Giovanni Lavaggi (born 18 February 1958) is an Italian racing driver.

Despite Lavaggi being a nobleman by background, he couldn’t count on personal financial resources; therefore he started racing only at the age of 26. Nevertheless, he managed to reach the top class of motorsport, racing in Formula One in ‘95 and ‘96. First approach to F1 was in 1992 when, being a mechanical engineer, he was official test driver for March F1 team. In 1995, he drove for Lotus-Pacific only for 4 races in which he was forced to retire due to gearbox problems. In the second part of 1996 racing season, he joined Minardi Team for 6 races. His best result was a 10th place at Hungaroring, which was the second best result of the year for Minardi team.

He lives in Monte Carlo.

Early life

Lavaggi was born in Augusta, Sicily on 18 February 1958, being of noble heritage. He studied mechanical engineering at Milan Polytechnic.

Racing career

Lavaggi's racing career started in 1984, inspired by Henry Morrogh who judged him the best student he ever had at his racing school. That year he was official driver of the constructor Ermolli in “Formula Panda” Italian championship where he classified second, winning more races than any other driver. Having not enough sponsors to afford a whole championship in Formula 3, he did just a few races in the F3 Italian championship before turning to “Groupe C” sports cars, in order to gain international experience. In this category, soon he became a driver of Porsche Kremer Team, obtaining great results: he was the 1993 Interserie Champion winning 6 races on a total of 12 and being other 4 times on the podium. He also won the 1995 iconic Daytona 24 Hours where he did most of the job, driving 9 hours in a team of 4 drivers. He scored as well two wins in the FIA Sportscar Championship, including the prestigious 1000Km of Monza, where he drove five hours on six; furthermore he was 5 more times on the podium and he took 2 pole positions. His first race in F1 was in 1995. He was a rookie, but, at the same time, being 35 years old, he was the oldest driver in the field; therefore, he had to fight against the scepticism of the F1 media. Nevertheless, even with no previous experience and no tests (his teams had not enough money to perform private tests) he was always close to the performance of his teammates. His last experience in F1 was the 1996 Bologna Motorshow. Racing with a Minardi against two Benettons (driven by Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella), two Ligiers (Olivier Panis and Shinji Nakano) and the other Minardi (Tarso Marques), he reached the second place, losing the final against Fisichella by a nose.

After the F1 experience, Lavaggi founded his own team “Scuderia Lavaggi” and in 2006 he became a constructor designing and building his own Le Mans Prototype, the Lavaggi LS1. With his car, he raced in the Le Mans Series until 2009 and he scored a pole position at 2008 Vallelunga 6h. Lavaggi is the only example of a driver-constructor in the modern era of motorsport at high-level.

He was nicknamed "Johnny Carwash" (an approximate translation of his name from Italian to English, John Washes) by people in the paddock; US talk show host David Letterman helped bring the nickname to popular attention.

Family

The Lavaggi noble family moved from Genova to Sicily (Palermo) in 1420 and then from Palermo to Augusta in 1711. A cousin of Giovanni’s grandfather, also called Giovanni Lavaggi, was a war hero. He was a pilot of the Italian air force and he died because of the sabotage of his airplane, while bringing to Asmara the Italian minister of public works Luigi Razzi, who also was killed in the crash. In the cities of Catania and Augusta, Via Giovanni Lavaggi (Giovanni Lavaggi Road) is named after him.