Andrea Chiesa (born in Milan, Italy on 6 May 1964) is a former Formula One driver from Switzerland.
He participated in 10 Grands Prix, debuting on 1 March 1992. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
An Italian-born Swiss national, Andrea Chiesa debuted in Italian Formula 3 in 1985 but was initially hampered by problems with the VW engine. He left Trivellato and joined Euroracing for his third season in this category and took three wins from the first four races in 1987 with the the Dallara F387-Alfa Romeo. He was leading all year but Enrico Bertaggia took the title at the final race and Andrea finishing second.
He moved up to F3000 for 1988, racing Cobra International’s Lola T88/50-Cosworth, with sixth at Monza being his best result. In his second season he won at Enna, was second at Vallelunga, and finished sixth in the standings racing Q8 Team Ford’s Roni Motorsport Reynard 89D-Cosworth. His third year in F3000 saw him with Paul Stewart Racing, taking second at Donington Park and Birmingham to finish seventh in the standings though 1991’s fourth and final season with Apomatox Reynard’s 91D-Cosworth was a frustrating one for him.
Andrea then graduated to Formula 1 with a race seat with Fondmetal but was out-performed by team-mate Gabriele Tarquini and retired from his three starts in Mexico, Spain and France. He would eventually lose his seat when Eric van de Poele joined after the German GP.
Following this he raced in 1993’s opening Indy Car race in Surfers Paradise, Australia, with a Euromotorsport Lola-Cosworth but this was his last major single-seater race. When his father passed away he moved away from racing temporarily in order to run the family business.
He returned to racing in a Riley & Scott, co-driving with Alex Caffi, at Laguna Seca in 1996 plus raced a Callaway Corvette in that year’s 1000km Suzuka, with Johannes Huber and Hans Hauser. With A.Caffi, the following year saw a sixth place finish at Laguna Seca in the Riley and Scott and the partnership continued in 1998. Racing for Target 24 they took third place finishes at Paul Ricard and Le Mans (Bugatti), sixth at Brno and fifth at the Nurburgring plus he and Giovanni Lavaggi finished fifth at Kyalami with GLV Brums team’s Ferrari 333SP.
2000 saw him, Valerio Leone and Michel Heydens race a Taverna Racing & Classic BMW M3 at the 24 Hour Spa plus a Riley & Scott with Mauro Baldi at Magny Cours for R&M. Switching to the FIA GT Championship in 2001, highlights from his three seasons in GT3 Porsches came in the Spa 24 Hours, finishing sixth with Freisinger Motorsport in 2001 (with Stephane Ortelli and Cyrille Sauvage) and a fine third podium position in 2003 co-driving with Luca Drudi, A.Caffi and Gabriel Rosa for Seikel Motorsport. There was a Ferrari 360 drive in 2002’s 24 Hour Spa race, with ‘Yah Man’, Alex Caffi and Emanuele Moncini for Scuderia Sant Ambrous
Following this he spent four years with Loris Kessel’s Italian GT team from 2003, winning the N-GT title that year and in 2004 with the Ferrari. 2005 saw the team switch to a Ferrari 575 Maranello and they took third place finishes in the first season at Monza and Vallelunga while in 2006 (where each meeting was a 2-race event) there was a race win at Imola and podiums at Misano, Vallelunga (twice) and Magione.
Then came a switch to the Speedy Racing Team for the next two seasons and he drove their Spyker C8 Spyder in endurance races, including Le Mans, with co-drivers including Iradj Alexander, Andrea Belicci, Jonny Kane, A.Caffi, Philippe Camandona and Benjamin Leuenberger. This period also saw a drive with Loris Kessel’s team in a Ferrari F430 at 2007’s ADAC GT Hockenheim race.
He later drove a Maserati Quattroporte in touring cars plus in 2010 he and Tusco Cavalli drove Kessel Racing’s Ferrari 458 Italia at a GT Open Winter Series Paul Ricard test.
Gallery Other F3 and F3000 F1
