Sam Baromono

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Sam Baromono (15/5/87) is a Belgian driver who currently competes in the Siemen Ausdauer Reject Series. He has competed in WEC, GP2 and Indy Lights.

Career

Early Career

Baromono racing career started as a 14 year old driving in the Belgian Kart Series hoping that the performances that he got would get him into the local touring car series. After a tough year in 2001, The young Belgian showed his talent as he took the first two rounds of the season with easy success. In the end, the domination of the series was all him, taking the season in the progress. and entered the World Karting Championship with hope of winning. In the race, he struggled against more fancy oppoents and could only finish 13th. But he got the attention of Sam Schmidt Motorsports to compete in the second division of the Indy Series (Indy Lights) which Sam accepted.

Indy Lights

With he's offer being accepted he went to Phoenix International Raceway and Sam Baromono struggled in the bank track as he qualified 15th place. The race was a little better as he came in 11th place to open his account with 19 points. That would be his only race though as he didn't accept the other offers going back to Belgium to compete in the local touring car series for the rest of that year.

Champ Car

2004

Once again, he got an offer from the USA to compete over there with the offer being Champ Car team Walker Racing to replace Rodolfo Lavín. Sam Baromono looked at the offer and agreed to compete in all of the races outside of the United States before hopefully competing in all of the races for 2005. In the first race for the team, he's karting skills look on song with grid 3 before taking the victory in the race. Over at Toronto, Baromono struggled as a heavy crash in Part 1 of qualifying made his weekend very bad as he could only score a 16th when he crashed into the turn 3 wall. It was a lot better in Vancouver with his racing spirit as he finished in 11th place, 1 lap behind the winner Paul Tracy.

Montreal was once again as he got in Grid 4 for the race around Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The weather was at it's best and Boromono got off to a brilliant start in the race as he went quickly up the leaderboard. He kept clean as he finished 4th to get above the 50 point mark.

Surfers Paradise was the race to be known as he had to move in the brand new number 16 car of Walker Racing. The car though didn't like the track as he struggled finishing only in 13th (Q) and 11th (R). The final race of the season he skipped as he crashed and being too damaged he didn't went onto the race.

Formula Renault 3.5

2005

With all hope gone, Sam Baromono got a call from Carlin Motorsport to compete in the final round of the Formula Renault 3.5 series. He of course laughed at the joke knowing he wasn't the best driver there was. Another driver should of taken this spot that was emptied by Will Power. He said why not and we went to Monza to compete in the 3.5 series. He came to Monza and showed potential but couldn't get into the points. But he did keep his seat with Mikhail Aleshin being his partner.

2006

The first race of the brand new season was at his home track and his first race he showed on his home track by taking both races and also taking home pole in the first race of the season. He was shocked as he had the early lead in the championship. His run continued as he took home pole and then race in Monaco to extend his lead in the championship after two races. But it was a little bit too soon as two retirements in Turkey made him lose a chunk of his lead in the championship.

After skipping the Misano round in which Sebastian Vettel took home 28 points from the round, Baromono came back in Spa and he didn't disappoint as the first race he scored a maximum of 17 points before the second race, he once again took pole position and then the race to extend the lead in the championship by 24 points. Germany was a little bit tougher for the Belgian as he could only get to 5th in Race 1 and 8th in race 2 and with rumors that Baromono will be moving F1 to replace Klein not helping his cause.

Domington Park became a chance as two 3rds in both races with the first race starting from pole position. But he was starting to worry with Danielsson taking home the victory in both races to give him a mathematical chance of champion. In Le Mans, he continue to lose valuable points as he could only muster a point which was in race 1 to his weekend with the 2nd race being a 16th place.

The final round still had four main contenders to take home the title and in the first race, Baromono couldn't get anything in the car as a 13th place made him even more in a nervous state. That meant Danielsson needed to win the race and Baromono 7th. Baromono went in a racing state as he couldn't try and give up the title. The title was he's to lose, and he did get as he took home a 6th place to take home the title by 11 points.

GP2

2007

While signing the contract for Toro Rosso, he also the signed the contract to compete for Durango as he said, that he wanted to also compete in GP2 and not in Formula Renault 3.5 series again. The contract was signed on the 10th March 2007 which meant he would only had one test to get use to the car and it shown as he couldn't get a good time to be competive. The nerves got to the best of him in the opening two round in Bahrain and Spain. Monaco wasn't even better for him as he scored his first retirement of the season before more bad results in France concluded his stay in GP2.

2010

After two years away from motorsport, he got a surprise one off call for Scuderia Coloni in the number 20 car after replacing Alberto Valerio in the Belgium round of the GP2 series. In his first race back in GP2, he struggled for speed and he almost didn't finish on a wet track to finish 14th and 12th. The high speed of Monza told a different story with Baromono scoring his first point of GP2 after retirements galore. He just missed out on points in the next race after being passed by Oliver Turvey on the last lap.

2011

After only just scrapping in the second driver role for Coloni, he delieved in his first race by scoring a 4th and 7th in the opening race in Turkey. The next two rounds was a complete shocker for the Belgian with two retirments in the feature races while only just going outside the top 10 places in the sprint. But in Valencia, Baromono struck back with a win in the sprint race and an 8th place. This gave hope for the Belgian and it delieved with a win in the feature race at Britian.

But a switch to the number 18 car, disturb the Belgian as once again he went on a bleak streak with only an 8th place in the Hungary feature race giving hope that he wasn't going to be dropped from the team. But Spa once again did Baromono good, with a win and a 2nd place in the races, giving hope that Baromono was on track. Baromono then ended the year with a late point in Monza to give potential for 2012.

2012

Baromono continued to lead the Coloni team as the 2012 season began as he teamed up with Coletti. But compared to last year, the struggle of Baromono struck again with the first two races ending in non-point races before crashing in the first Bahrain round. The crash fractured his foot and was out for four months as he was replaced with Fabio Onidi. Even when he return from the injury, the team didn't want to replace Onidi and Baromono was left without a job.

Formula One

2007

After taking home the title in the Formula Renault 3.5. He confirmed an offer from Red Bull Racing to be the test driver for the Toro Rosso, in which he would do the pre season tests. In the test he did show speed within as he was setting the race pace in the opening test. The wait for a test drive in a Grand Prix was a failure. Even with a hope of a spot in Toro Rosso when they dropped Neel Jani, luck wasn't on his side with Sebastian Vettel joining the team before joining Red Bull Racing in 2009. For Baromono on the other hand, he would leave the motorsport arena, saying that he couldn't cope with bad results.

WEC

2013

With Baromono not having a drive, he got an offer from Gulf Racing Middle East to compete in 2 rounds of the championship in Spa and Le Mans. In the opening race in Spa, the car struggled and with help from Fabien Giroix and Keiko Ihara could only get the car to finish 31st. The struggle though continued with Baromono getting the fastest time of the three drivers to put the number 29 in 29th before crashing out five hours into the race.

2014

With numbers continue to get low, Baromono got a drive from SMP Racing to drive in Le Mans. But like the year before, Le Mans beat Baromono and his team as 10 hours into the race to end his hopes of possibly taking home Le Mans.

Career Results

Champ Car Results

Year Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Rank Points
2004 Walker Racing Reynard 02I Ford XFE LBH MTY
1
MIL POR CLE TOR
16
VAN
11
ROA DEN MTL
4
LAG LVS SRF
11
MXC
DNS
17th 79

Formula Renault 3.5

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Rank Points
2005 Carlin Motorsport ZOL MON VAL LMS BIL OSC DON EST MOZ =29th 0
14 11
2006 Carlin Motorsport ZOL MON IST MIS SPA NUR DON LMS BAR 1st 116
1 1 1 Ret Ret 1 1 5 8 3 3 10 16 13 6

GP2 Series

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Rank Points
2007 Durango BHR ESP MON FRA GBR EUR HUN TUR ITA BEL VAL 36th 0
15 13 18 12 Ret 18 20
2010 Scuderia Coloni TUR MUG MON DON IRL GER GBR ESP ITA HUN 24th 1
14 12 8 8
2011 Scuderia Coloni TUR ESP MON VAL GBR GER HUN BEL ITA 7th 38
4 7 Ret 11 Ret 14 8 1 1 9 11 13 8 10 2 1 8 9
2012 Scuderia Coloni MYS BHR1 BHR2 ESP MON VAL GBR GER HUN BEL ITA SIN 33rd 0
16 18 Ret DNS INJ INJ INJ INJ INJ INJ INJ INJ INJ INJ INJ INJ INJ INJ

Career Summary

Year Series Team Position
2001 Belgian Junior Kart Championship Independent 15th
2002 Belgian Junior Kart Championship Independent 1st
World Karting Championship Independent 13th
2003 Indy Lights Sam Schmidt Motorsports 25th
2004 Champ Car Walker Racing 17th
2005 Formula Renault 3.5 Carlin Motorsport =29th
2006 Formula Renault 3.5 Carlin Motorsport 1st
2007 GP2 Series Durango 36th
2010 GP2 Series Scuderia Coloni 24th
2011 GP2 Series Scuderia Coloni 7th
2012 GP2 Series Scuderia Coloni 33rd
2013 World Endurance Championship Gulf Racing Middle East NC
2014 World Endurance Championship SMP Racing NC