Rio Haryanto

Rio Haryanto, born on 22nd of January in Surakarta, is the first racing driver from Indonesia who got an opportunity to compete in the Formula 1 World Championship.

Racing debut in 2008

He began racing in 2008 as a member of Asia Racing Team from Macau and did well in his rookie season. In the Formula Asia 2.0 Series, Haryanto finished 3rd, behind Felix Rosenqvist and Matthias Beche, with one win and a total of seven podiums on his account, while in the Asian Formula Renault Challenge he won two races before finishing 6th in the final standings.

Rio Haryanto

The same year, as a member of Pacific Racing team, he also appeared in five races of Formula BMW Pacific but failed to score notable results. However, he picked some valuable experience for the following year.

Rio Haryanto was Formula BMW Pacific champion

In 2009 Haryanto won the Formula BMW Pacific title as a driver of Malaysian Team Meritus. Rio was really impressive that year as he won 11 out of 15 races. At the end of the season, he had 70 points more than a runner-up Gary Thompson and that success opened him the door for progress in the more prominent series.

Rio Haryanto, 2009 Formula BMW Pacific

In parallel to his commitments in Formula BMW Pacific, Indonesian driver appeared as a guest in other championships – Asian Formula Renault Challenge, Australian Drivers’ Championship, and in Formula BMW Europe.

Departure to Europe

The next step in Rio’s career was signing with Manor team with which he debuted in the GP3 Series. At the same time, he acted as a test driver of Manor Formula 1 team. Despite lacking experience, Haryanto did surprisingly well in the GP3. In Istanbul, he scored a maiden win, and it was followed by the 2nd place at Silverstone and with the 3rd in Monza. At the end of the year, Haryanto was 5th what was a really good result for a rookie.

Rio Haryanto, GP3 Series

He stayed with the team in 2011 and again performed well. The start of the season was poor as he finished out of points in the seven opening races. In the second half of the campaign, Rio won the races at Hungaroring and at Nurburgring, while at Monza finished 3rd in the feature and 2nd in the main race. Despite scoring more points than a year before, Haryanto dropped to the 7th position in the Drivers’ championship.

Rio Haryanto helped DAMS to win Auto GP title

The same position he won in the Auto GP series. Driving for the French team DAMS, Indonesian driver scored one victory and other two places on the podium but helped his team to win the championship title. With the same team, he raced in the GP2 Final at Yas Marina Circuit, finishing out of top 10 in both races.

Move to GP 2 Series

After debuting in the season finale in 2011, Haryanto in the following year became a full-time driver in the GP2 Series where he spent four seasons, driving for four different teams. He signed with Carlin and scored a point on nine occasions before finishing 14th in the standings.

Rio Haryanto, Carlin, Spa-Francorchamps, 2011 GP2 Series

In 2012 Haryanto signed with Barwa Addax Team and for the first time earned a podium finish by taking the 2nd place at Silverstone. At the same time, it was the highlight of the season which he has finished at the 19th place.

Despite relatively unconvincing results, Rio was established as a very reliable driver after he retired from only two races in two years.

Maiden victory with Campos Racing

Caterham signed Haryanto for 2014 campaign and Indonesian driver had a season pretty similar to the previous one. Rio finished 15th overall, scoring in just four races, with the 3rd place in Monaco as the highlight of the season. Surprisingly, he also had four retirements.

Rio Haryanto celebrates victory in the GP2 Series

Haryanto switched to Campos Racing in 2015 and had his best year in the series. He won the sprint race of the season-opening round in Bahrain, later also won the sprint races at Red Bull Ring and at Silverstone. He was among the title contenders until the mid-season when his form dropped and at the end of the campaign Rio was 4th in the standings, behind Stoffel Vandoorne, Alexander Rossi, and Sergey Sirotkin.

Formula 1 debut

Over the years, Haryanto has been linked with Virgin-Marussia-Manor F1 team. He was a test driver in 2010, two years later he participated in young driver test at Silverstone and earned superlicense which made him eligible to drive in the Formula 1 World Championship.

Rio Haryanto, Manor F1 team, 2016

Finally, the big moment has arrived in February of 2016 when Haryanto was confirmed as a driver of Manor team, mainly because of the lucrative financial backing by the Pertamina, oil company owned by the Indonesian government.

It was clear that Manor will be a total outsider in 2016, with the uncompetitive car, so Haryanto had a hard task. The results were poor but Haryanto regularly was outpaced by his teammate Pascal Wehrlein. After the 12th race of the season, the German Grand Prix, Haryanto was demoted to reserve driver after losing his sponsorship and was replaced with Esteban Ocon.

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