Gregor Foitek Explained

Gregor Foitek
Nationality: Swiss
Birth Date:27 March 1965
Birth Place:Zürich, Switzerland
Years:
Team(S):EuroBrun, Rial, Brabham, Onyx
Races:22 (7 starts)
Championships:0
Wins:0
Podiums:0
Points:0
Poles:0
Fastest Laps:0
First Race:1989 Brazilian Grand Prix
Last Race:1990 Hungarian Grand Prix

Gregor Foitek (pronounced as /de/; born 27 March 1965) is a Swiss former racing driver. He won the 1986 Swiss Formula 3 Championship. Moving up to Formula 3000 he was widely blamed for causing a race-stopping crash at Brands Hatch in 1988, the restart of which led to a second major crash on the first lap in which Johnny Herbert sustained major leg injuries. Foitek participated in 22 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 26 March 1989. He scored no championship points. He later made two CART starts for Foyt Enterprises in 1992 but was knocked out of both races by mechanical issues.

Today he helps run Foitek Automobile, a family-run Ferrari and Maserati dealership in Altendorf.[1]

Formula One career

1989: EuroBrun and Rial

Foitek made his debut at the 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix, however with turbos now banned from F1, the number of entries had grown to 39. Thirteen cars had to enter pre-qualifying and with EuroBrun having performed poorly in, Foitek had to enter the session using the ER188B, which was an update of the 1988 car. Foitek only got to the main qualifying session once, at the first race in Brazil, where he then failed to qualify. After 11 rounds Foitek quit the EuroBrun team.

At the Spanish Grand Prix, Foitek was called up to replace Christian Danner at the Rial team. However, the Rial team were having a bad season and several crew members had left the team. Furthermore, although it was assured of a place in the main qualifying session, the Rial ARC2 was uncompetitive, some five seconds off the next slowest car. In his one race with the team, Foitek's rear wing broke at high speed and he crashed heavily. He immediately quit the team.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

YearEntrantChassisEngine1234567891011Pts
1986SILVALPAUSPAIMOMUGPERÖSTBIRBUGJAR
NC0
1987Genoa RacingMarch 87BCosworthSIL
VAL
SPA
PAU
DON
PER
BRH
BIR
NC0
GA MotorsportIMO
BUG
JAR
14†
1988GA MotorsportJER
VAL
PAU
SIL
MNZ
PER
BRH
BIRBUG
ZOL
DIJ
7th15

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

YearEntrantChassisEngine12345678910111213141516WDCPoints
1989EuroBrun RacingEuroBrun ER188BJudd V8BRA
SMR
MON
MEX
USA
CAN
FRA
GBR
BEL
ITAPORNC0
EuroBrun ER189GER
HUN
Rial RacingRial
ARC2
Cosworth V8ESP
JPNAUS
1990Motor Racing DevelopmentsBrabham BT58Judd V8USA
BRA
NC0
Moneytron OnyxOnyx
ORE-1B
Cosworth V8SMR
MON
CAN
MEX
FRA
Monteverdi Onyx Formula OneGBR
GER
HUN
BELITAPORESPJPNAUS

† Driver did not finish the race, but was still classified as they completed 90% of the race distance.

Complete CART results

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Foitek Automobile − Über uns (in German). Foitek Automobile. 15 August 2021.
  2. Web site: Gergor Foitek – 1992 CART Results. Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. August 16, 2023.