Dudu Kurbhi

as of 2020 Brazilian GP

Luiz Eduardo "Dudu" Kurbhi is a former Brazilian GP4 OC driver. He is the brother of JP Kurbhi and he is the 2017 BTCC Champion and the 2019 GP2 Champion.

A Skilled Driver, Dudu has won in all tiers he has raced in, with a total of 5 wins under his belt. He debuted in 2017 and won the BTCC title. He moved to DTM in 2018 and although he didn't have the best of seasons, he did impress by bringing 2 wins home, sealing 5 wins for Remus Mercedes (teammate Rosetta Martinez won 3 Races). He was able to get a seat at BWT Arden for 2019, and has won 2 races. In 2019, Dudu became the first driver to get two titles in different OC tiers, after title rival Thomas Andersson retired with an engine failure

## History

### 2017 (BTCC Champion)

Dudu debuted in 2017 in the 2017 GP4 BTCC OC, partnering Quinton Wells. He brought back the "Kurbhi" name back to the OC for the first time since his brother JP Kurbhi was banned after the 2015 Tahiti ePrix. He had a great preseason testing as he pulled himself together and would clock the 4th fastest time, some thinking that Kurbhi would be a title contender. However, in the first two rounds in Brands Hatch (Indy Layout), his races would be a dissapointment. He qualified 21st, finished in 19th in the Sprint Race and retired in the feature race after a collision with Alessandro Febbi, which turned out to be the first two retirements in the GP4 BTCC OC history. However, on the next two rounds of the season in Donington Park, Dudu qualified 8th and finished 5th on the sprint race. But then, on the Feature race, he was on the top on most of the race and a quick pitstop made sure he was ahead of race leader Aggi Dilimanto, and since all the drivers ahead of him concluded their pitstops and he took his first win on the OC and rose to 6th in the championship. However, after the Oulton Park round, news came that his brother, JP Kurbhi, would be returning to racing, and would be racing against him in the BTCC Championship. After some decent races, it came to the final rounds at Brands Hatch and his qualifying was dreadful. He qualified in the real bottom, in his worst qualifying in his career. He would finish the sprint race with no points, with his new title rival Ousmane Hamid having gained 1 Point by leading a lap. However, neither scored in the feature race and was announced as the 2017 BTCC champion.

### 2018 (DTM)

He has been confirmed to drive in the number 63 Mercedes-Benz car for 2018 after skipping Formula E alongside 2017 BTCC runner-up Darabos Dániel. He got his first ever Pole Position in the OC in the first round in Hockenheim, however, he finished 8th in the race because of being slower and having older tyres. His next points came in Misano, where he took 2nd. He had 10 Points to his name, and was in the middle of the field in the Drivers Championship. However, in the Lausitzring (Eurospeedway GP), he managed to take his first win in DTM, and his first win since the 2017 BTCC Donington Park National Feature Race. He leaped to 5th in the championship. He then failed to score 4 races in a row until he finished 7th in Texas, thus being out of the title fight. He however snagged another win in the final race at Monza. He finished the season 8th, with 32 Points.

### 2019 (GP2)

Dudu has been confirmed to drive for BWT Arden in the 2019 GP2 Season. His debut in Bahrain was a disaster, as he crashed due to a pit lane glitch, having to pit due to getting damage from the Tridents. However, his season took a massive turn in Azerbaijan. Starting 2nd behind Mariku Kalević, he benefitted from a slow stop by the Rapax team to take the lead and win. A quiet race saw him finish 18th in Spain, but another win at Portugal (having almost done a Grand Chelem, being denied by Thomas Bennett scoring the fastest lap) saw him get pole and lead all laps of the race, in pure domination. He took the lead of the championship after the race. He kept his run of good performances going with 3 points scoring finishes after Portugal; a 8th in Austria, 5th in Silverstone (after Rahul Patel retired) and 7th in Germany, although he lost the championship lead Thomas Andersson. His points streak came to an end in Hungary, as he retired. He got pole in Belgium, but didn't win, as he was in a battle to the end with his championship rival Andersson. Both were tied in 110 Points after Belgium, with Andersson leading on a countback of wins (Andersson: 3 | Austria, Germany, Belgium / Kurbhi: 2 | Azerbaijan, Portugal). Kurbhi however retook the lead with 5th in Monza following a dissapointing race for Andersson left him 12th. Kurbhi just missed out on points in Turkey, in 12th. Andersson, however, took 3rd, meaning he was now ahead of Dudu by 5 Points. A win in Mugello saw him pass Andersson by 20 Points, and the title hopes seemed to be dashed as he had a heavy collision with Jamie Griffiths on the final round at Brazil. However, he claimed the title before the finish of the race, as Andersson retired with engine problems. He made history by becoming the first driver to win championships in more than one tier.

### 2020 (Haas F1)

During the 2019 Korean Grand Prix, Dudu was confirmed to drive for Haas for the 2020 season, being the first debuting driver to be confirmed.