Gregor Foitek (born 27 March 1965) is a Swiss former racing driver whose career included Formula One, CART and a championship-winning spell in Formula Three. He captured the Swiss Formula Three title in 1986 before entering 22 Formula One Grands Prix across 1989 and 1990. He made nine race starts but scored no championship points.
Driver Bio
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Birthplace | Zurich, Switzerland |
| Born | 27 March 1965 |
| First Grand Prix | 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix |
| Last Grand Prix | 1990 Hungarian Grand Prix |
| Years Active | 1989–1990 |
| Current/Last Team | Onyx |
Foitek later crossed the Atlantic for two CART appearances with Foyt Enterprises in 1992, although mechanical failures ended both outings. Away from racing, he became involved with Foitek Automobile, his family’s Ferrari and Maserati dealership in Altendorf, Switzerland.
Formula One career
1989: EuroBrun and Rial
Foitek arrived in Formula One at an especially unforgiving moment. Turbocharged engines had been outlawed for 1989, encouraging a flood of new and returning entries. With 39 cars chasing limited grid positions, 13 drivers first had to survive the dreaded pre-qualifying session.
EuroBrun’s poor 1988 results placed Foitek among that group, and his equipment offered little help. The ER188B was essentially a revised version of the previous season’s car and was already behind the times. At the opening Brazilian Grand Prix, Foitek escaped pre-qualifying and reached the main qualifying session, but still missed the grid. It proved to be the closest he came during his time with EuroBrun. After failing to advance at the following ten rounds, he left the team.
A second opportunity appeared at the Spanish Grand Prix, where Rial recruited him to replace Christian Danner. The change removed the pre-qualifying hurdle, but not the underlying problem: the ARC2 was painfully slow. Rial’s season was unravelling, several staff members had departed, and Foitek’s car was around five seconds slower than the next competitor.
His sole weekend with the team ended violently when the rear wing failed at high speed, sending him into a major accident. Foitek walked away from Rial immediately afterwards.
1990: Brabham and Onyx
Foitek began 1990 in considerably more respectable surroundings, joining Brabham as a temporary stand-in while David Brabham prepared for his Formula One promotion. He qualified for both of his appearances and finally made his World Championship race debut on the streets of Phoenix. Neither Phoenix nor the following Brazilian Grand Prix produced a finish, and David Brabham then took over the seat as planned.
Foitek quickly found another drive with Onyx, which was by then partly controlled by his father, Karl. He replaced Stefan Johansson, who had departed after becoming dissatisfied with the team’s management.
The move initially showed promise. Foitek qualified for his first four races with Onyx and came tantalisingly close to a championship point at Monaco. He was running sixth late in the race when contact with Eric Bernard, who was attempting to lap him, forced his retirement. Enough cars had already fallen by the wayside for Foitek to be classified seventh—his best Formula One result, but one position short of the points under the scoring system then in use.
Onyx’s limited finances increasingly dictated its results as the summer unfolded. Foitek qualified only once in the next four events. That success came at Hockenheim, where he and teammate JJ Lehto occupied the final row of the grid. The team staggered on until the Hungarian Grand Prix before collapsing altogether, bringing Foitek’s Formula One career to an abrupt close.
Grand Prix Stats
| Race Entries | 22 |
| Race Starts | 7 |
| Did Not Start | 0 |
| Best Race Start | 20th |
| Best Race Finish | 7th |
| Retirements | 6 |
| First-Lap Retirements | 0 |
| Not Classified | 0 |
| Disqualified | 0 |
| Did Not Qualify | 5 |
Qualifying
| Qualifying Sessions | 12 |
| Reached Q3 | 0 |
| Q2 Eliminations | 0 |
| Q1 Eliminations | 0 |
| Did Not Qualify | 5 |
Stats by Season
| Year | Constructor | Entries | Starts | Wins | Podiums | Poles | Fastest Laps | Front Rows | DNF | Best Start | Best Result | Pts Finishes | Points | Championship |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | EuroBrun / Rial | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | DNQ | DNQ | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 1990 | Brabham / Onyx | 10 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 20 | 7 | 0 | 0 | NC |
Stats by Constructor
| Constructor | Years | Entries | Starts | Wins | Podiums | Poles | Fastest Laps | Front Rows | DNF | Best Start | Best Result | Pts Finishes | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EuroBrun | 1989 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | DNQ | DNQ | 0 | 0 |
| Rial | 1989 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | DNQ | DNQ | 0 | 0 |
| Brabham | 1990 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 22 | DNF | 0 | 0 |
| Onyx | 1990 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 20 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
Teammates & Qualifying Head-to-Head
| Teammate | Years | Races | Qualifying H2H |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pierre-Henri Raphanel | 1989 | 1 | 0-1 |
| Stefano Modena | 1990 | 2 | 0-2 |
| JJ Lehto | 1990 | 8 | 5-3 |
