Franco Gamba

as of 2023 DTM Assen GP

Franco (Francesco) Gamba is an Italian driver in the DTM series of the OC. He is currently under contract for the 2023 DTM championship season with Squadra Corse Lamborghini.

A highly successful GP2 driver, he is one of a select few to have won the prestigious championship, doing so in 2011 with DAMS taking a record 8 victories out of 12 races.

Following his dominant title win, he graduated to the Top Tier with Toro Rosso, becoming a part of Red Bull's young driver program.

A competent and at times consistent midfield runner, Gamba has earned the unfortunate reputation of being one of the more unlucky drivers in the Championships history. Often retiring from points scoring positions through mechanical issues or unenforced errors. Despite this, Gamba has proved to show flashes of the potential he showed in GP2. His 7th place finish on his Grand Prix debut in Australia 2012, ensured he joined a select group of drivers to have scored points on their top class debut. Despite his unlucky reputation, he has since become a fan favourite in the GP4 fraternity.

His cousin, Roberto Gamba, is also a fully fledged Grand Prix driver in the top class.

### Toro Rosso (2012-17)

Following his aforementioned 2011 GP2 championship win, Gamba was announced as the newest driver to enter the Red Bull Junior programme. Partnering GP4 veteran Sam Thompson at the Italian team, Gamba scored points on his Grand Prix debut in F1, only one of a handful of drivers to achieve this feat. Despite this, he would only score points one more time all season, albeit a strong fifth in Hungary.

This tough rookie season was indicated in the standings, with the experienced head of Thompson triumphing over his new Italian teammate. Gamba however, would have the last laugh as Thompson was dropped for 2013 in favour of rising American talent, William Duncan.

Both drivers started the 2013 season off in good form, with a handful of strong points finishes shared between the two. This would set a trend for the rest of the year as the two teammates traded places towards the foot of the points scorers in the championship. In the end though, it was to be Duncan that would go on to finish higher in the standings come the end of the season, albeit only a solitary point. Before the end of the season it was thought both drivers would remain with the team for the next season, however, Duncan fell out of favour with Red Bull bosses and after irreparable damage was done in a close season interview, the American was dropped for 2014, meaning Gamba had a third teammate in as many years.

Going into 2014 and now partnered by British rookie, Robert Hunter, the young Italian was under pressure to outperform his new teammate as he was now considered the experienced head at the front of Toro Rosso. This wouldn't transpire to be the case as Hunter, despite not scoring points consistently and breaking a consecutive retirement record with 7, finished ahead of Gamba courtesy of a strong fourth place finish in the attrition filled Monaco GP of that year. Gamba's best finish by contrast was a lowly eighth, compounding this fact was a series of retirements coming in races where points were on the cards. Despite failing to beat a single teammate over the course of his three seasons at Toro Rosso, Red Bull bosses had seen enough flashes of brilliance to retain him for 2015, coming to the joy of many fans who held the Italian in high regard.

2015 would prove a pivotal year in Gamba's short F1 career to that point. Both drivers from 2014 started the 2015 season, marking the first time a consistent teammate had occurred in Gamba's tenure, and the immense pressure to beat Hunter this season showed immediately, with only a small smattering of points in the early rounds as Hunter hit fine form. This continued the worrying trend that blighted Gamba's career up to that point, and Red Bull wanted to replace one driver with Michael Mocho for 2016.

It looked like Gamba was right for the chop, until a remarkable drive in Singapore saved his career. Starting in the midfield he kept his nose clean and drove an excellent race to finish Third for his first F1 podium, the first for an Italian driver in the Championship's history. This gave Gamba a good helping of points, and despite not beating Hunter once again, he did finish a respectable 15th in the standings, his best finish in three seasons. Against the odds, Gamba had salvaged his career as Hunter was dropped for 2016 and Gamba retained for a fifth consecutive year.

2016 would prove to be a breakthrough year for the popular Italian. He started very strongly, with a fifth place in China as well as several strong showings in the following races. Back to back fourth place finishes in Italy and Singapore meant he repaired a lot of his reputation that had been damaged on the back of four seasons of bad luck and underperformance. Gamba would finish a very strong 12th overall at the end of the year, marking his highest championship finish, three up on the previous year, and for the first time in his career he was the highest performing Toro Rosso driver as Mocho finished a dismal 18th in the standings, far behind his pacey Italian counterpart.

Gamba's immensely strong 2016 season was rewarded with another drive with Toro Rosso for 2017, his sixth consecutive year at the Junior outfit. Still partnered by Mocho for the season ahead, the Brit had a slight pace advantage in the early stages of the season, despite two strong fifth places in the first 6 Grand Prix of the season. Unfortunately 2017 would re-establish Gamba's reputation as an unlucky jinx as he retired from numerous points paying positions as the season progressed. It didn't help that Mocho was in better form than the previous year, as a result Gamba was beaten by his teammate for the fifth time in six seasons.

Seeking a change of scenery after a prolonged spell with Toro Rosso, Gamba set his sights on a move away from the Italian team, and with 2018 seeing the biggest overhaul of seats in a decade, a move to American team, Haas F1 was announced towards the end of the season.

### Haas (2018-Present)

Now partnered by another Englishman in the experienced journeyman, George Roke, Gamba started to flourish. He scored points in all but two of his opening seven races for his new team, comprehensively outperforming his revered British counterpart.

## Race wins

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