Mihai Marinescu (born 25 January 1989) is a professional Romanian racing driver formerly competing in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series. He was born in

Brașov Brașov (, , ; , also ''Brasau''; ; ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the county seat (i.e. administrative centre) of Brașov County. According to the 2021 Romanian census, ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

and currently works as a race engineer for

Jenzer Motorsport Jenzer Motorsport is an auto racing team based in Switzerland. Founded in 1993 by Andreas Jenzer the team is currently competing in FIA Formula 3, Italian F4 and F4 Spanish and has had a number of drivers who would turn out to be successful in ...

Career

Formula Junior & Formula Renault 1.6

After securing several Romanian national karting titles, Marinescu began his racing career in 2005, driving in the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Formula Junior 1600 and Belgian Formula Renault 1.6 series. He took six podium places to finish runner-up in the Italian championship, behind Pasquale Di Sabatino, and took three race wins to finish third in the Belgian standings.

Formula Renault

In 2005, Marinescu also took part in selected Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 races and the end-of-season Italian Formula Renault 2.0 winter series, in which he finished thirteenth. In 2006, he drove a full season in the Italian Formula Renault 2.0 championship, finishing eleventh, and in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup, where he finished sixth overall. He also drove in three French Formula Renault 2.0 races, failing to score a point. In 2007, Marinescu dovetailed two championships once again, racing full seasons in both Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Italian Formula Renault 2.0. In the former, he secured a single podium finish at the

Hungaroring The Hungaroring is a motorsport racetrack in Mogyoród, Pest County, Hungary where the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix is held. In 1986, it became the location of the first Formula One Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix behind the Iron Curtai ...

to be classified in eleventh place, whilst in the latter he took three podium places to finish fifth in the championship.

British Formula 3

At the end of the 2007 season, Marinescu also contested two

British Formula 3 Championship The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single sea ...

races for

Räikkönen Robertson Racing Double R Racing is a motor racing team, which last raced in the 2023 F4 British Championship. The team was formed in November 2004 as Räikkönen Robertson Racing by then McLaren Formula One driver and world champion with Ferrari, Kimi Räikk� ...

Rockingham Motor Speedway Rockingham Motor Speedway was a motorsport racing venue in Rockingham, Northamptonshire, Rockingham, Northamptonshire, England, United Kingdom, near the town of Corby. It hosted professional and club races, as well as testing, track days, driv ...

, taking a National Class podium during the weekend.

Formula BMW

For 2008, Marinescu joined

Fisichella Motor Sport Fisichella Motor Sport is a motorsport team, founded by Italian Formula One driver Giancarlo Fisichella and his manager Enrico Zanarini. Racing history Euroseries 3000 Fisichella Motor Sport had a team, run by Scuderia Coloni, racing in the ...

to race in the newly formed

Formula BMW Europe Formula BMW was a junior racing formula for single seater cars. It was positioned at the bottom of the motorsport career ladder alongside the longer established Formula Ford category. Like Formula Ford, it was intended to function as the young k ...

championship, which supported the

Formula One World Championship Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one of the wor ...

at each European race meeting. He finished eleventh in the championship. In November 2008, he took victory in the Formula BMW Pacific race that supported the annual

Formula Three 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 ...

Macau Grand Prix The Macau Grand Prix (; ) is an annual motorsport road racing event for automobiles and motorcycles held on the Guia Circuit in Macau. The event includes the Formula Regional and Motorcycle Grand Prix title races, with other races for Touri ...

. He also took part in selected races in the

Formula BMW Americas In science, a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically, as in a mathematical formula or a ''chemical formula''. The informal use of the term ''formula'' in science refers to the general construct of a relationship betwe ...

championship. At

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

in June 2008 he was lucky to escape unhurt from a massive first lap crash involving

Mikaël Grenier Mikaël Grenier (born October 17, 1992) is a Canadian racing driver from Stoneham-et-Tewkesbury. Career After karting, Grenier moved to Formula BMW Americas in 2008 with Apex-HBR Racing Team, finishing fourth in points with a pole at Road Amer ...

and

Daniel Juncadella Daniel Juncadella Pérez-Sala (born 7 May 1991) is a Spanish racing driver who currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for TF Sport. He is son of Xavier Juncadella and nephew of José María Juncadella, Alex Soler-Roig and Lui ...

International Formula Master

In October 2008, Marinescu competed in the final round of the International Formula Master season at

Monza Monza (, ; ; , locally ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the Lambro, River Lambro, a tributary of the Po (river), River Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the province of Mo ...

. Driving for Pro Motorsport, he finished third in the first race before retiring from the second event.

Formula Renault 3.5 Series

In March 2009, Marinescu took part in Formula Renault 3.5 Series pre-season testing for the

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n Interwetten.com team before signing with them a few days before the first round of the season in

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 ...

. However, he was replaced by

Tobias Hegewald Tobias Hegewald (born 3 August 1989 in Neuwied) is a German Auto racing, racing driver. Career Karting Hegewald spent three seasons racing in professional karting, including a 5th place in the 2002 Junior Monaco Kart Cup at Intercontinental A, ...

after the first championship event, but this was only for Hegewald to gain experience of the circuit for his forthcoming F2 campaign, with Marinescu returning to the team for the following round in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

. However, before the next round in Hungary, Marinescu left Interwetten.com and signed for the

RC Motorsport team to partner Pasquale Di Sabatino. He returned to Interwetten at Le Mans, but failed to break into the points.

Formula Two

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 ...

, Marinescu joined the FIA Formula Two Championship. He consistently finished in the midfield, and signed up to race in the series again 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 ...

. On 1 October 2011, Marinescu won his maiden race in Formula 2 at Monza.

Hobbies

Marinescu is an avid bicycle rider and keeps fit during the winter break by cycling in the mountains around his home city Braşov. A video featuring the young race driver descending the famous

Transfăgărășan The Transfăgărășan (''trans'' + Făgăraș Mountains, ''Făgăraș''; Hungarian language, Hungarian: Transzfogarasi út) or DN7C is a paved mountain road crossing the southern section of the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. It has Roads in Ro ...

highway in

on his Trek racing bike became an instant hit on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Racing record

Career summary

^† As Marinescu was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.

Complete Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 results

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

Complete Formula Renault 2.0 NEC results

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

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

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

Complete FIA Formula Two Championship results

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

Complete GP2 Final results

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

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marinescu, Mihai 1989 births Living people Sportspeople from Brașov Romanian racing drivers Belgian Formula Renault 1.6 drivers Italian Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Formula Renault Eurocup drivers French Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Formula Renault 2.0 NEC drivers Formula BMW Pacific drivers Formula BMW Europe drivers Formula BMW USA drivers International Formula Master drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers FIA Formula Two Championship drivers GP2 Series drivers World Series Formula V8 3.5 drivers Eurocup Mégane Trophy drivers Prema Powerteam drivers Rapax Team drivers Zeta Corse drivers RC Motorsport drivers Motaworld Racing drivers Double R Racing drivers Italian Formula Renault 1.6 drivers Scuderia Coloni drivers