS Ret	NSW 1	GBR Ret	ITA 4	AUT 1	CAN 5	SUS 7	NUS 4	GER Ret	NDS 4	BEL 3	MON Ret	MAR 4	ARG Ret	JPN 3	CHN 5			5th	46
2018	National Jones Ford Team	Jones 114	Ford XR8D	AUS 8	NSW Ret	ITA Ret	MAR Ret	CAL Ret	USA 5	CAN 2	GBR Ret	AUT 9	GER Ret	SCA 5	BEL Ret	MON 6	SAF 5	BRA 2	ARG 4	JPN Ret	CHN Ret	8th	24

Sporting Accolades
Preceded by: Pastor Maldonado	Formula One World Champion 2020	Succeeded by: Artem Markelov