Difference between revisions of "Diego Álvarez Torrente"

Revision as of 11:28, 22 September 2014

Diego Álvarez Torrente

Nationality	Spanish
Born	4th July 1996 (age 20) Granada, Spain
Current Team	Plus One Racing Engineering (F2RWRS)
Car Number	31
Former Teams	Dofasco Racing
Races	15 (11 starts)
Championships	0
Victories	2
Podiums	5
Points	63
Pole Positions	2
Fastest Laps	0
First Race	2015 F2RWRS American Grand Prix
First Victory	2016 F2RWRS German Grand Prix
Last Victory	2016 F2RWRS Mexico Grand Prix
Last Race	N/A
Best Finish	1st (F2RWRS)

Diego Álvarez Torrente (born 4th July 1996 in Granada, Spain) is a Spanish racer currently contracted to Astro Racing Stars. He won the F2RWRS championship in 2016 for Plus One Racing Engineering, and will race for Jones Racing in F1RWRS.. His brother Jorge races in F3RWRS for Nebula Grand Prix whilst his younger sister Carmen holds a reserve role at the Nebula Formula Female team.

Early life

Torrente in his Dofasco racesuit.

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 were impressed by his natural affinity with the car and his technical feedback. They waived the fee that José had volunteered to pay, and promptly signed Diego up.

Racing Career

Torrente's helmet with personal sponsors.

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-: F1RWRS

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.

Driving Style

Torrente is known for his monstrous one-lap pace, which saw him take four pole positions in his maiden RoLFS season. This didn't always translate into results on race day, he managed to temper his driving style for F2RWRS on his way to the championship, ensuring a consistent stream of points.

Complete Results

Rejects of LFS

F2RWRS

F1RWRS