Natacha Gachnang

Natacha Gachnang (born 27 October 1987 in Vevey, Switzerland) is a Swiss race driver and the cousin of former Formula One driver Sébastien Buemi. In 2010 she was a member of the first all-female crew to race at Le Mans 24 hours since 1991, and she competed at Le Mans again in 2013.

Natacha Gachnang
Gachnang in 2008
Nationality	Swiss
Born	(1987-10-27) 27 October 1987 (age 37) Vevey, Switzerland
Related to	Sébastien Buemi (cousin)
FIA Formula Two Championship career
Debut season	2009
Current team	MotorSport Vision
Car number	18
Starts	16
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	23rd in 2009

Career

• 2001 Swiss junior karting champion.
• 2002 Formula BMW ADAC Meisterschaft test – fourth of 64 drivers.
• 2003 Formula BMW ADAC Meisterschaft – one fourth-place finish.
• 2004 Formula BMW ADAC Meisterschaft – two fourth-place finishes.
• 2005 Formula BMW ADAC Meisterschaft – sixth, three podiums.
• 2006 Formula 3 Cup – one podium, nine top-10 finishes.
• 2007 Star Mazda 3- two podiums.
• 2007/2008 A1 Grand Prix - Rookie driver for Switzerland (Brno)^[1]

On 17 December 2008, it was announced she would be the first female to drive in the new Formula One feeder series FIA Formula Two Championship.^[2] She finished 23rd in the campaign, scoring two points.

• 2008 Spanish Formula 3 - four podiums.
• 2009 Formula 2 - one top-10 finish.

For the 2010 season she teamed up with Cyndie Allemann and raced for the Swiss Matech team in a GT1 class Ford GT in the FIA GT1 World Championship.^[3] During qualifying for the first round of the championship in Abu Dhabi, she crashed heavily, breaking her right tibia.^[4]

She returned to racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Gachnang and Allemann being joined by fellow Swiss Rahel Frey. This marked the first time since 1991, with Lyn St. James, Desire Wilson and Cathy Muller, that an all-female team competed at Le Mans.^[5]

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2003	Formula BMW ADAC	Privateer	20	0	0	0	0	13	19th
2004	Formula BMW ADAC	AM-Holzer Rennsport GmbH	19	0	0	0	0	37	12th
2005	Formula BMW ADAC	Josef Kaufmann Racing	20	0	0	0	3	90	6th
2006	German Formula 3 Championship - Cup	Bordoli Motorsport	14	0	0	0	1	11	13th
	German Formula 3 Championship - Trophy		4	0	0	0	2	17	11th
	Österreichische Rennwagen Meisterschaft		2	1	0	0	2	35	4th[6]
	Formula 3 Euro Series		3	0	0	0	0	0	24th
		Jo Zeller Racing	4	0	0	0	0
2007	Star Mazda Championship	AIM Autosport	7	0	0	?	2	217	15th
	Atlantic Championship	Paladin Motorsports	0	0	0	0	0	0	34th
2008	Spanish Formula 3 Championship - Class A	Campos F3 Racing	17	0	1	2	4	76	3rd
	Spanish Formula 3 Championship - Copa F300		17	5	3	6	12	110	1st
2009	FIA Formula Two Championship	MotorSport Vision	16	0	0	0	0	2	23rd
	Formula Le Mans Cup	Hope Polevision Racing	7	0	1	0	2	52	10th
	Radical European Masters		8	1	1	4	8	133	5th
2010	Auto GP	Charouz-Gravity Racing	6	0	0	0	0	1	21st
	FIA GT1 World Championship	Matech Competition	2	0	0	0	0	0	60th
	Le Mans 24 Hours - LMGT1		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
2011	V de V Challenge Endurance Proto	Équipe Palmyr	1	0	?	?	0	5	44th
2012	VLN Series	Toyota Swiss Racing Team	3	0	0	?	?	10	507th
	24 Hours of Nürburgring - V3		1	1	1	1	1	N/A	1st
2013	European Le Mans Series	Morand Racing	5	0	0	0	3	58	7th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	5th
2015	V de V Challenge Endurance Proto	Équipe Palmyr	4	0	0	0	2	83.5	11th

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2006	Bordoli Motorsport	Dallara F305/026	Opel	HOC1 1	HOC1 2	LAU 1	LAU 2	OSC 1	OSC 2	BRH 1	BRH 2	NOR 1 15	NOR 2 DNS	NÜR 1 23	NÜR 2 15	ZAN 1	ZAN 2	CAT 1	CAT 2					24th	0
	Jo Zeller Racing	Dallara F306/014	Opel																	LMS 1 12	LMS 2 Ret	HOC2 1 13	HOC2 2 10

Complete FIA Formula Two Championship results

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

Year	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Points
2009	VAL 1 11	VAL 2 Ret	BRN 1 14	BRN 2 Ret	SPA 1 11	SPA 2 13	BRH 1 14	BRH 2 15	DON 1 13	DON 2 Ret	OSC 1 11	OSC 2 12	IMO 1 15	IMO 2 Ret	CAT 1 7	CAT 2 13	23rd	2

Complete Auto GP Results

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos	Points
2010	Charouz-Gravity Racing	BRN 1	BRN 2	IMO 1	IMO 2	SPA 1 12	SPA 2 11	MAG 1	MAG 2	NAV 1 8	NAV 2 7	MNZ 1 15	MNZ 2 10	21st	1

Complete GT1 World Championship results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pos	Points
2010	Matech Competition	Ford	ABU QR DNS	ABU CR DNS	SIL QR	SIL CR	BRN QR	BRN CR	PRI QR 18	PRI CR Ret	SPA QR	SPA CR	NÜR QR	NÜR CR	ALG QR	ALG CR	NAV QR	NAV CR	INT QR	INT CR	SAN QR	SAN CR	60th	0

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2010	Matech Competition	Cyndie Allemann Rahel Frey	Ford GT1	GT1	59	DNF	DNF
2013	Morand Racing	Franck Mailleux Olivier Lombard	Morgan LMP2-Judd	LMP2	320	11th	5th

Complete European Le Mans Series results

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

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	Rank	Points
2013	Morand Racing	LMP2	Morgan LMP2	Judd HK 3.6 L V8	SIL Ret	IMO 3	RBR 3	HUN 5	LEC 2	7th	58

References

1. http://www.motorsport.com/#!/a1gp/news/brno-practice-1-times-2007-10-13/?v=2&s=1&q=Natacha+Gachnang&i=5 Brno Practice 1 times - Motorsport.com. Retrieved 3 February 2012
2. "Formula 1 News, Live Grand Prix Updates, Videos, Drivers and Results - ESPN". Archived from the original on 2008-12-19. Retrieved 2008-12-19.
3. "Bernoldi eyes GT1 title with Ford". Autosport. 2010-03-04.
4. Watkins, Gary (2010-04-16). "No surgery required for Gachnang". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 2010-04-16.
5. "All Female Team Hoped to Make History at Le Mans". Vintage Motorsport. 2010-06-12. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2010-06-13.
6. "Österreichische Staatsmeisterschaften 2006 Rennwagen" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-08-30.

External links

• Official website
• Campos Grandprix website
• Official Spanish Formula 3 website
• Photos by driver: Natacha Gachnang Archived 2011-06-06 at the Wayback Machine at Motorsport.com
• Natacha Gachnang career summary at DriverDB.com
• Formula 2 Series' Natacha Gachnang at Jalopnik

Sporting positions
Preceded by Christian Ebbesvik	Spanish Formula Three Copa de España Champion 2008	Succeeded by Callum MacLeod