Valentino Nicchi

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Valentino Nicchi (born October 30, 1956 in Vatican City) is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver. He is well known for being Vatican City's first racing driver aswell as being one of the few people to have raced in both motorcycle and Formula One Grand Prix.

Early Career

After the 1978 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season, Valentino decided to quit motorcycling to pursue an auto racing career. He made his 4-wheel racing debut in the 1979 Formula Two Championship, scoring 5 podiums and finishing his first season in 5th. He was probably best known that year for a huge crash at Hockenheim where he went into a barrel roll.

Formula One

Nicchi made his Formula One debut in 1979 at the British Grand Prix, replacing René Arnoux at the Warsteiner Arrows North Star Racing Team for the remainder of the year. Nicchi scored his and the team's first F1 point a race later at the German Grand Prix.

By 1987, Nicchi was driving for the West Zakspeed Team alongside Stefan Johansson. Nicchi scored his only points finish in a attrition-hit Monaco Grand Prix with a shock third place.

The following season, Nicchi was joined by Alessandro Nannini- having signed a two year deal with the German team. Nicchi scored a number of good points finishes which were enough for eighth place in the World Driver's Championship.

1989 was set to be Nicchi's last in the series - having announced his retirement at the end of the year. Nicchi was the only constant in a team that was floundering at this point with the other seat being filled by five other drivers over the course of the season. Nicchi struggled with the car and only managed to make the finish on three occasions - failing to pre-qualify for a vast majority of the season.

Life GP

On October 1991, Valentino bought a Life L190 to compete in the Life GP Series after watching the series on TV. His team was entered as a non-championship entry for the last round at Japan. Valentino lined up 29th his debut in Suzuka before crashing off at 130R. For the next race, a non-championship round at Brazil, Valentino's reserve driver for the upcoming season Marcus Kun was entered in a 2nd car. The race saw both cars running well in 11th and 13th before Kun retired with suspension problems and was then hit by Frédéric-Maxime Voeckler and Valentino. Valentino recovered to finish the race in 7th.

For '92 Nicchi immediately decided to pour almost all off the team's money into engine reliability. Because of this the car lacked qualifying pace and failed to make the grid for the first 9 races, fortunately the car finally made it for the Swiss SuperPrix as all cars could automatically qualify for the race on the big Le Mans grid, despite supposedly having the most reliable car, he retired.

IndyCar

By now, Nicchi was bored of the LGPS, lacking motivation after failing to qualify for race after race. He decided to move to the IndyCar series with his own team using a Lola chassis. He qualified a fine 13th in Nazareth before crashing out on lap 65 in an accident with Michael Andretti. In Laguna Seca he started a brilliant 2nd but dropped to 8th by the end.

The Crusaders

Valentino originally founded The Crusaders to allow him to compete in the Life GP Series. Since then it's expanded to many other motorsports. Full Article

Complete racing results

Motorcycle Grand Prix Results

Position	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Points	15	12	10	8	6	5	4	3	2	1

(Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Team	Machine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Points	Rank	Wins
1976	250cc	Yamaha	TZ250	FRA -		NAT 2		IOM 2	NED 2	BEL 3	SWE 1	FIN 2	CZE 3	GER 7	ESP -		73	2nd	1
	350cc	Yamaha	TZ350	FRA 4	AUT -	NAT 10	YUG 3	IOM 9	NED -			FIN -	CZE 11	GER 4	ESP -		28	7th	0
	500cc	Yamaha	TZ500	FRA -	AUT WD	NAT -		IOM 4	NED -	BEL -	SWE -	FIN -	CZE -	GER -			8	26th	0
1977	250cc	Yamaha	TZ250	VEN -	GER -	NAT 8	ESP 1	FRA 8	YUG 2	NED 6	BEL 2	SWE 4	FIN -	CZE -	GBR -		58	4th	1
	350cc	Yamaha	TZ350	VEN -	GER 1	NAT 3	ESP 3	FRA 1	YUG 1	NED -		SWE 1	FIN 1	CZE -	GBR -		95	1st	5
1978	350cc	Yamaha	TZ350	VEN 1		AUT 3	FRA -	NAT 3	NED -		SWE 3	FIN 2	GBR -	GER 1	CZE -	YUG -	77	2nd	2
	500cc	Yamaha	TZ500	VEN -	ESP 3	AUT -	FRA -	NAT -	NED 4	BEL 6	SWE 3	FIN 2	GBR 9	GER 5			53	5th	0

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos	Pts
1979	San Remo Racing	March/792	BMW	SIL 6	HOC 6	THR 5	NÜR 3	VAL Ret	MUG Ret	PAU 2	HOC Ret	ZAN 3	PER Ret	MIS 3	DON 2	5th	28

Complete Formula One Results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1987	West Zakspeed Racing	Zakspeed 871	Zakspeed 1500/4 1.5 L4t	AUS 11	SMR Ret	BEL Ret	MON 3	CAN Ret	DET Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 8	YUG Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	EUR 8†	JAP 10	MEX Ret	22nd	4
1988	West Zakspeed Racing	Zakspeed 881	Zakspeed 1500/4 1.5 L4t	BRA 13	SMR 8	MON Ret	MEX Ret	CAN 9	DET 9	FRA 4	GBR 8	GER 9	HUN 9	YUG 10	SOV 8	ITA 4	BEL 16	JPN 6	AUS Ret	8th	7
1989	West Zakspeed Racing	Zakspeed 891	Yamaha OX88 3.5 V8	BRA 15	SMR Ret	MON 15	FRA Ret	USA DNPQ	CAN DNPQ	GBR DNPQ	GER DNPQ	HUN 14	SOV DNPQ	POR DNPQ	ITA DNPQ	BEL DNPQ	JPN DNPQ	AUS DNPQ	MEX DNPQ	—	0

Complete WTCM Results

Year	Team	Car	Class																								WDC	Pts	Class	Pts
1990	Philips Car Systems Racing	Nissan Skyline R32	A			Template:USA				Template:GBR		Template:FRA						Template:FRA		Template:GBR		Template:BEL				Template:AUS	62nd	4	33rd	7
				E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E
																				BIR Ret	BIR 9					BAT Ret

Complete Life GP Series Results

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	NC	DC	Pts
1991	The Crusaders	ESP	AND	FRA	ITA	AUT	CZE	GER	SWE	BEL	SUI	LUX	EUR	GBR	ENG	POR	USE	USW	JPN Ret		BRA 7	48th	0
1992	The Crusaders	ARG DNQ	BRA DNQ	ESP DNQ	FRA DNQ	ITA DNQ	AUT DNQ	CZE DNQ	FIN DNQ	GER DNQ	SUI Ret	BEL	NED	ENG	GBR	CAN	USE	USW	JPN	AUS		47th	0

American Open-Wheel racing results

CART

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
1992	The Crusaders	SRF	PHX	LBH	INDY	DET	POR	MIL	NHA	TOR	MCH	CLE	ROA	VAN	MDO	NAZ Ret	LAG 8	25th	5