Michael Herck

Michael Herck (born 4 August 1988 in Bucharest, Romania) is a retired Belgian-Romanian racing driver.

Career

Early life

Herck was adopted at the age of one and a half years by millionaire André Herck, a Belgian citizen born in Bucharest. Herck grew up in Monaco, and began his racing career in karting in France.

Formula Renault

After karting, Herck moved to the Formula Renault Monza Winter Series in 2003 and competed in the full series the next year. He won the 2004 championship with five wins and 375 points. He also competed in the Belgian and Spanish 1.6-litre series in 2004, winning the latter championship.

In 2007 he drove in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series for the Comtec Racing team, but failed to score any points.

Formula Three

File:Michael Herck 2007 WSBR.jpg

Herck driving for Comtec Racing at the Donington Park round of the 2007 Formula Renault 3.5 Series season.

Herck moved to Formula Three for 2005, winning the Austrian championship. He also made selected appearances in that year's British and German championships. In 2006 he competed in the Formula 3 Euro Series with backing from compatriot Bas Leinders, scoring twelve points to finish fifteenth in the championship.

GP2 Series

Herck competed in the first eight races of the inaugural GP2 Asia Series in 2008 for the FMS International team before breaking his wrist in an accident, missing the last round of the season.

He was scheduled to drive in the main GP2 Series for 2008 as well, but was initially replaced by Giacomo Ricci in the David Price Racing team until his wrist healed. After two rounds of the championship, Ricci was dropped in favour of Andy Soucek as Herck continued to recover. He finally made his GP2 début at Magny-Cours. He continued with DPR for the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season, and also the 2009 GP2 Series season. At the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, Herck finished sixth on the road during the feature race. However, his first GP2 points were stripped from him due to irregularities with his DPR machine. His first points eventually came during the 2009–10 GP2 Asia Series, finishing seventh in the feature race of the second Abu Dhabi round. After overtaking Max Chilton at the start of the sprint race, Herck was heading to his first podium and victory in the series, but Davide Valsecchi passed him just before the race's conclusion. Herck ultimately finished thirteenth in the championship standings.

Herck continued his improved form in the 2010 main series, finishing in the points on a number of occasions. He also qualified on pole position for his "home" race in Belgium, but lost it due to an infringement. He finished sixteenth in the drivers' championship.

Following the withdrawal of DPR from GP2, Herck switched to the Coloni team for 2011. In the Asia series, we was partnered variously by James Jakes and Luca Filippi, and finished eighth in the championship after scoring points in three of the four races. In the main series, he scored only a single point and finished 21st in the standings.

Retirement

Following a disappointing 2011 season in the main GP2 Series, Herck decided not to compete in the 2011 GP2 Final non-championship race in Abu Dhabi, and retired from professional motor racing in order to focus on his studies, as later confirmed by adoptive parent André Herck.

Racing record

File:Michael Herck 2008 GP2 Magny-Cours.jpg

Herck driving for David Price Racing at the Magny-Cours round of the 2008 GP2 Series season.

Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Poles	Wins	Points	Final Placing
2003	Formula Renault Monza Winter Series	Dynamic Engineering	2	0	0	18	8th
2004	Formula Renault Monza	Dynamic Engineering	16	3	5	375	1st
	Formula Junior 1600 Spain	?	9	6	4	119	1st
	Formula Renault 1600 Belgium	?	4	0	1	65	11th
2005	Austrian Fomula Three Championship	Junior Racing Team	7	6	3	75	1st
	British Formula 3		5	0	0	0	NC
	Formula Renault 2.0 Italia		0	0	0	0	NC
	Recaro Formel 3 Cup	Jama Investments	3	1	0	0	NC
2006	Formula 3 Euro Series	Bas Leinders Junior Racing Team	19	0	0	12	15th
	British Formula 3		2	0	0	0	NC
	Masters of Formula Three		1	0	0	N/A	13th
2007	Formula Renault 3.5 Series	Comtec Racing	14	0	0	0	NC
	Formula 3 Euro Series	Bas Leinders Junior Racing Team	2	0	0	0	NC
2008	GP2 Asia Series	FMS International	8	0	0	0	23rd
	GP2 Series	David Price Racing	13	0	0	0	30th
2008–09	GP2 Asia Series	David Price Racing	11	0	0	0	33rd
2009	GP2 Series	David Price Racing	20	0	0	0	23rd
	Formula Renault 3.5 Series	Interwetten.com	6	0	0	7	23rd
2009–10	GP2 Asia Series	David Price Racing	8	0	0	7	13th
2010	GP2 Series	David Price Racing	20	0	0	12	16th
2011	GP2 Asia Series	Scuderia Coloni	4	0	0	9	8th
	GP2 Series	Scuderia Coloni	18	0	0	1	21st

Complete GP2 Series results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pos	Points
2008	David Price Racing	ESP FEA	ESP SPR	TUR FEA	TUR SPR	MON FEA	MON SPR	FRA FEA Ret	FRA SPR 15	GBR FEA 23	GBR SPR DNS	GER FEA 17	GER SPR Ret	HUN FEA Ret	HUN SPR 17	EUR FEA 12	EUR SPR 14	BEL FEA 14	BEL SPR 11	ITA FEA Ret	ITA SPR 17	30th	0
2009	David Price Racing	ESP FEA 13	ESP SPR Ret	MON FEA 16	MON SPR 16	TUR FEA Ret	TUR SPR Ret	GBR FEA 9	GBR SPR 8	GER FEA 14	GER SPR 12	HUN FEA 15	HUN SPR Ret	VAL FEA 13	VAL SPR Ret	BEL FEA Ret	BEL SPR 9	ITA FEA 20	ITA SPR 13	POR FEA DSQ	POR SPR Ret	23rd	0
2010	David Price Racing	ESP FEA 17	ESP SPR 21	MON FEA 16	MON SPR Ret	TUR FEA 6	TUR SPR 5	VAL FEA 8	VAL SPR 3	GBR FEA 22	GBR SPR 14	GER FEA 9	GER SPR 8	HUN FEA 7	HUN SPR Ret	BEL FEA Ret	BEL SPR 13	ITA FEA Ret	ITA SPR Ret	ABU FEA 16	ABU SPR 10	16th	12
2011	Scuderia Coloni	TUR FEA 14	TUR SPR 12	ESP FEA Ret	ESP SPR Ret	MON FEA 13	MON SPR 15	VAL FEA 10	VAL SPR 6	GBR FEA 24	GBR SPR 18	GER FEA 11	GER SPR 10	HUN FEA 12	HUN SPR Ret	BEL FEA 16	BEL SPR 15	ITA FEA Ret	ITA SPR DNS			21st	1

Complete GP2 Asia 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	DC	Points
2008	FMS International	DUB1 FEA Ret	DUB1 SPR 17	IDN FEA 9	IDN SPR 12	MYS FEA 11	MYS SPR 11	BHR FEA 15	BHR SPR 14	DUB2 FEA	DUB2 SPR			23rd	0
2008–09	David Price Racing	CHN FEA 16	CHN SPR 16	DUB FEA 15	DUB SPR C	BHR1 FEA 18	BHR1 SPR 18	QAT FEA 15	QAT SPR Ret	MYS FEA 13	MYS SPR Ret	BHR2 FEA 13	BHR2 SPR Ret	33rd	0
2009–10	David Price Racing	ABU1 FEA 13	ABU1 SPR 9	ABU2 FEA 7	ABU2 SPR 2	BHR1 FEA 23	BHR1 SPR 13	BHR2 FEA 18	BHR2 SPR Ret					13th	7
2011	Scuderia Coloni	ABU FEA 13	ABU SPR 5	ITA FEA 4	ITA SPR 5									8th	9

External links

• Official website
• Career statistics from driverdb.com.