Premier Profile

Gabriel “Gabby” Chaves

Date of birth:	July 7, 1993 (18 y/o)
Place of birth:	Bogota, Colombia
Races entered:	110
Wins:	27
Podiums:	48
Pole positions:	12
Fastest laps:	8
Race win percentage:	24.55%
(the above statistics are a summary of the data currently available on the Career details page.)

Gabriel Chaves's biography

2010

2010 Italian F3 Rookie Champion

2009

Formula BMW Americas Champion

2008

4th Place Formula BMW Pacific

2007

Skip Barber Southern Regional Series Champion

2006

Winner Skip Barber Annual Scholarship Shoot-Out

Early days

With a mom who used to race cars in her native Colombia and a father who flies the heavies in the sky as an Airline pilot, it's barely surprising that young Gabby Chaves has gravitated towards a career in racing. He is also encouraged by his grandfather who was a race car driver in the 60s, and by his uncle who raced during 8 years in Colombia and England.

Gabriel was born on July 7 1993. He started his racing career in karting at the age of 11, during the year that he was ranked in USTA’s top ten tennis players of his age group, a sport that he continues to practice among others to up-grade his physical shape. He’s always been focused on his goals and now he was facing a new difficult challenge. Few months after complete dedication, discipline, and devotion, he took his first karting National title on August 28, 2005, victory that entitled him to participate in the karting world final in Parma, Italy where he qualified 2nd and finished 4th among the best 72 drivers of the world in his class group.

In 2006, Gabby continued to achieve nonstop victories and won the four most prestigious karting championships in the USA in three different classes.
For being one of the top karting drivers known of the American Continent, Gabby was among the offered to a promotional test in a formula Renault 1600cc of the Panam GP Series, Series that was not very aware that Gabby was only 12 years old, but since this was handled as a private test and in his native country of Colombia, there was no objection for his age at this point. During this test Gabby exceeded all expectations from the organization and after a heated debate he was accepted and age waved to participate in this championship.

Gabby started to make history by being the youngest formula driver of the world to compete in an Automobile sanctioned event by taking the starting grid of his first race at the Autodromo Los Volcanes of Guatemala City on May 13, 2006. His short journey through 3 races of this championship started to show the initial sparks of a talented young driver with excellent car and mental control.

By the end of 2006 Gabby, at 13 years of age was accepted to compete for the famed Skip Barber Racing School scholarship annual shoot-out. He was one of the winners of the formula 2000cc scholarship after competing during 3 days against over 50 other drivers. Again, Gabby continues to make history by being the youngest ever to win this scholarship. With this award he competed the 2007 Eastern Regional Series taking the runner-up spot with the most number of wins of this championship.

He enrolled to compete in the next Regional championship the 2007/2008 Southern Series. Gabby, once again made another unprecedented achievement by winning this championship undefeated with 10 straight victories. When he moved to the National Series, he continued to strike his winning roll by taking the first 3 rounds with consecutive victories at the National Series, he was now up to 17 consecutive victories, another unprecedented fact that continues to make history in this racing series.

Meanwhile Gabby was in the process to obtain a FIA license to start competing at the Formula BMW to continue his learning process and sure enough, he got this permission despite his age of 14, where the regulations limit the age to turn 16 years of age during the season but because of his good records he was waved the age limitation and was presented with this license to run the 2008 BMW Pacific Series. During his participation in this series he had a noticeable appearance in his learning season by being a front runner, climbing to the podium and scoring the fastest laps of some races. He finished 4th on the championship.

In 2009 Gabby joined team Eurointernational to compete in the Formula BMW Americas. With the experience on the BMW car on his side from the previous season, it was not a surprise for many people when Gabby clinched the Championship before it ended, with two races yet to go. Again, he set an unprecedented record by finishing on the podium in every race. Five victories, eight second places, and one third place are the final results of this 2009 season. In addition he set 8 track records, 3 pole positions, and 4 racing fastest laps.

In 2011 Gabby competed in the Italian F3 Series with Eurointernational Team and being new to all the tracks he was 10th in the Championship and won the Rookie Title.

In 2011 Gabby will compete in the GP3 Series with Addax Team as another step towards Formula One, which is his main goal.

Gabby is an honor student as he keeps his craft and learning lessons on and off the track. He is a fierce competitor, but despite his young age, you will not spot him throwing any tantrums. Gabby knows that there is a lesson to be learned in any loss, and it’d be hard to get him down anyway, because he knows there’s another race coming soon…and he can’t wait.“The success of my career has been a product of my disciplined training, mental control and meditation.”

This profile page was last modified 2012-04-04 14:43:18 by Andreas Åberg
Modification: Star Mazda 2012