© Sutton Images

Lucas di Grassi has spent four years on the fringes of Formula One, seeing many of his contemporaries promoted to the top flight ahead of him. On his day he has beaten Robert Kubica, Sebastian Vettel, Timo Glock, Romain Grosjean and Bruno Senna but all of them have made the jump ahead of him.

The main reason he has been overlooked is because he has never won a championship in single seaters. However, this statistic is misleading as he has seldom been with a top team at the right time and has put in consistent performances throughout his career.

His greatest single achievement to date was winning the Macau Grand Prix in 2005 with Manor, beating one of the strongest fields in recent years at the F3 race. He held off Kubica and Vettel, winning by just 0.6 seconds while big names like Grosjean, Senna and Kazuki Nakajima barely featured.

This unlocked the door to GP2 where he spent the next four years of his career. His best result in F1's feeder series was in 2007 when he finished second in the championship to Timo Glock. However, his most impressive season was in 2008 when he joined the series halfway through and scored more points than any other driver from that point onwards.

As a Renault development driver, di Grassi tested for the team in 2008 but was beaten to a race seat by Nelson Piquet Jnr. He was then in the running for a Honda drive for 2009, completing a number of tests for the team alongside Senna. However, when the manufacturer withdrew from the sport, new team-owner Ross Brawn opted for experience over youth and kept Rubens Barrichello instead. Now he looks set to break into F1 again, this time with his old F3 team Manor.

Strengths and Weaknesses
He has consistently racked up podiums in his time in GP2 but a failure to win regularly has kept him from becoming champion.

Career high
Winning at Macau in 2005 against some of the sports top names.

Career low
Spinning out of the 2007 GP2 championship decider at Valencia - a mistake that cost him the championship to and a potential F1 drive.

Quotes
When asked who was more successful with the ladies, him or team-mate Dani Clos. "Definitely me, but I have a girlfriend. Actually, I would have been more successful if I didn't have a girlfriend."

"GP2 was my finishing school, my university before I got the job in Formula One. While other categories like F3 are important, I think GP2 plays a very important role as a fine tuning category; it is a fast car, very close to Formula One, and you race at the same circuits."

Trivia
He took up golf during the 2009 GP2 season and lists Tiger Wood's as one of his sporting heros.

Laurence Edmondson November 2009