José María López

José María López
López at the 2014 FIA WTCC Race of Belgium.
Nationality	Argentine
Born	26 April 1983 Río Tercero, Argentina
World Touring Car Championship career
Debut season	2013
Current team	Citroën Racing
Car no.	37
Former teams	Wiechers-Sport
Starts	55
Wins	24
Poles	16
Fastest laps	23
Best finish	1st in 2014, 2015
Previous series
2012–13 2008–13 2008–13 2008 2007–11 2007 2005–06 2004 2003–04 2003, 2005–06 2002 2001–02	Super TC 2000 Top Race V6 Turismo Carretera FIA GT Championship TC 2000 Championship American Le Mans Series GP2 Series International Formula 3000 Formula Renault V6 Eurocup Formula One testing Formula Renault Italia FR2000 Eurocup
Championship titles
2014–2015 2012 2009 2008–09 2003 2002	WTCC Super TC 2000 Top Race V6 TC 2000 Championship Formula Renault V6 Eurocup Formula Renault Italia

José María "Pechito" López (born 26 April 1983 in Río Tercero, Argentina) is an Argentine race car driver and reigning World Touring Car Champion. He raced in the 2006 GP2 Series for the Super Nova team, and previously for the DAMS team, and the CMS team in Formula 3000. He was also at Renault F1 as a test driver. On 16 December 2013 he joined the Citroën Total WTCC team for the 2014 World Touring Car Championship season.^[1]

Career

Early career

López began in karting, before moving to the Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup in 2001, finishing in 17th position, taking one pole position and one fastest lap.^[2] He stayed in the series for the 2002 season driving for Cram Competition, finishing in fourth position, taking one victory.^[2] He also drove for Cram in Italian Formula Renault that year, where he became champion, taking four wins, beating Robert Kubica to the crown. He moved on to the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup in 2003, making his first association with the DAMS team, winning the title with five race wins.^[2]

Formula 3000 and GP2

In 2004 López moved up to International Formula 3000 with the CMS team, finishing sixth overall.^[2] He also continued in the V6 Eurocup that year, driving in four races.

López raced in the inaugural season of the GP2 Series in 2005, making him one of only a select few drivers in the series who had previous experience of a full season in Formula 3000, the series which GP2 replaced. He finished ninth in the standings racing for the DAMS team.^[2] For 2006 he moved to the Super Nova Racing team, finishing tenth in the standings.^[2]

Return to Argentina

López won the opening round of the 2010 TC 2000 season in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

In the early part of 2007, López raced in the American Le Mans Series, racing a Ferrari 430 GT for Corsa Motorsports/White Lightning in the 12 Hours of Sebring, and for Risi Competizione at St. Petersburg.

López also returned to Argentina in 2007 to race in TC 2000, the country's major production-based touring car championship. He was 5th that year, won the drivers' title in 2008, and successfully defended this crown in 2009. López also joined the Turismo Carretera in 2008 and the Top Race V6 in 2009; he became TRV6 champion in 2009. He narrowly lost out on winning the 2009 Turismo Carretera title after crashing out on an oilspill on the 18th lap of the final race of the season, thereby losing the unique opportunity to win three different championships in the same season.

He also competed in selected races of the FIA GT Championship in 2008 for the ACA Argentina team.^[2]

Formula One

López was a member of the Renault Driver Development programme between 2004 and 2006, and was test driver for Renault F1 during the 2006 season.

In November 2009 López confirmed that he had a deal in place with the new US F1 Team to race in the 2010 Formula One season, provided he secured an eight million-dollar sponsorship package.^[3] Sources close to López claimed he already had eighty percent of the funds needed to secure his place in the team.^[4]

López was announced as a driver for US F1 on 25 January 2010.^[5] Former F1 driver Carlos Reutemann, a close friend of US F1 principal Peter Windsor and a leading politician in Argentina, helped put the funding package together for López. Complications in USF1's progress and uncertainty over whether USF1 would be able to stay in F1 for 2010 caused rumours to surface that López was in talks with rival team Campos, in order to secure his place in F1. This was confirmed by his manager in late February.^[6] On 2 March 2010, he was freed from his contract due to US F1 not being able to attempt to race. On 4 March, Karun Chandhok completed the 2010 grid by signing for Campos (now renamed as the Hispania Racing F1 Team), leaving López without a race drive.^[7]

Recent years in Argentina

In 2010, López remained driving for Honda in the Argentine TC 2000 championship, finishing 6th. For 2011 he switched to Fiat. In 2012 he won the (super) TC2000 championship for a third time, with privateer team PSG16.

López's Citroën C-Elysée WTCC in the 2014 WTCC season.

World Touring Car Championship

He made his World Touring Car Championship début with Wiechers-Sport at the 2013 FIA WTCC Race of Argentina, substituting for their regular driver Fredy Barth.^[8] He took both Yokohama Independents' Trophy victories and scored an overall victory in race two.^[9]

In 2014, he moved to the Citroën team, and became 2014 World Touring Car Champion, clinching the title at Suzuka, thanks to his dominant race car -the Citroën C-Elysée WTCC that got 17 victories out of 23 races^[10]-, but also dominating his two team-mates : Yvan Muller and the circuit races rookie Sébastien Loeb. José María López finished the season with ten victories, close to the Yvan Muller's record.

In 2015, José María López expected to have more difficulties "I am aware the competition is going to be much stronger because the other drivers are going to know me, they will push harder and you can see this already how Honda is pushing more, the Chevrolet drivers and the same in my Citroën team.",^[11] yet he still dominated the first part of the season competition^[12] with his team-mates on the Citroën C-Elysée WTCC.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
2004	CMS Performance	IMO Ret	CAT 6	MON 3	NÜR 5	MAG Ret	SIL 4	HOC 6	HUN 8	SPA 3	MNZ Ret	6th	28

Complete GP2 Series results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	DC	Points
2005	DAMS	SMR FEA 2	SMR SPR 11	ESP FEA 6	ESP SPR 1	MON FEA Ret	EUR FEA 13	EUR SPR 14	FRA FEA 2	FRA SPR Ret	GBR FEA 9	GBR SPR Ret	GER FEA 13	GER SPR 10	HUN FEA Ret	HUN SPR Ret	TUR FEA 6	TUR SPR 7	ITA FEA Ret	ITA SPR Ret	BEL FEA 10	BEL SPR 8	BHR FEA 4	BHR SPR 4	9th	36
2006	Super Nova Racing	VAL FEA 5	VAL SPR Ret	SMR FEA Ret	SMR SPR Ret	EUR FEA 4	EUR SPR 3	ESP FEA Ret	ESP SPR Ret	MON FEA Ret	GBR FEA Ret	GBR SPR 14	FRA FEA 3	FRA SPR Ret	GER FEA 7	GER SPR 2	HUN FEA 8	HUN SPR Ret	TUR FEA 9	TUR SPR 11	ITA FEA Ret	ITA SPR Ret			10th	30

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	Young Driver AMR	Aston Martin	ABU QR	ABU CR	SIL QR	SIL CR	BRN QR	BRN CR	PRI QR	PRI CR	SPA QR	SPA CR	NÜR QR	NÜR CR	ALG QR	ALG CR	NAV QR	NAV CR	INT QR	INT CR	SAN QR Ret	SAN CR 5	37th	10

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

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

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	Pos	Points
2013	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	ITA 1	ITA 2	MAR 1	MAR 2	SVK 1	SVK 2	HUN 1	HUN 2	AUT 1	AUT 2	RUS 1	RUS 2	POR 1	POR 2	ARG 1 5	ARG 2 1	USA 1	USA 2	JPN 1	JPN 2	CHN 1	CHN 2	MAC 1	MAC 2	15th	35
2014	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	MAR 1 1	MAR 2 2	FRA 1 4	FRA 2 1	HUN 1 2	HUN 2 6	SVK 1 2	SVK 2 C	AUT 1 3	AUT 2 1	RUS 1 1	RUS 2 Ret	BEL 1 2	BEL 2 1	ARG 1 1	ARG 2 1	BEI 1 3	BEI 2 4	CHN 1 1	CHN 2 3	JPN 1 1	JPN 2 6	MAC 1 1	MAC 2 5	1st	462
2015	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	ARG 1 1	ARG 2 2	MAR 1 1	MAR 2 3	HUN 1 1	HUN 2 6	GER 1 1	GER 2 2	RUS 1 2	RUS 2 12	SVK 1 2	SVK 2 2	FRA 1 3	FRA 2 1	POR 1 1	POR 2 5	JPN 1 1	JPN 2 Ret	CHN 1 1	CHN 2 3	THA 1 1	THA 2 3	QAT 1 1	QAT 2 8	1st	475
2016	Citroën Racing	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	FRA 1 6	FRA 2 1	SVK 1 5	SVK 2 1	HUN 1 14	HUN 2 1	MAR 1	MAR 2	GER 1	GER 2	RUS 1	RUS 2	POR 1	POR 2	ARG 1	ARG 2	JPN 1	JPN 2	CHN 1	CHN 2	THA 1	THA 2	QAT 1	QAT 2	1st*	106*

^* Season still in progress.

References

1. Abbott, Andrew (2013-12-16). "Citroën reveal third car for López". TouringCars.Net (TouringCars.Net). Retrieved 2014-04-04.
2. http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/106/career/ Career statistics at Driver Database
3. Pablo Elizalde and Matt Beer (2009-11-21). "Lopez set for USF1 drive". Autosport.com. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
4. "Lopez signs conditional USF1 deal". F1-Live.com. 2009-11-21. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
5. Ampuero, Luis (2010-01-23). "Argentine Lopez set to drive for USF1 team". Reuters (Thomson Reuters). Retrieved 2010-01-23.
6. Beer, Matt; Elizalde, Pablo (2010-02-24). "Lopez manager admits Campos talks". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 2010-02-24.
7. Noble, Jonathan (2010-03-04). "Chandhok announced as HRT driver". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 2010-03-04.
8. Tremayne, Sam (26 July 2013). "Jose Maria Lopez to make WTCC debut in Argentina". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 26 July 2013.
9. "RACE 2 – LÓPEZ MAKES HISTORY". World Touring Car Championship (Kigema Sport Organisation). 4 August 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
10. "Jose Maria Lopez remarkable first season in the World Touring Car Championship with Citroën Racing WTCC". Crash.net. 20 December 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2015. For us, everything was new, the team was coming from rallying with a new car, new drivers. It was very difficult to set a goal. We never imagined to win so many races.
11. "Jose Maria Lopez remarkable first season in the World Touring Car Championship with Citroën Racing WTCC". FIA WTCC. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
12. "José María López says following in the wheel tracks of fellow Argentines Juan Manuel Fangio and Carlos Reutemann by winning on the Nürburgring Nordschleife is a "special" feeling". FIA WTCC. 17 May 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2015.

External links

• Official website
• José María López career summary at DriverDB.com
• José María López on Twitter