Luca Filippi (born 9 August 1985 in Savigliano, Italy) is an Italian former auto racing driver. He competed in GP2 Series from 2006 to 2012, and the IndyCar Series from 2013 to 2016. In 2008, he was the official Honda Racing F1 test driver.
Career
Formula Renault Filippi made the step out of karting in 2003, competing in Formula Renault 2.0 Italia, where he finished third in 2004 behind Pastor Maldonado and Kohei Hirate.
Formula 3000 Filippi stepped up to the Italian Formula 3000 series in 2005, driving for Giancarlo Fisichella's Fisichella Motorsport team. He also made his Formula One test debut in 2005 with Minardi in the team's last test.
GP2 Series
Fisichella joined forces with the Coloni Motorsport GP2 Series team in 2006, and Filippi was selected as a driver for the team. However, he switched to the BCN Competición team mid-way through the season.
In 2007, Filippi continued in GP2 with Super Nova Racing and emerged as one of the series' top performers, finishing the season in fourth position.
On 14 November 2007, Filippi tested for Honda Racing F1. On 6 December Filippi tested for Super Aguri F1, being even faster than regular race driver Takuma Sato.
For the inaugural GP2 Asia Series season in early 2008, Filippi raced for Team Meritus, a Malaysian team who entered the series due to regular series team Racing Engineering not competing in the winter series. He only managed to score four points in ten races, finishing in seventeenth place.
Filippi drove for the ART Grand Prix team in the first half of the 2008 GP2 Series season, alongside Romain Grosjean. Following a disappointing first half of the season, he left the team in favour of Sakon Yamamoto after ten races. Filippi was confirmed as a driver at the Arden International team two days later, where he replaced Yelmer Buurman. His results failed to improve and he finished nineteenth in the championship.
Filippi returned to BCN Competición for the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season, but was replaced by Fabrizio Crestani as a result of the team's purchase after the first round of the season.
For the 2009 GP2 Series season, he returned to the Super Nova team and took the final win of the season at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. His result promoted him up to fifth overall in the championship standings.
Filippi returned to Team Meritus for the 2009–10 GP2 Asia Series season, and finished as runner-up in the championship standings, taking Meritus' first victory in the series in Bahrain.
Filippi began the 2010 GP2 Series season without a drive, but returned to Super Nova mid-season to replace the injured Josef Král. He took five points from ten races before Král returned for the season finale, finishing twentieth in the championship. During this period, Filippi became the most experienced GP2 driver in the series' history, beating Javier Villa's record of 82 race entries.
Filippi was drafted into the Scuderia Coloni team for the second round of the 2011 GP2 Asia Series season after regular driver James Jakes opted to move to the United States in order to pursue a career in the IndyCar Series. He returned once again to Super Nova for the main series, alongside Fairuz Fauzy. After five rounds of the championship, he switched back to Coloni, replacing Kevin Ceccon. He immediately registered an improvement in form, winning his first race for the team at the Nürburgring, which also marked his one-hundredth race in the series. He also won the Spa-Francorchamps sprint race and the Monza feature race, propelling him to a career-best second place in the drivers' championship.
After almost a year away from GP2, Filippi was again called up by Coloni as a replacement for Stefano Coletti for his home race of the 2012 championship at Monza. Despite his absence from the series, he won the feature race. He also secured pole position for the following (and final) round of the championship in Singapore, but crashed heavily during the feature race, damaging his car beyond immediate repair and thus non-starting the sprint race. Nevertheless, he still finished sixteenth in the drivers' championship despite contesting only four of the series' 24 races.
Auto GP Filippi contested in the 2010 Auto GP season, where he finished fifth in the drivers' standings with two victories, topping and tailing the season with the first race at Brno and the last race at Monza. He returned to the series the following year, taking one pole position, three fastest laps, one win and five further podiums, finishing as runner-up to Kevin Ceccon by only three points despite having missed two races.
IndyCar
On 6 March 2012, it was announced that Filippi would join Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the IndyCar series from the Indy 500 onwards. He would have partnered ex-Formula 1 driver Takuma Sato; despite this, he did not take part in the Indy 500 nor in the following races. He competed in four races in 2013 for Bryan Herta Autosport, scoring a best finish of fifteenth.
CFH Racing signed Filippi for the 2015 IndyCar season to compete at the road/street races.
For the 2016 season, Filippi signed with Dale Coyne Racing to compete in the whole season, ovals included. His first race on an oval track was in Phoenix, Arizona, where he finished in twentieth. A few days before the GP of Indianapolis, Coyne excluded Filippi from both Indy events and signed Gabby Chaves in place of the Italian driver.
Formula E
2017 saw Filippi join Nio in the all-electric FIA Formula E Championship alongside Oliver Turvey, where he picked up a point in his debut race with a tenth-place finish in the 2017 Hong Kong ePrix. Despite a strong debut, Filippi failed to pick up another point during the season. He missed the Paris ePrix, so that Ma Qinghua could fulfil a contract deal. He scored just one point to Turvey's 46 and was dropped by NIO for the 2018/19 season.
Racing record
Career summary Season Series Team name Races Poles Wins Podiums Points Position 2005 Italian Formula 3000 Fisichella Motor Sport 8 4 4 6 65 1st 2006 GP2 Series Petrol Ofisi FMS International 6 0 0 0 2 19th BCN Competición 12 0 0 0 5 2007 GP2 Series Super Nova International 21 2 1 6 59 4th 2008 GP2 Asia Series Qi-Meritus Mahara 10 0 0 0 4 17th GP2 Series ART Grand Prix 10 0 0 1 5 19th Arden International 10 0 0 0 1 Formula One Honda Racing F1 Team Test driver 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series BCN Competición 2 0 0 0 0 NC 2009 GP2 Series Super Nova Racing 21 0 1 4 40 5th 2009–10 GP2 Asia Series MalaysiaQi-Meritus.com 8 1 1 3 39 2nd 2010 GP2 Series Super Nova Racing 10 1 0 0 5 20th Auto GP Euronova Racing 10 2 1 3 34 5th 2011 GP2 Series Super Nova Racing 10 0 0 1 9 2nd Scuderia Coloni 8 0 3 4 45 GP2 Asia Series 2 0 0 0 0 20th Auto GP Super Nova Racing 12 1 1 6 127 2nd 2012 GP2 Series Scuderia Coloni 4 1 1 1 29 16th 2013 IndyCar Series Barracuda Racing 4 0 0 0 53 30th 2014 IndyCar Series Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 4 0 0 0 46 28th 2015 IndyCar Series Carpenter Fisher Hartman Racing 10 0 0 1 182 21st 2016 IndyCar Series Dale Coyne Racing 5 0 0 0 61 26th 2017 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup Attempto Racing 0 0 0 0 0 NC Orange 1 Team Lazarus 2 0 0 0 Intercontinental GT Challenge Orange 1 Team Lazarus 1 0 0 0 0 NC 2017–18 Formula E Nio Formula E Team 11 0 0 0 1 21st 2019 TCR Europe Touring Car Series BRC Racing Team 14 1 0 1 99 16th 2020 World Touring Car Cup Team Mulsanne 11 0 0 0 0 NC† 2020–21 Formula E Nio 333 FE TeamReserve driver 2021 Pure ETCR Championship Romeo Ferraris/M1RA 5 0 0 1 218 7th 2022 FIA ETCR – eTouring Car World Cup Romeo Ferraris600018112th † As Filippi was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points. * Season still in progress.
Complete Formula Renault 2.0 Italia 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 13 14 15 16 17 DC Points 2003 Euronova Junior Team VLL VLL MGI SPA SPA A1R A1R MIS MIS VAR ADR MNZ 18th 16 2004 Euronova Junior Team VLL1 VLL2 VAR MGI SPA1 SPA2 MNZ1 MNZ2 MNZ3 MIS1 MIS2 MIS3 ADR HOC1 HOC2 MNZ1 MNZ2 3rd 234
Complete Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup 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 13 14 15 16 17 DC Points 2003 Euronova Junior Team BRN1 BRN2 ASS1 ASS2OSC1OSC2 DON1 DON2 41st 0 2004 Euronova Junior TeamMNZ1MNZ2VAL1VAL2MAG1MAG2HOC1HOC2BRN1BRN2DON1DON2SPAIMO1IMO2OSC1OSC2 20th 14
Complete Euro/Italian Formula 3000 Championship 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 DC Points 2004 Euronova Racing BRN EST JER MNZ SPA DON DIJ ZOL NÜR1 NÜR2 20th 0 2005 Fisichella Motorsport ADR VLL BRN IMO MUG MGI MNZ MIS 1st 65
Complete GP2 Series 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 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 DC Points 2006 Petrol Ofisi FMS International VALFEA VALSPR IMOFEA IMOSPR NÜRFEA NÜRSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA 19th 7 BCN Competición SILFEA SILSPR MAGFEA MAGSPR HOCFEA HOCSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR MNZFEA MNZSPR 2007 Super Nova International BHRFEA BHRSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MAGFEA MAGSPR SILFEA SILSPR NÜRFEA NÜRSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR MNZFEA MNZSPR SPAFEA SPASPR VALFEA VALSPR 4th 59 2008 ART Grand Prix CATFEA CATSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR MONFEA MONSPR MAGFEA MAGSPR SILFEA SILSPR 19th 6 Arden International HOCFEA HOCSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR VALFEA VALSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR 2009 Super Nova Racing CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR SILFEA SILSPR NÜRFEA NÜRSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR VALFEA VALSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR PORFEA PORSPR 5th 40 2010 Super Nova Racing CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR ISTFEA ISTSPR VALFEA VALSPR SILFEA SILSPR HOCFEA HOCSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR YMCFEA YMCSPR 20th 5 2011 Super Nova Racing ISTFEA ISTSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR VALFEA VALSPR SILFEA SILSPR 2nd 54 Scuderia ColoniNÜRFEANÜRSPRHUNFEAHUNSPRSPAFEASPASPRMNZFEAMNZSPR 2012 Scuderia ColoniSEPFEASEPSPRBHR1FEABHR1SPRBHR2FEABHR2SPRCATFEACATSPRMONFEAMONSPRVALFEAVALSPRSILFEASILSPRHOCFEAHOCSPRHUNFEAHUNSPRSPAFEASPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR MRNFEA MRNSPR 16th 29
Complete GP2 Asia Series 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 2008 Qi-Meritus Mahara DUB1FEA DUB1SPR IDNFEA SENSPR SEPFEA SEPSPR BHRFEA BHRSPR DUB2FEA DUB2SPR 17th 4 2008–09 BCN Competición SHIFEA SHISPR DUBFEA DUBSPR BHR1FEA BHR1SPR LSLFEA LSLSPR SEPFEA SEPSPR BHR2FEA BHR2SPR NC 0 2009–10 MalaysiaQi-Meritus.com YMC1FEA YMC1SPR YMC2FEA YMC2SPR BHR1FEA BHR1SPR BHR2FEA BHR2SPR 2nd 29 2011 Scuderia Coloni YMCFEA YMCSPR IMOFEA IMOSPR 20th 0
Complete Auto GP series 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 13 14 Pos Points 2010 Euronova Racing BRN1 BRN2 IMO1 IMO2 SPA1 SPA2 MAG1 MAG2 5th 34 Super Nova Racing NAV1 NAV2 MNZ1 MNZ2 2011 Super Nova Racing MNZ1 MNZ2 HUN1 HUN2 BRN1 BRN2 DON1 DON2 OSC1 OSC2 VAL1 VAL2 MUG1 MUG2 2nd 127
IndyCar Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team No. Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Rank Points Ref 2013 Barracuda Racing 98 Dallara DW12 Honda STP ALA LBH SAO INDY DET DET TXS MIL IOW POC TOR TOR MDO SNM BAL HOU HOU FON 30th 53 2014 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 16 STP LBH ALA IMS INDY DET DET TXS HOU HOU POC IOW TOR TOR MDO MIL SNM FON 28th 46 2015 CFH Racing 20 Chevrolet STP NLA LBH ALA IMS INDY DET DET TXS TOR FON MIL IOW MDO POCSNM 21st 182 2016 Dale Coyne Racing 19 Honda STP PHX LBH ALA IMS INDY DET DET RDA IOW TOR MDO POC TXS WGL SNM 26th 61
Complete Formula E results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)