Franco Giovanardi

Franco Giovanardi (born July 6, 1993 in Oderzo) is a racing driver from Italy.

Karting
Giovanardi started his career in karting in 2005 at the relatively old age of 12 years old and spent 4 years in karting winning the national title in 2008.

Formula C
At the age of only 17, Giovanardi joined the Italian Formula C championship driving in the Scholarship class in an older Dallama Formula C car. A strong debut season in which he won the scholarship class resulted in him earning a drive with Rossini Sport for the 2010 season alongside Giuseppe Marchetti. His first season in the main class of the Italian Formula C championship proved difficult finishing 9th and two places behind team mate Marchetti claiming only 3 podiums including 1 win.

He remained at Rossini Sport in 2011, this time joined by Alessandro Rossini, and impressed on several occasions including the first round at Monza in which he started 17th in the rain and eventually climbed up the order to secure the victory. Although he remained fast throughout the year, he eventually finished fourth and behind both his more experienced team mates, although he improved significantly taking 3 race wins amongst 9 podiums across the 19 race season. A 3rd year in the Italian Formula C championship, now called the Alps Formula C championship, followed in 2012 where he contested the title fiercely. In the 12 race season, he took 5 wins and narrowly won the title by only 3 points.

With FIAM taking over Rossini Sport in 2013, Giovanardi once again headed the official FIAM team in the Alps Formula C championship where he was unable to retain his title after a slow start to the season where he missed the podium at the first 4 rounds despite taking 4 wins in the 8 remaining rounds. He also participated in the 2013 Dash Cup Spa Grand Prix driving a FIAM-backed STS to an impressive 13th on his Dash Cup debut.

Touring cars
For 2014, Giovanardi finally progressed from Formula C and joined the FIAM touring car team in the 2014 Dash Cup season driving a third FIAM Cinque. His part-time season did not start successfully, failing to notch any points in the first round at Brands Hatch however he took a surprise win in the reverse-grid race in the Netherlands. In his third race he was unable to replicate the success at his home round at the Autodromo Antonio Passero again failing to score any points. He also competed in one round of the Italian Touring Car championship driving a FIAM CinqueTC at Magione where he won both races.

In 2015, Giovanardi joined the EuroV8 Cup with FIAM Engineering, rebranded as Castrol Racing Team due to Castrol claiming naming rights on his car. A low qualifying position meant he missed out on Super Pole and started further down the order, however a great fight back saw him rise to 2nd place until an accident with only 2 laps remaining put him and team mate Jean-Marc Perreault out of the race. He bounced back at Croft claiming a second place after making it into Super Pole and completing an all FIAM front row. Eventually he led home Perreault and the two privateer FIAM of Alessio Fabiani and Viktoria Draachreider to claim his first win of the season.

Giovanardi will move from the EuroV8 Cup team to the Dash Cup team for the 2016 season.