Andrea Bianchi

Andrea Bianchi (born 1991/1992) is an Italian racing driver who competes in the F1 Rejects Indy Championship Series for Michael Bright Racing.

Early career

Up to you, pasta.

F1RDS

2015

As part of the Pole Star young driver programme, Andrea was one of the team's reserve drivers for the lower championships, but when Alexis Tantovich was parked by Fosters Good Call Racing for Motegi in the 2015 F1RDS Winter Cup, it was Andrea who was called up to replace him. He qualified in 20th position out of 26 in his first time in the car, and finished the race in 17th position, showing signs of rough pace. Tantovich returned to the car for Fuji, and Andrea was sidelined once more.

RoLFS

2015

But not for long. Pole Star had also decided to take part in the RoLFS series under the Scuderia Vittore banner. Along with Martyn Rietacher, Andrea was chosen to drive in the series. He promptly impressed in pre-season testing. In the first weekend at Blackwood, Andrea finished third in his heat, scoring two points and easily qualifying for the feature, but he span out on the first lap by himself, retiring from the race.

After the race, Andrea made negative comments about the car, and was promptly sidelined for the Westhill round (coinciding with preparations for the Indy 500), replaced by Marcos Marcia. Marcia failed to do much better, and Andrea returned to the team at Fern Bay, where he won his heat with the fastest lap (six points overall), but failed to score in the final, also earning a one-race ban for ignoring blue flags.

As it turned out, the problem was quickly solved, when Andrea left the series to concentrate on the F1RICS, in which he had been having a lot of success.

F1RICS

2015

In 2014, Walther Williams had bought the defunct Formula One Rejects Big Car Championship as well as the IndyCar series, merging both into the F1 Rejects Indy Championship Series. As part of the Pole Star youth program, and due to the fact that the calendar didn't clash with that of the RoLFS, Andrea was selected as Pole Star Racing's second driver alongside Martin van der Meyde, Pastor Maldonado and Gordon Martin. Andrea was ill throughout pre-season testing, and was unable to set any meaningful times.

After his recovery though, Andrea struggled, but managed to score his first points of the season with fifteenth place at Sao Paulo, scoring ten points. The next races were more frustrating, as Andrea retired four consecutive times, although his qualifying performance steadily improved. Even so, the attrition was high, and Andrea was classified fifteenth in Kansas ans twelfth in Texas.

Andrea's season really started at Indianapolis, where his improvement finally paid off. After qualifying in a midfield position, he battled hard the entire race and finished in a sensational third position, scoring 35 points and climbing up to 14th position in the championship. Even better, he showed his tactical nous in the next race at Milwaukee, winning his first race by over a lap, vaulting up the leaderboard to fifth place with 116 points!

Andrea retired from the next two races, but qualified in second place at Road America. After Road America, Pole Star was bought by the Plus One Group (for whom Andrea had previously driven in the F1RDS) and renamed Fosters Good Call Racing. He finally scored again in Montreal, with a lowly 14th position and twelve points. He made up for it by overcoming a lowly grid position to finish in second place at the Lausitzring, then doing the same in the following race in New Hampshire, finishing third. This put him in fourth position in the championship with 201 points.

He followed up this form with three more consecutive top-15 finishes, then another podium at Pocono, rising up to third place in the championship with 285 points behind Dave Anderson and Salvatore Miccoli. This would be his final top-five finish of the year, and after a twelfth place finish at Suzuka, he failed to score three consecutive times. He final two races went better though, with eleventh at Laguna Seca and sixth at Fontana, securing fifth place in the championship with 350 points.

2016

Fosters Good Call left F1RICS in 2016, selling the entry to former Can-Am driver Michael Bright. Andrea stayed with the team, alongside Ryan McReynolds, Phil McCracken and Martin van der Meyde.

F2RWRS

2015

Bianchi was noticed by Daniel Melrose, who was looking for a young driver to drive the second MRT in the F2RWRS non-championship races at the Lausitzring and Tropico. Andrea was picked as second driver alongside Melrose's younger brother Joel Melrose.

Complete motorsport results

To come later