David Cleto Fumanelli (21 April 1992,

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

) is an Italian racing driver and racing coach.

Single Seater Career

Formula Renault 2.0

Fumanelli, after just two years of national karting races, made his

single-seater An open-wheel car is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have their wheels below the body or inside fend ...

debut in 2008 in his native Italian Formula Renault 2.0 series, driving for

RP Motorsport RP Motorsport was an auto racing team based in Italy in Piacenza. The Italian team won many times the EuroFormula Open Championship, becoming one of the most successful outfit in the series. In February 2022 the team assets were sold to Irish ra ...

Formula 3

In September 2008, Fumanelli made his

Formula 3 Formula Three (F3) is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. History Formula Three (adop ...

debut in the Spanish Formula 3 series, competing for last 2 rounds of the championship. During the last event in

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

he was involved in a violent airborne accident with

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

driver

Carmen Jordá Carmen Jordá Buades (born 28 May 1988) is a Spanish Motorsport, motor racing driver. From 2015 to 2017, she was a development driver for the Lotus and Renault Sport Formula One teams. Her appointment by Lotus saw her become just the eleventh w ...

, which resulted in a vertebra trauma which forced him to a 6 months stop. Fumanelli remained in the series for

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, the first of three full seasons in the category with RP Motorsport. He finished his first full-season in eighth place and "Best Rookie" after recording two late-season victories at

Jerez Jerez de la Frontera () or simply Jerez, also cited in old English-language sources as , is a city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Located in southwestern Iberia, it lies on the Campi� ...

and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. In

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, he took three race wins to finish the year 3rd overall, showing an impressive progression and speed. In

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Fumanelli finished as F3 European Open Vice - Champion. After a slow start to the season, which saw just one podium finish in the first eight races, he took four race victories in the final eight races, to finish eight points behind the

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

driver Alex Fontana.

GP3 Series

Following a successful test at Jerez in December 2011, Fumanelli graduated to the

GP3 Series The GP3 Series, or GP3 for short, was a single-seater motor racing series launched in 2010 as a feeder series for the GP2 Series, introduced by GP2 organiser Bruno Michel. GP3 followed the entire European leg of the Formula One series and the ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, racing for MW Arden Team. His rookie season was very strong, many top-5 qualifyings brought him to a podium finish at the European GP in

Valencia Street Circuit The Valencia Street Circuit (, ) was a street circuit in Valencia, Spain which hosted the Formula One European Grand Prix for five years (2008–2012). The first Formula One race meeting on the circuit was held over the 23–24 August 2008 wee ...

and a 4th place in Monaco Gran Prix. He was forced to miss the

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...

round due to family matters and he finished the season 11th overall in the championship. In 2013 he continued in the series with the Italian team

Trident A trident (), () is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. As compared to an ordinary spear, the three tines increase the chance that a fish will be struck and decrease the chance that a fish will b ...

. Despite some very strong winter tests, he struggled with performance during the season and left the championship before the final round. His best result of the season was 7th place in race 1 at the 2013 Catalunya GP3 Series round. He finished the season 19th overall.

GT career

Blancpain GT Series

In 2014 Fumanelli switched to GT racing and made his debut in the Blancpain GT Sprint Series with

Roal Motorsport ROAL Motorsport (previously known as Ravaglia Motorsport) is an Italian auto racing team, which operated the BMW Team Italy-Spain team in the World Touring Car Championship, and currently competes as BMW Team Italia in the Italian GT Championship ...

with a

BMW Z4 GT3 The BMW Z4 (E89) is the second generation of the BMW Z4 range of two-door roadsters, and was produced from 2009 to 2016. The E89 replaced the E85/E86 Z4 and is the fourth model in the BMW Z Series. The E89 Z4 was the first Z Series model to u ...

, sharing the box with the great

Alex Zanardi Alessandro "Alex" Zanardi (; born 23 October 1966) is an Italian professional racing driver and paracyclist. He won the CART championship in 1997 and 1998, and took 15 wins in the series. He also raced in Formula One from 1991 to 1994 and again ...

. He finished the season as Silver Cup Vice-Champion with his mate Stefano Colombo. In 2016 he was called to compete in the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps by Scuderia Praha with the new Ferrari 488 GT3. In 2017 Fumanelli was selected by

McLaren GT The McLaren GT is a two seat grand tourer designed and manufactured by the British automobile manufacturer McLaren Automotive. It is the company's first dedicated grand tourer and is based on the same platform underpinning the 720S with the ad ...

as Junior Driver to race for the factory team

Strakka Racing Strakka Racing was a British auto racing team founded by Nick Leventis. The team was based at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire. The team made history at the 2010 1000 km of Hungaroring when they became the first team in Le Mans Serie ...

with a

McLaren 650S GT3 The McLaren 650S is a British sports car designed and manufactured by British automobile manufacturer McLaren Automotive. It was announced in February 2014 as a new model, but based on the existing MP4-12C with 25% new parts, and was formally u ...

. He competed in the Endurance series, plus some spot races in the Sprint Series alongside Lewis Williamson. He was forced to leave McLaren at the end of the year due to a company restructuring. Strakka Racing decided to keep Fumanelli for his 2018 campaign, where they switched from McLaren to Mercedes AMG. They debuted together at Bathurst 12 hours, first round of the

Intercontinental GT Challenge The Intercontinental GT Challenge is a sports car racing series developed by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation, SRO Group in 2016. It consists of international Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance races for grand tourer racing cars complying w ...

with a Mercedes AMG GT3 finishing 3rd in Pro Am class. He was involved in both Intercontinental GT Challenge and Blancpain GT Endurance races, where he was selected to race in the Mercedes AMG factory car for the Silverstone round, alongside the two german aces Max Buhk and Maximilian Goetz. The highlights of the year, together with Bathurst podium, were the 2nd place in Pro Am class at the 24 hours of Spa-Francorchamps and 1st place in Pro Am in the California 8 hours, Laguna Seca. In 2019 he did two races for Strakka Racing, finishing 3rd in Pro Am at the 24 hours of Spa-Francorchamps alongside Christina Nielsen, Richard Heidstand and Jack Hawksworth. He raced for Mercedes Black Falcon Team in the last round of Blancpain GT Endurance, finishing 2nd in Silver class and 7th overall.

Ferrari Challenge Europe

In 2017 Fumanelli won the Ferrari Master Show race during Bologna Motor Show, with a Ferrari 488 Challenge with Rossocorsa Racing. In 2018 he did three races in

Ferrari Challenge The Ferrari Challenge is a One-Design, single-marque Auto racing, motorsport championship that was created in 1993, initially catering to owners of the 348 Challenge who wanted to race their cars. The first European season took place in 1993, ...

Europe with Rossocorsa Racing, finishing second in the World Finals at Monza.

Renault Sport Trophy

Between 2015 and 2016 Fumanelli competed for Oregon Team in the

Renault Sport Trophy The Renault Sport Trophy was a One-Design, one-make racing series created and managed by Renault Sport. The series has raced with the Renault Sport R.S. 01 in 2015 and 2016 as part of the Renault Sport Series (formerly World Series by Renault), b ...

, a one-make sports-car series made by

Renault Sport Renault Sport () or Renaultsport, was a motorsport, performance and special vehicles division for Renault-badged cars and later a sub-badge of Renault cars managed by Automobiles Alpine, Alpine. The first Renault Sport was officially established ...

. He won the Endurance title in 2015 with his team mate Dario Capitanio and finished 3rd in Pro class standings.

Racing record

Career summary

^† As Fumanelli was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score championship points. ^* Season still in progress.

Complete GP3 Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Blancpain Sprint Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Asian Le Mans Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^* Season still in progress.

Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^* Season still in progress.

References

External links

Official website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fumanelli, David 1992 births Living people Racing drivers from Milan Italian Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Italian Formula Three Championship drivers Euroformula Open Championship drivers Italian GP3 Series drivers Arden International drivers GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup drivers Asian Le Mans Series drivers International GT Open drivers RP Motorsport drivers Strakka Racing drivers Trident Racing drivers Mercedes-AMG Motorsport drivers McLaren Racing drivers 24H Series drivers Le Mans Cup drivers Ferrari Challenge drivers Porsche Carrera Cup Italy drivers Italian racing drivers Lamborghini Super Trofeo drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers