Happy birthday, Giancarlo!

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Giancarlo Fisichella is celebrating his 45th birthday today. Hopefully he will have a large class of fizzy on hand to help him mark the occasion!

The energetic Italian started 229 Grand Prix races during a career that spanned 14 seasons in Formula 1. He made his début in the 1996 Australian Grand Prix with Minardi, and had eight further outings that year.

He was handed a full-time seat at Jordan the following year and finished on the podium twice, in Canada and Belgium. After that he moved to Benetton for a four year stint, and clinched at least one podium each season.

However the all-important elusive win didn't come until 2003 when he found himself back at Jordan. The Brazilian Grand Prix was his 103rd career start. He was eighth on the grid and working his way forward when torrential rain hit Interlagos and triggered a number of serious accidents. The race was red flagged, and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen declared the winner. However the FIA overturned the decision and Fisichella was handed the win a few days later.

There was no doubt about his victory in Australia with Renault in 2005 (pictured above), or about his success in Malaysia the following year. Fisichella was fourth in the drivers' standings that season, a career-high ranking.

A move to Force India proved a disappointment, but he did capture second place at Spa. That put him on the radar at Maranello, as Ferrari were looking for someone to take over from the injured Felipe Massa for the rest of the season. Fisichella achieved his life-long dream of becoming a Ferrari driver the following race, at Monza.

Fisichella completed just five races with the team before retiring from competition at the end of the season. He stayed on as reserve driver before turning his attention to sportscar racing. He's still racing today: in 2017 he took part in the FIA World Endurance Championship (LMGTE Pro), Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship (GTLM).

So whatever he has planned for his birthday today, it's unlikely that Fisico will be sitting still for long!

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.