Gastón Hugo Mazzacane (born 8 May 1975) is an Argentine racing driver. He participated in 21 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 12 March 2000. He scored no championship points. His father, Hugo Mazzacane named him after Argentine touring car racer Gastón Perkins.

Mazzacane has also raced in Turismo Carretera and was the first TC Pick Up champion in 2018.

Racing career

Mazzacane is Argentina's most recent Formula One driver, but is often known as a "pay driver". He began his Formula One career in 1999 as the test driver for Minardi. In late February 2000, it was announced that he would be the teammate of Marc Gené in the race team. "I intend to learn over the first half of the season and then I feel I will have the confidence to perform well," Mazzacane told the press at the launch of the Minardi M02. His debut year in Formula One began with a broken gearbox at his first race, the 2000 Australian Grand Prix, followed by a 10th place in Brazil. He went on to outqualify Gené at Imola, a feat he later accomplished twice more. The German Grand Prix was a relative high point for him; after outqualifying his teammate, he finished 11th. His highlight in the spotlights this season was on a damp Indianapolis track when he famously overtook Mika Häkkinen, who was struggling after an early gamble on dry tyres. After running up to third without stopping, he ran over his pitcrew and dropped out of the race later. Nevertheless, he finished 11 of the 17 races that year and ranked third among drivers with the most kilometres raced.

At the start of 2001, Mazzacane tested for Arrows, but finally settled into the Prost team, taking over the seat of the Sauber-bound Nick Heidfeld. He beat CART's Oriol Servia for the Prost spot, and was announced as the second driver in January 2001. However, the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix was his final Formula One race. Alain Prost fired him by using a performance clause in his contract, and the vacancy was filled by Luciano Burti, who had recently been sacked from Jaguar Racing.

Mazzacane signed a contract with the reformed DART team a/k/a Phoenix, which had plans to race in the 2002 season. However, it was not to be as the team was barred from racing.

He then went to the US and competed in the last half of the 2004 Champ Car season with the Dale Coyne Racing #19 car.

Motorsport career results

Complete International Formula 3000 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 DC Points 1996 Auto Sport Racing NÜR
Ret PAU
DNQ PER
14 HOC
Ret SIL
11 SPA
19 MAG
Ret EST
10 MUG
Ret HOC
Ret 22nd 0 1997 Auto Sport Racing SIL
10 PAU
DNQ HEL
Ret NÜR
10 PER
15 HOC
10 A1R
17 SPA
11 MUG
10 JER
Ret 28th 0 1998 Team Astromega OSC
6 IMO
7 CAT
Ret SIL
6 MON
12 PAU
9 A1R
Ret HOC
Ret HUN
Ret SPA
DNQ PER
13 NÜR
Ret 21st 2 1999 GP Racing IMO MON CAT MAG SIL
DNQ A1R HOC HUN SPA NÜR NC 0

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 WDC Points 2000 Telefónica Minardi Fondmetal Minardi M02 Fondmetal V10 AUS
Ret BRA
10 SMR
13 GBR
15 ESP
15 EUR
8 MON
Ret CAN
12 FRA
Ret AUT
12 GER
11 HUN
Ret BEL
17 ITA
10 USA
Ret JPN
15 MAL
13^† NC 0 2001 Prost Acer Prost AP04 Acer V10 AUS
Ret MAL
12 BRA
Ret SMR
Ret ESP AUT MON CAN EUR FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA USA JPN 25th 0

† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.

American Open-Wheel

(key)

Champ Car

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Rank Points 2004 Dale Coyne LBH MTY MIL
16 POR
13 CLE
12 TOR
6 VAN
18 ROA
18 DEN
15 MTL
12 LS
13 LVS
15 SRF MXC 17th 73