Gabriel Gomes

as of 2023 European GP

Gabriel Gomes is a Brazilian driver who is currently under contract for Toyota Gazoo Racing in the 2023 OC season.

He competed in the GP2 OC since it started in 2008, nearly winning the championship in the 2015 season. After he moved to DTM in 2017 he won the title in Spa, making him the first DTM driver to win the championship before the finale in Monza. A veteran of 96 GP2 Grand Prix, Gomes holds an almost unenviable record of most races competed in lower classes before moving into a tier above.

### Long and Testing GP2 Career (2008-15)

Gomes signed up to GP2 for its inaugural year in 2008, albeit 4 rounds deep into the season. He was an instant performer finishing third on his debut and scoring three further podiums as the year progressed. Earmarking himself as a future top class competitor, he ended up fourth overall in his first year, but was consigned to another year in the second tier after he failed to get a top class drive for 2009.

He would win his first GP2 race the following season in Japan, but that was his only high point as he failed to score any other podiums and as a result he fell to 11th overall. The next five seasons were a truly dismal affair as Gomes slipped both out of favour with top class suitors and down the rankings to a lowly 21st overall in both 2011 and 2014. This woeful loss of form had seen him drop almost entirely out of the reckoning for a top class drive in the future, however, a move to Racing Engineering in 2015 would prove to be a breakthrough.

Gomes won his first race in 5 seasons at the Belgian Grand Prix and went on to finish the season with a multitude of first and second place finishes in Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan and the USA. This fine form saw him leap to second in the standings come seasons end and what looked like the impossible was finally reality, as Gomes was announced as an F1 driver in 2016 for Haas F1, ending his record 96 races in GP2

### Haas (2016)

Partnering experienced Irishman, Evan Byrne, Gomes went on to record a fine debut season. He suffered a dire start to proceedings with 5 retirements in his opening 7 races and no points, however, Gomes broke his duct at the European Grand Prix in Baku where he scored his first points with 9th. From then on, Gomes was a consistent points scorer which culminated in a fine but shock podium finish at the Malaysian Grand Prix where he took Third. His first podium was met with plenty of applause and it proved to be his best result of the year.

Despite finishing a solid 13th overall and crucially, ahead of his teammate Byrne in the standings. Gomes made a poor selection of choices for 2017 and as a result lost his drive at Haas for the following season. Unable to find a drive elsewhere, Gomes was out of F1 reckoning once again and was forced into DTM for 2017.

### DTM Contender and Return to F1 (2017-Present)

Gomes was an instant hist in DTM, he scored a strong second on his debut and went on to win 3 races and scored 4 podiums as he won the championship for the first time in his career. This strong season was rewarded with a redeeming drive in F1, this time for Alfa Romeo-Sauber.

He scored his first points for his new team in Baku, coincidentally where he had scored his first F1 points, 2 seasons prior.

In the midst's of this, Gomes took part in the the Indianapolis 500 for Andretti Autosport. He qualified last out of all runners in qualifying but led a stunning fightback on race day to win the event and become only the second driver to achieve such a feat.