Giedo van der Garde

At 39 years old, Giedo van der Garde has this physical status:

Giedo van der Garde (born Giedo Gijsbertus Gerrit van der Garde; 25 April 1985 in Rhenen, Netherlands) is a Dutch racing driver.

He drove for the Caterham F1 team in 2013 and joined Sauber as a reserve driver in 2014.

Personal life

In December 2013, Van der Garde married his long-time girlfriend Denise Boekhoorn, daughter of Dutch businessman and investor Marcel Boekhoorn, at a ceremony in Zwolle, Netherlands.

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Career

Van der Garde had a fruitful karting career, winning the Dutch championship in 1998. He was the best rookie in 2001 and the world champion in 2002.

He debuted in the Formula Renault 2000 Championship and finished sixth in the Netherlands, driving for Dutch team Van Amersfoort Racing. He joined Renault's F1 Driver Development initiative as a result of his success.

He joined the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2004, but after finishing the year ninth, Renault Driver Development dropped him. For 2005, a move to Team Rosberg culminated in the eighth in the series.

He joined the ASM team in 2006, which had dominated the season with Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil. Once more in 2006, the team claimed first place in the championship, but it was Van der Garde's colleagues, Paul di Resta and Sebastian Vettel, who topped the leader board. With a single victory, the Dutchman ended the year sixth.

Van der Garde revealed on December 17th that he will compete in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series for Victory Engineering, a team that works together with Carlin Motorsport.

Van der Garde had a podium position in mind for the season, but even though he was the most consistent driver, he did not win or finish the podium. In the Rookie of the Year standings, he finished his season 6th, 3rd. Several offers for experiments in GP2, including ones from DAMS and Arden International, which he impressed.

In the 2008 season, he signed with P1 Motorsport to compete in P1 Motorsport.

Van der Garde qualified on pole for the feature race in Monza's first race of the 2008 FR3.5 season. Due to rules, he began 8th in the sprint meet because of the sprint order's reverse grid order. He came across the field to win in the sprint, and then moved his pole position into a victory in the feature race to showcase his fine form in the offseason.

He barely missed out on pole by 0.033 seconds in the second race at Spa, barely missing out on pole by 0.033 seconds after previously placing the top of the tables at all practice sessions. Julien Jousse collided with him, causing Van der Garde to drop from the competition. He started second in the feature race but left a position at the start. On the first lap, he quickly overtook Mikhail Aleshin to regain his position, and later overtook Marco Bonanomi for the lead, which he held to the checkered flag.

Van der Garde was never expected to be in the championship and ultimately took the championship with two races remaining after this good start to the season.

Van der Garde volunteered to drive for the iSport International team in the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season and the 2009 GP2 Series season. He won his first match in the sprint at the Hungaroring. He won two more games before the season came to an end, en route to seventh in the championship standings.

He was not expected to compete in the 2009–10 GP2 Asia season, but he did well in the second round for Barwa Addax. He rode for the same team in the 2010 GP2 Series, earning his seventh rank in the drivers' championship, while teammate Sergio Pérez finished runner-up.

Van der Garde stayed with Barwa Addax in the 2011 Asia Series season, with Charles Pic replacing Formula One's Pérez as his teammate. Despite not winning a race, he came in third place in the championship, behind Romain Grosjean and Jules Bianchi, and he led the main series after two rounds. He did, however, take his first series pole position and fastest lap at Catalunya. He began rated for the Monaco round as well, but was later suspended for an incident in qualifying. Grosjean, who eventually secured the championship with just one round remaining in the series, took no points from the weekend and lost his championship lead to him. He maintained second place in the championship until the last round of the season at Monza, where he suffered over the weekend and fell to fifth place in the standings, behind Luca Filippi, Bianchi and Pic.

Van der Garde joined the Caterham Formula One team's reserve driver for the 2012 season, alongside Rodolfo González. With race victories in Catalunya and Singapore, he was able to win a championship, but he was also not strong enough to mount a podium challenge, finishing fifth in the points standings.

Van der Garde returned to this series for testing on February 9, 2015, racking up over 350 kilometers at the Circuit Rimo. For the first time, he rode for Campos Racing (previously known as Addax).

Van der Garde was first accepted into the McLaren Young Drivers Programme in 2006.

Van der Garde was named as the Super Aguri Formula One team's test and reserve driver for the 2007 season on December 15, 2006.

Spyker F1 announced Van der Garde as the team's test and reserve pilot on February 1, 2007. Super Aguri also stated that their existing deal with Van der Garde was still in force on February 2, 2007, adding that "the Super Aguri F1 Team has a valid deal with Giedo van der Garde to drive for the team in the position of Friday and Test Driver for the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship." "The SAF1 Team submitted the contract to the Contract Recognition Board on January 23rd, 2007." Van der Garde did however test at Silverstone with Spyker on June 20, indicating that the employment issue had been resolved. Spyker had intended Van der Garde to be the team's Friday driver at the Australian Grand Prix, but the FIA refused to provide the required superlicence in time.

Van der Garde tried to compete in Formula One for Virgin in 2011, but the position was eventually vacated to Belgian Jérôme d'Ambrosio.

Van der Garde would be the Reserve Driver for Caterham F1 from February 4th, 2012. Van der Garde's first Friday practice session came at the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix, and he continued to complete 6 Friday training sessions throughout the 2012 season.

Van der Garde's boss revealed on February 1st that he would be driving for Caterham as their second driver for the 2013 Formula One championship season, next to Charles Pic. Van der Garde won his first Formula One race in 2013 with a 18th place finish at the 2013 Australian Grand Prix.

Van der Garde, the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix champion, claimed a P15 in Caterham's highest ever qualifying position, as well as the first time a Caterham made it to Q2 in the 2013 season. Despite a minor collision with Williams F1 driver Pastor Maldonado, Van der Garde equaled his career best 15th during the series. He later improved on his results by placing 14th overall in the 2013 Hong Kong Grand Prix, ahead of his teammate Pic, as well as Marussia's Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton.

After choosing to go on slicks on a continuously damp track, he then placed in third place in qualifying, qualifying for his previous best qualifying position at the 2013 Belgian Grand Prix by qualifying 14th, he finished the Q1 session in third place, repeating a similar tactic. Despite a good start that saw him stay in touch with the more established teams for the first few laps, he was unable to develop upon his grid position and finished 16th, a lap behind the leaders.

Van der Garde had signed Sauber F1 Team as a reserve and test pilot for the 2014 season, according to the company on January 21, 2014. In this role, he was in the first free practice session in seven of the season's Grand Prix's Grand Prix's.

Van der Garde has said that although he was promised a role as one of the Sauber's two nominated racers for the 2015 Formula One season in June 2014, the team informed him that he was no longer needed. Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr have been ruled as the team's primary race leaders for the 2015 season, prompting Van der Garde to file an international arbitration complaint with the Swiss Chambers' Arbitration Institution in December 2014.

The Swiss Chamber of Arbitration Institution released a partial award upholding Van der Garde's deal and instructing Sauber to "refrain from taking any action that could result in the depriving Mr. van der Garde of his right to compete in the 2015 Formula One Season as one of Sauber's two nominated race drivers" on March 2nd.

Van der Garde's management company filed an application in an Australian Court on March 5th, 2015, demanding the Swiss award. In this instance, Australia was the appropriate jurisdiction because it was the site of the first F1 Grand Prix for the season. Ericsson and Nasr, Sauber's current owners who were not parties to the Swiss arbitration, were allowed to be present and heard by the court.

Van der Garde obtained court orders enforcing his Swiss award, causing Sauber to force Van der Garde to attend the Australian Grand Prix, which will take place in Melbourne, Australia, from Friday, 13 to Sunday, March 15th. Sauber's response was to appeal the decision and declare that they did not risk the safety of the team or other drivers by inserting Van der Garde in the vehicle because the Sauber C34 chassis was designed to accommodate Ericsson and Nasr, who were also interested in the appeal.

The appeal was heard the following day, on Thursday, 12 March 2015, when Sauber claimed that Van der Garde's employment had been terminated by the team in February with the blessing of the FIA's Contract Recognition Board and that Van der Garde breached the confidentiality provisions by speaking to the media. Van der Garde did not follow due process by failing to give prior notice of his legal proceeding until it was not initiated, according to lawyers for Ericsson and Nasr. However, the appeal was dismissed, despite the court's decision to encourage Van der Garde to compete in the upcoming race. Further, the trial was postponed until the following day to hear arguments in contempt of court proceedings brought by Van der Garde's lawyers against Sauber's team principal, Monisha Kaltenborn.

Sauber declined to attend the first practice session for the Australian Grand Prix on Friday morning due to the likelihood of having its funds confiscated for disobeying court orders. However, Ericsson and Nasr attended the second practice session on Friday afternoon, despite media rumors of Bernie Ecclestone's intervention to avoid more negative media coverage of the sport.

The feud on Saturday, March 14, 2015, came to a temporary conclusion thanks to Van der Garde's announcement that he would forego racing in Melbourne in the hopes of finding a more permanent solution. The Sauber team and its new ones for 2015, Ericsson and Nasr, were therefore able to complete the Australian Grand Prix qualifying session and the Sunday race.

Van der Garde announced that he and Sauber had signed an agreement on March 18th, after he relinquished, once and for all, his eligibility to compete in Formula 1. Van der Garde received compensation in the amount of USD$16 million in exchange for the termination of the relationship by mutual consent. The uproar, however, continued due to a statement released by Van der Garde pointing out that his main aim had been to promote the interests of racing drivers, although his wages were often not honored. The Sauber team expressed surprise at Van der Garde's post-settlement remark and refused to comment further on the subject.

Van der Garde's boss denied rumors of a return to Formula One during the 2015 season, with Manor Marussia adding that the primary goal was a 2016 race seat in DTM or LMP1.

Van der Garde was often asked for his analysis in Dutch TV Shows as Max Verstappen joined Formula One in 2015. Van der Garde appeared on several Dutch television shows from 2015 to 2021 to discuss Verstappen in Formula One. Van der Garde will join Viaplay's analyst team from 2022 to 2022. Van der Garde is joined by several analysts, including former Formula One racer Christijan Albers and racing driver Tom Coronel, who appear on the new Dutch sports channel.

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