Álvaro Parente

Álvaro Maia Parente (born 4 October 1984) is a Portuguese professional racing driver.

Career

Early career

After winning the Karting European Junior Championship in 1998, Porto-born Parente made his debut in auto racing in 2001 at the age of 16, driving in the Spanish F3 Championship. In the following year, he was integrated into the Team Portugal project and scored a win on his way to fourth place in the series.

Formula Three

Parente than began a more international career in 2003, moving to the F3 Euroseries with Team Ghinzani, but the Mugen-Honda engine proved to be inferior to the Mercedes and he scored a single point. He did better with one-off entries in Italian Formula 3 and at Spa in a round of the British Formula 3 Championship, his first association with Carlin Motorsport, which was repeated that year in the Macau Grand Prix.

This brief contact paved the way for a contract with Carlin for the 2004 season, where Parente took part in the British series, scoring another win and finishing seventh in the championship standings. He also took part in the Marlboro Masters and at Macau, but in the former the Mugen-Honda could not take the fight to the Mercedes drivers and in the latter he was taken out in the first lap.

Parente stayed in the British Formula 3 for another season, and his experience helped him to win the championship with four races to go, scoring a total of 11 wins. This result made him the natural candidate to represent A1 Team Portugal for the new A1 Grand Prix series.

Formula Renault 3.5 Series For 2006, Parente joined the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with the Victory Engineering team, and achieved his first win at Istanbul in only his fifth race in the category. He took two further wins at the Nürburgring and Circuit de Catalunya to finish fifth in the final standings. He had hoped to progress onto the GP2 Series in 2007, but a lack of sponsorship scuppered his plans. He did, however, return to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with the French Tech 1 Racing team, having signed a contract on the eve of the first pre-season test.

Parente won the 2007 Formula Renault 3.5 Series championship with the Tech 1 Racing team.

Parente driving for Ocean Racing Technology at the Nürburgring round of the 2009 GP2 Series season.

During the 2007 season, Parente took five podium finishes, including two race victories at Monaco and Spa, and was crowned World Series by Renault champion at the final round in Barcelona on 27 October.

As a prize for winning the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, Parente has tested for the Renault F1 team on 17 January 2008 at the Circuito de Jerez.

GP2 Series For 2008, Parente moved to the Super Nova Racing team in the GP2 Series, widely regarded as the primary feeder series to Formula One.

Parente made a stunning start to his GP2 career in the opening round of the season at the Circuit de Catalunya, Parente won the feature race making him the first Portuguese driver to win in GP2 Series. Alvaro Parente led from start to finish, to claim victory ahead of Bruno Senna and Andreas Zuber. He eventually finished eighth in the drivers' championship.

Super Nova team nicknamed Parente as "Chachi", due to his likeness to the famous character in Happy Days.

In 2009, Parente participated in the GP2 Asia Series with My Team Qi.Meritus, and competed in the GP2 Series with Ocean Racing Technology, finishing eighth once again.

Parente began the 2010 season without a drive, but replaced Alberto Valerio at the Coloni team from the Belgian round onwards. On his return to the category, he scored a double podium finish, and ended the weekend as the highest scoring driver. He was replaced for the final round by James Jakes.

Parente again went into the 2011 GP2 Series season without a drive, but was called up by Racing Engineering for the second round of the championship at Catalunya. He replaced Christian Vietoris, who had complained of recurring headaches following a heavy crash at the first round in Turkey. Vietoris returned after two rounds, but Parente remained in the series by switching to the Carlin team, where he took the seat previously occupied by Oliver Turvey. After a further six races, he relinquished the seat to Mikhail Aleshin. He then returned for the season finale at Monza, ending up in 16th place in the drivers' championship.

Superleague Formula

Parente agreed to race at the 2009 Estoril round of the 2009 Superleague Formula season for his football squad team, F.C. Porto, and went on to win the second race, on his series debut.

Formula One Parente was a leading contender for a seat at Campos Meta, other contenders were Vitaly Petrov and Pastor Maldonado. On 15 December 2009, it was officially announced that Parente would join the new Virgin Racing team as a test driver. However, he was not present at the launch of the VR-01 chassis in February 2010, and it was reported that he had left the team due to sponsorship problems. Andy Soucek replaced Parente as the reserve driver.

GT

Since 2012, Parente has regularly been a factory GT3 driver for McLaren customer teams. His highlight was winning the 2016 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour for Tekno Autosports alongside Shane van Gisbergen and Jonathon Webb as well as taking the 2016 Pirelli World Challenge Championship title. He has also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2012 for Ram Racing in a Ferrari 458 Italia GT2.

Racing record Career summary † Guest driver ineligible to score points

‡ Team standings.

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete A1 Grand Prix results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 DC Points 2005–06 Portugal GBRSPR GBRFEA GERSPR GERFEA PORSPR PORFEA AUSSPR AUSFEA MYSSPR MYSFEA UAESPR UAEFEA RSASPR RSAFEA IDNSPR IDNFEA MEXSPR MEXFEA USASPR USAFEA CHNSPR CHNFEA 9th 66 2006–07 NEDSPR NEDFEA CZESPR CZEFEA BEISPR BEIFEA MYSSPR MYSFEA IDNSPR IDNFEA NZLSPR NZLFEA AUSSPR AUSFEA RSASPR RSAFEA MEXSPR MEXFEA SHASPR SHAFEA GBRSPR GBRSPR 17th 10

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 DC Points 2006 Victory Engineering ZOL1 ZOL2 MON1 IST1 IST2 MIS1 MIS2 SPA1 SPA2 NÜR1 NÜR2 DON1 DON2 LMS1 LMS2 CAT1 CAT2 5th 94 2007 Tech 1 Racing MNZ1 MNZ2 NÜR1 NÜR2 MON1 HUN1 HUN2 SPA1 SPA2 DON1 DON2 MAG1 MAG2 EST1 EST2 CAT1 CAT2 1st 129

Complete GP2 Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 DC Points 2008 Super Nova Racing CATFEA CATSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR MONFEA MONSPR MAGFEA MAGSPR SILFEA SILSPR HOCFEA HOCSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR VALFEA VALSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR 8th 34 2009 Ocean Racing Technology CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR SILFEA SILSPR NÜRFEA NÜRSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR VALFEA VALSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR ALGFEA ALGSPR 8th 30 2010 Scuderia Coloni CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR VALFEA VALSPR SILFEA SILSPR HOCFEA HOCSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR YMCFEA YMCSPR 15th 13 2011 Racing Engineering ISTFEA ISTSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR 16th 8 Carlin VALFEA VALSPR SILFEA SILSPR NÜRFEA NÜRSPRHUNFEAHUNSPRSPAFEASPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR

Complete GP2 Asia Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

FIA GT competition results

GT1 World Championship results Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Pos Points 2012 Hexis Racing McLaren NOGQR4 NOGCRRet ZOLQR10 ZOLCR7 NAVQR2 NAVQR4 SVKQRRet SVKCRRet ALGQR8 ALGCRRet SVKQR9 SVKCR9 MOSQR6 MOSCR2 NÜRQR5 NÜRCRRet DONQR3 DONCR3 11th 65

FIA GT Series results Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Pos. Points 2013 Sébastien Loeb Racing McLaren MP4-12C GT3 Pro NOGQR1 NOGCR12 ZOLQR17 ZOLCR13 ZANQRRet ZANCR14 SVKQR1 SVKCRRet NAVQR1 NAVCR1 BAKQR14 BAKCR2 4th 82

Complete Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup results

Complete Stock Car Brasil results Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Rank Points 2014 Voxx Racing Peugeot 408 INT1 SCZ1 SCZ2 BRA1 BRA2 GOI1 GOI2 GOI1 CAS1 CAS2 CUR1 CUR2 VEL1 VEL2 SCZ1 SCZ2 TAR1 TAR2 SAL1 SAL2 CUR1 NC† 0† 2015 Voxx Racing Peugeot 408 GOI1 RBP1 RBP2 VEL1 VEL2 CUR1 CUR2 SCZ1 SCZ2 CUR1 CUR2 GOI1 CAS1 CAS2 BRA1 BRA2 CUR1 CUR2 TAR1 TAR2 INT1 NC† 0† Ineligible for championship points.

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Class Car Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Rank Points 2014 Ram Racing LMGTE Pro Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 Ferrari 4.5 L V8 SIL SPA LMS COA FUJ SHA BHR SÃO 27th 8 2017 Clearwater Racing LMGTE Am Ferrari 488 GTE Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8 SIL SPA LMS NÜR MEX COA FUJ SHA BHR 10th 16

24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 2014 Ram Racing Matt Griffin Federico Leo Ferrari 458 Italia GTC GTEPro 140 DNF DNF 2017 Clearwater Racing Richard Wee Hiroki Katoh Ferrari 488 GTE GTEAm 327 40th 11th 2021 Hub Auto Racing Maxime Martin Dries Vanthoor Porsche 911 RSR-19 GTEPro 227 DNF DNF

Complete Bathurst 12 Hour results

Complete Indian Racing League results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Franchise 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pos. Pts 2023‡ Hyderabad Blackbirds IRU11 IRU12 IRU21 IRU22 IRU31 IRU32 6th 56 2024‡ Speed Demons Delhi IRU11 IRU12 IGR1 IGR2 IRU21 IRU22 KAR11 KAR12 KAR21 KAR22 6th 82

‡ Standings based on entry points, not individual drivers.

Season in progress.