Stefano Coletti

Stefano Coletti
Nationality	Monegasque
Born	6 April 1989 La Colle, Monaco
European Le Mans Series – LMP2 career
Debut season	2016
Current team	SMP Racing
Car no.	32
Starts	6
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	3rd in 2016
Previous series
2015 2011 2010 2009, 2011–14 2009–10 2008–09 2007 2006–07 2006 2005–06	IndyCar Series GP2 Asia Series GP3 Series GP2 Series Formula Renault 3.5 Series Formula 3 Euro Series Italian Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Formula BMW USA Formula BMW ADAC

Stefano Coletti (born 6 April 1989) is a Monegasque professional racing driver who races for SMP Racing in the European Le Mans Series. His sister Alexandra Coletti is an alpine skier. He is the first Monegasque driver since Louis Chiron (1931) to have won a race in Monaco.^[1]

Career

Karting

Born in La Colle, Monaco, Coletti enjoyed a successful karting career prior to moving into single-seater racing. In 2003, he finished as runner-up in the Italian Open Masters ICA–Junior category before winning the Andrea Margutti Trophy and European Championship ICA–Junior titles in 2004, beating the likes of Charles Pic, Jaime Alguersuari and Jules Bianchi along the way.

Formula BMW

In 2005, Coletti moved up to Formula racing, joining Eifelland Racing to contest the Formula BMW ADAC championship, where he finished eighteenth in the standings. He also took part in the Formula BMW World Final in Bahrain for ASL Team Mücke Motorsport, finishing in twenty-fifth place.

He continued in the championship in 2006, taking four podium places, including a single victory, to finish seventh in the standings. He also took part in four Formula BMW USA races, winning three of them to finish the season in fifth place, despite missing a large proportion of the championship. Coletti once again competed in the Formula BMW World Final, held at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, where he finished in third place, behind Mika Mäki and race winner Christian Vietoris.^[2]

Formula Renault

In August 2006, Coletti made his debut in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series, driving for the Cram Competition and Motopark Academy teams, although he failed to score a point in any of the six races he entered.

In 2007, he joined the Spanish Epsilon Euskadi team to contest both the Eurocup and Italian Formula Renault 2.0 championships. He finished fourth in the Eurocup standings after taking a win at the Hungaroring and two further podium places, whilst in the Italian series he took two victories – both at Misano – to finish in tenth place.

Formula Three

Coletti competing at the opening round of the 2008 Formula 3 Euro Series at Hockenheim.

Coletti moved up to the Formula 3 Euro Series for the 2008 season, joining the French Signature-Plus team. However, he left the team after the first four races after being dropped from the Red Bull Driver Development scheme.^[3] Coletti missed the next round of the series at Pau before joining Prema Powerteam, who he remained with for the rest of the season. He took a best race result of fourth to finish the year in twentieth position. He also took part in the Masters of Formula 3 and Macau Grand Prix non-championship races, but retired from both events.

In January 2009, Prema announced that Coletti would be staying with the team for the 2009 season.^[4] At the first round of the year in Hockenheim, Coletti qualified on the front row of the grid before going on to win the opening race of the season.^[5] The following month, Coletti took part in the Masters of Formula 3 event held at Zandvoort, qualifying in fourth position before finishing the race in third place, behind Finns Mika Mäki and race winner Valtteri Bottas.^[6]

Coletti was involved in a controversial incident after the first race at the Norisring. Having finished third to move into third in the championship, Coletti had an altercation with race winner Jules Bianchi. Coletti felt that Bianchi had said "bad words" to him, and struck the ART Grand Prix driver and championship leader. Coletti was then stripped of his third place, and was excluded from the rest of the meeting.^[7] Coletti failed to score points after the Oschersleben rounds, and finished tenth in the championship.

Formula Renault 3.5 Series

In November 2008, Coletti sampled Formula Renault 3.5 Series machinery for the first time, testing for RC Motorsport at Valencia alongside former GP2 Series driver Andy Soucek. On 15 May 2009 it was announced that Coletti would race for Prema Powerteam in the Monaco round of the 2009 Formula Renault 3.5 Series, replacing Frankie Provenzano.^[8] He originally finished in eleventh place, but after Marco Barba received a 25-second penalty, Coletti was promoted into the final points paying position in tenth.

Coletti returned to the series for a full season in 2010, driving alongside Greg Mansell at Comtec Racing.^[9] He took five podium finishes on his way to sixth place in the championship.

GP3 Series

Coletti also contested fourteen races of the inaugural GP3 Series season for the Tech 1 Racing team, replacing Daniel Juncadella after the first round of the championship. His team-mates were variously Doru Sechelariu, Jean-Éric Vergne, Jim Pla and the returning Juncadella. Coletti finished the year ninth in the championship; the best-placed of the Tech 1 drivers.

GP2 Series

Coletti during the 2014 GP2 Series round at Silverstone.

Coletti made his GP2 debut in 2009 at Valencia when he replaced Davide Valsecchi at Durango.^[10] He suffered a fraught first meeting in the series, receiving three drive-through penalties. In race one he received one for jumping the start and one for crossing the white line at the pit lane exit, before retiring from the race. In race two he stalled on the grid and was penalised for starting from the grid instead of the pitlane; he collided with Dani Clos before taking this penalty. In his third GP2 race, at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Coletti crashed heavily with two laps remaining causing the race to finish under safety car conditions.^[11] He escaped with compressed vertebrae and minor bruising, missing the following day's sprint race as his car's monocoque was written off by the impact.^[12] He also missed the Brands Hatch rounds of the F3 Euroseries due to his injury. He was due to return to GP2 at Monza having originally been passed fit, but pulled out due to recurring pain during Thursday scrutineering.^[13]

Coletti returned to GP2 in 2011, driving for Trident Racing alongside Rodolfo González. In the Asia series, he scored a victory in the sprint race at Yas Marina on his way to fourth place in the drivers' standings. He also began the main series strongly, winning the sprint race of the first round of the championship, held at Istanbul Park. After winning the sprint race in Hungary, he crashed heavily during the feature race at Spa-Francorchamps and sustained two vertebral compression fractures, two years after sustaining a similar, but more minor injury. He missed the rest of the season as a result.^[14] His seat was taken by compatriot Stéphane Richelmi.^[15]

Coletti during practice at Sonoma Raceway in 2015.

Coletti at the 2015 Indianapolis 500

His injury healed, Coletti returned to GP2 for the 2012 season with Scuderia Coloni, alongside Fabio Onidi, but after ten rounds of the championship, lying only 14th in the championship with one podium finish, he left the team by mutual consent.^[16] He promptly joined the Rapax team for the final rounds of the championship, replacing Daniël de Jong.^[17] He finished in the points in three of the remaining four races, moving him above Rio Haryanto into a final championship position of 13th.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2005	Formula BMW ADAC	Eifelland Racing	20	0	0	0	0	13	18th
	Formula BMW World Final	ASL Team Mücke Motorsport	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2006	Formula BMW ADAC	ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg	16	1	0	2	4	103	7th
	Formula BMW World Final	EuroInternational	1	0	0	0	0	1	3rd
	Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0	Cram Competition	6	0	0	0	0	0	NC
		Motopark Academy
	Formula BMW USA	EuroInternational	4	3	2	2	4	75	5th
2007	Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0	Epsilon Euskadi	14	1	1	0	3	71	4th
	Italian Formula Renault 2.0		14	2	1	0	3	164	10th
2008	Formula 3 Euro Series	Signature-Plus	18	0	0	0	0	6.5	20th
		Prema Powerteam
2009	Formula 3 Euro Series	Prema Powerteam	17	1	0	2	2	19	10th
	Formula Renault 3.5 Series		1	0	0	0	0	1	28th
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
	GP2 Series	Durango	3	0	0	0	0	0	25th
2010	Formula Renault 3.5 Series	Comtec Racing	17	0	0	0	5	76	6th
	GP3 Series	Tech 1 Racing	14	0	0	0	2	18	9th
	Auto GP	Charouz–Gravity Racing	2	0	0	0	0	2	20th
2011	GP2 Series	Trident Racing	16	2	0	0	2	22	11th
	GP2 Asia Series		4	1	0	0	1	11	4th
	GP2 Final	Scuderia Coloni	2	0	0	0	0	0	13th
2012	GP2 Series	Scuderia Coloni	24	0	0	2	3	50	13th
		Rapax
2013	GP2 Series	Rapax	22	3	1	4	7	135	5th
2014	GP2 Series	Racing Engineering	22	2	0	5	5	136	6th
2015	IndyCar Series	KV Racing Technology	16	0	0	1	0	203	19th
2016	European Le Mans Series	SMP Racing	6	0	0	0	3	83	3rd

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2008	Signature-Plus	Dallara F308/011	Volkswagen	HOC1 1 18	HOC1 2 21	MUG 1 21	MUG 2 11	PAU 1	PAU 2															20th	6.5
	Prema Powerteam	Dallara F308/047	Mercedes							NOR 1 11	NOR 2 6	ZAN 1 19	ZAN 2 Ret	NÜR 1 9	NÜR 2 Ret	BRH 1 19	BRH 2 25	CAT 1 15	CAT 2 Ret	LMS 1 19	LMS 2 9	HOC2 1 4	HOC2 2 Ret
2009	Prema Powerteam	Dallara F309/014	Mercedes	HOC1 1 1	HOC1 2 5	LAU 1 15	LAU 2 23	NOR 1 DSQ	NOR 2 EX	ZAN 1 Ret	ZAN 2 12	OSC 1 7	OSC 2 2	NÜR 1 9	NÜR 2 10	BRH 1	BRH 2	CAT 1 Ret	CAT 2 15	DIJ 1 21	DIJ 2 Ret	HOC2 1 10	HOC2 2 9	10th	19

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

(key)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Pos	Points
2009	Prema Powerteam	CAT 1	CAT 2	SPA 1	SPA 2	MON 1 10	HUN 1	HUN 2	SIL 1	SIL 2	BUG 1	BUG 2	ALG 1	ALG 2	NÜR 1	NÜR 2	ALC 1	ALC 2	28th	1
2010	Comtec Racing	ALC 1 Ret	ALC 2 13	SPA 1 3	SPA 2 3	MON 1 5	BRN 1 9	BRN 2 12	MAG 1 3	MAG 2 7	HUN 1 Ret	HUN 2 10	HOC 1 7	HOC 2 2	SIL 1 3	SIL 2 12	CAT 1 10	CAT 2 5	6th	76

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	21	22	23	24	DC	Points
2009	Durango	CAT FEA	CAT SPR	MON FEA	MON SPR	IST FEA	IST SPR	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	NÜR FEA	NÜR SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	VAL FEA Ret	VAL SPR Ret	SPA FEA 12	SPA SPR DNS	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR	ALG FEA	ALG SPR					25th	0
2011	Trident Racing	IST FEA 5	IST SPR 1	CAT FEA 10	CAT SPR 20	MON FEA 5	MON SPR Ret	VAL FEA 17	VAL SPR 19	SIL FEA 7	SIL SPR 22	NÜR FEA Ret	NÜR SPR Ret	HUN FEA 21	HUN SPR 1	SPA FEA Ret	SPA SPR DNS	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR							11th	22
2012	Scuderia Coloni	SEP FEA 5	SEP SPR 23	BHR1 FEA Ret	BHR1 SPR 23	BHR2 FEA 21	BHR2 SPR 18	CAT FEA 3	CAT SPR 8	MON FEA 10	MON SPR Ret	VAL FEA 9	VAL SPR Ret	SIL FEA Ret	SIL SPR Ret	HOC FEA 20	HOC SPR 19	HUN FEA 10	HUN SPR 9	SPA FEA 20†	SPA SPR 8					13th	50
	Rapax																					MNZ FEA 8	MNZ SPR 4	MRN FEA 13	MRN SPR 8
2013	Rapax	SEP FEA 3	SEP SPR 1	BHR FEA 2	BHR SPR 3	CAT FEA 4	CAT SPR 1	MON FEA 6	MON SPR 1	SIL FEA 21†	SIL SPR 10	NÜR FEA 3	NÜR SPR 19	HUN FEA 16	HUN SPR 20†	SPA FEA 13	SPA SPR 23	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR 13	MRN FEA 12	MRN SPR 24	YMC FEA 20†	YMC SPR 9			5th	135
2014	Racing Engineering	BHR FEA 4	BHR SPR 23	CAT FEA 16	CAT SPR 8	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR 9	RBR FEA 4	RBR SPR 2	SIL FEA 4	SIL SPR 2	HOC FEA 4	HOC SPR 1	HUN FEA 18	HUN SPR Ret	SPA FEA Ret	SPA SPR 7	MNZ FEA 9	MNZ SPR 2	SOC FEA Ret	SOC SPR 8	YMC FEA 7	YMC SPR 1			6th	136

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	DC	Points
2011	Trident Racing	YMC FEA 8	YMC SPR 1	IMO FEA 5	IMO SPR Ret	4th	11

Complete GP3 Series results

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Points
2010	Tech 1 Racing	CAT FEA	CAT SPR	IST FEA 24	IST SPR 14	VAL FEA 10	VAL SPR 6	SIL FEA 10	SIL SPR Ret	HOC FEA 5	HOC SPR 3	HUN FEA 3	HUN SPR 4	SPA FEA Ret	SPA SPR 24	MNZ FEA 16	MNZ SPR 20	9th	18

Complete IndyCar Series results

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

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
2015	KV Racing Technology	Dallara DW12	Chevrolet	STP 20	NLA 17	LBH 23	ALA 19	IMS 8	INDY 25	DET 15	DET 16	TXS 19	TOR 23	FON 12	MIL 20	IOW 20	MDO 19	POC 24	SNM 17	19th	203

Complete European Le Mans Series results

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	Rank	Points
2016	SMP Racing	LMP2	BR Engineering BR01	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL 2	IMO 4	RBR 4	LEC 2	SPA 6	EST 3	3rd	83

References

1. "Coletti reigns in Monaco". gp2series.com. 25 May 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
2. "DELL Formula BMW World Final 2006 – Race". press.bmw-motorsport.com. 26 November 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
3. "Wickens to replace Coletti". GPUpdate.net. 23 May 2008. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
4. "Prema sign Stefano Coletti for F.3 Euro Series 2009". italiaracing.net. 7 January 2009. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
5. Freeman, Glenn (16 May 2009). "Coletti scores maiden Euro Series win". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
6. Anderson, Ben (14 June 2009). "Bottas takes F3 Masters victory". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 23 June 2009.
7. Freeman, Glenn (27 June 2009). "Coletti excluded after altercation". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 27 June 2009.
8. Mills, Peter (16 May 2009). "Coletti gets FR3.5 chance for Monaco". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
9. Beer, Matt (9 February 2010). "Coletti completes Comtec line-up". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 9 February 2010.
10. Glendenning, Mark (18 August 2009). "Coletti joins Durango for Valencia". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 18 August 2009.
11. Glendenning, Mark (29 August 2009). "Parente scores Ocean's first win". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 29 August 2009.
12. "Gran rimonta finita nelle barriere". durango.it (in Italian). Durango. 29 August 2009. Retrieved 29 August 2009.
13. Glendenning, Mark (11 September 2009). "Durango to miss Monza races". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 12 September 2009.
14. Glenn, Freeman (27 August 2011). "Stefano Coletti to miss rest of GP2 season after injuring back in Spa crash". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
15. Glendenning, Mark (3 September 2011). "Stephane Richelmi to deputise for injured Stefano Coletti in Trident GP2 line-up". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
16. Freeman, Glenn (4 September 2012). "Stefano Coletti leaves Scuderia Coloni on eve of GP2 Monza round". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
17. Freeman, Glenn (6 September 2012). "Jake Rosenzweig replaces Josef Kral at Addax for Monza". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 10 September 2012.

External links

• Official website
• Stefano Coletti on Twitter
  
• Stefano Coletti career summary at DriverDB.com