Julián Leal

Ómar Julián Leal Covelli, commonly known as Julián Leal, (born May 11, 1990 in Bucaramanga) is a professional racing driver from Colombia. He has also competed with an Italian licence in the GP2 Series.

Julián Leal Covelli
Nationality	Colombian
Born	(1990-05-11) 11 May 1990 (age 33) Bucaramanga, Colombia
GP2 Series career
Debut season	2011
Current team	Carlin
Racing licence	FIA Silver
Car number	4
Former teams	Racing Engineering Trident Racing Rapax
Starts	102
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	1
Best finish	10th in 2014
Previous series
2011 2009–2010 2007–08 2007–08 2006–07	GP2 Asia Series Formula Renault 3.5 Series Italian Formula 3000 Euroseries 3000 FR2.0 PanamGP
Championship titles
2008	Italian Formula 3000

Career

Formula Renault 2.0

Leal began his racing career in 2006 in the Formula Renault 2.0 PanamGP series, scoring two podium finishes in seven races to finish ninth in the standings. He also took part in two races of the series the following year.

Euroseries 3000

The following season, Leal moved to Europe to compete in the Euroseries 3000 championship. Driving for the Italian Durango team, he finished ninth in the Euroseries standings and eleventh in the Italian Formula 3000 championship, which ran as part of the main series.

He continued in the championship in 2008, finishing sixth in the Euroseries after securing four podium places in fifteen races.^[1] In September of that year, he won the Italian Formula 3000 championship at Misano, beating both Fabio Onidi and Nicolas Prost to the title by a single point.^[2]

Formula Renault 3.5 Series

At the end of 2008, Leal took part in Formula Renault 3.5 Series testing at Paul Ricard and Valencia, driving for both Draco Racing and Prema Powerteam. In December 2008, it was announced that Leal had signed with Prema Powerteam for the 2009 season.^[3] He had a testing first season in the category, with a podium at the Hungaroring being his only points–scoring finish, as he wound up 20th in the standings.

In the off–season, Leal tested for both Prema and Mofaz Racing at the Circuit de Catalunya and in December 2009, it was announced that he would drive for Draco Racing in the 2010 season, partnering Formula Renault graduate Nathanaël Berthon.^[4] He again finished the season in 20th position after struggling to match his rookie team–mate, with his best race result being a fourth place at the first race in Brno.^[5]

Auto GP

In March 2010, it was announced that Leal would also compete in the new Auto GP championship, competing for the Italian team Trident Racing.^[6] He finished seventh in the final standings, with the highlight of his season coming at the penultimate round at the brand–new Circuito de Navarra, where he won the first race after starting from pole position.^[7]

GP2 Series

 

Leal driving for Rapax at the Monza round of the 2011 GP2 Series season.

In November 2010, Leal tested a GP2 Series car for the first time, taking part in the post–season test at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, and in January 2011 it was announced that he had signed with the Rapax Team to contest the GP2 Asia Series season, lining–up alongside Fabio Leimer.^[8] He had initially signed to contest only the Asia series, but in March 2011 it was confirmed that he would stay with the team for the main 2011 championship, in which he finished 27th.^[9]

Leal switched to the Trident Racing team for the non-championship season finale at Yas Marina, and remained with the outfit for the 2012 season, where he was partnered with Stéphane Richelmi. He scored his first series points and finished 21st in the championship.

Leal moved to Racing Engineering for the 2013 season, his teammate for the second time was champion of that year Fabio Leimer. He scored a total of 62 points, including two sprint race podiums leaving him 12th in the championship. For 2014, he moved to British squad Carlin alongside Felipe Nasr. He finished on the podium in both races at the first round but ultimately would finish 10th in the final standings on 68 points.

Leal continued with Carlin for 2015.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2006	Formula Renault 2.0 PanamGP	Penix Unico	7	0	0	0	2	72	9th
2007	Formula Renault 2.0 PanamGP	?	2	0	0	0	0	16	17th
	Euroseries 3000	Durango	16	0	0	0	0	13	9th
	Italian Formula 3000		8	0	0	0	0	8	11th
2008	Euroseries 3000	Durango	15	0	1	0	4	38	6th
	Italian Formula 3000		8	0	1	0	4	35	1st
2009	Formula Renault 3.5 Series	Prema Powerteam	17	0	0	0	1	11	20th
2010	Formula Renault 3.5 Series	International DracoRacing	17	0	0	0	0	11	20th
	Auto GP	Trident Racing	12	1	1	1	1	21	9th
2011	GP2 Series	Rapax	18	0	0	0	0	0	27th
	GP2 Asia Series		4	0	0	0	0	0	26th
	GP2 Final	Trident Racing	2	0	0	0	0	0	22nd
2012	GP2 Series	Trident Racing	24	0	0	0	0	9	21st
2013	GP2 Series	Racing Engineering	22	0	0	0	2	62	12th
2014	GP2 Series	Carlin	22	0	0	1	2	68	10th
	Formula One	Caterham F1 Team	Test driver
2015	GP2 Series	Carlin	16	0	0	0	0	38	14th
2016	European Le Mans Series - LMP2	SMP Racing	4	0	0	0	2	60	6th

Complete Euroseries 3000/Auto GP 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	DC	Points
2007	Durango	VAL FEA 10	VAL SPR 10	HUN FEA 10	HUN SPR 9	MAG FEA 8	MAG SPR 10	MUG FEA 11	MUG SPR 6	NÜR FEA Ret	NÜR SPR 7	SPA FEA 7	SPA SPR Ret	MNZ FEA 5	MNZ SPR 4	CAT FEA 7	CAT SPR 6	10th	14
2008	Durango	VAL FEA 5	VAL SPR 6	SPA FEA 9	SPA SPR C	VAL FEA 5	VAL SPR 2	MUG FEA 4	MUG SPR 3	MIS FEA 3	MIS SPR 2	JER FEA Ret	JER SPR 7	CAT FEA Ret	CAT SPR 4	MAG FEA Ret	MAG SPR 9	6th	38
2010	Trident Racing	BRN 1 10	BRN 2 4	IMO 1 Ret	IMO 2 8	SPA 1 7	SPA 2 Ret	MAG 1 9	MAG 2 7	NAV 1 1	NAV 2 Ret	MNZ 1 8	MNZ 2 4					9th	21

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

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

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Pos	Points
2009	Prema Powerteam	CAT 1 15	CAT 2 19†	SPA 1 19	SPA 2 18	MON 1 14	HUN 1 22	HUN 2 3	SIL 1 17	SIL 2 16	BUG 1 Ret	BUG 2 20	ALG 1 18	ALG 2 17	NÜR 1 17	NÜR 2 14	ALC 1 21	ALC 2 22†	20th	11
2010	International Draco Racing	ALC 1 Ret	ALC 2 Ret	SPA 1 11	SPA 2 12	MON 1 16	BRN 1 4	BRN 2 13	MAG 1 Ret	MAG 2 19	HUN 1 Ret	HUN 2 16	HOC 1 13	HOC 2 9	SIL 1 Ret	SIL 2 10	CAT 1 Ret	CAT 2 Ret	20th	11

† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

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	24	DC	Points
2011	Rapax	IST FEA 19	IST SPR Ret	CAT FEA 17	CAT SPR 14	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR Ret	VAL FEA 11	VAL SPR 9	SIL FEA 22	SIL SPR 21	NÜR FEA 14	NÜR SPR 9	HUN FEA 20	HUN SPR Ret	SPA FEA Ret	SPA SPR Ret	MNZ FEA 16	MNZ SPR Ret							27th	0
2012	Trident Racing	SEP FEA 15	SEP SPR 15	BHR1 FEA 12	BHR1 SPR 17	BHR2 FEA 15	BHR2 SPR 14	CAT FEA 24	CAT SPR 17	MON FEA 21	MON SPR Ret	VAL FEA 12	VAL SPR 8	SIL FEA 20	SIL SPR 17	HOC FEA 21	HOC SPR 12	HUN FEA 16	HUN SPR 15	SPA FEA 7	SPA SPR 9	MNZ FEA 10	MNZ SPR 8	MRN FEA 11	MRN SPR 16	21st	9
2013	Racing Engineering	SEP FEA 5	SEP SPR Ret	BHR FEA 19	BHR SPR 16	CAT FEA 13	CAT SPR 25†	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR 14	SIL FEA 8	SIL SPR 4	NÜR FEA 22	NÜR SPR 12	HUN FEA 15	HUN SPR 21	SPA FEA 6	SPA SPR 2	MNZ FEA 5	MNZ SPR 3	MRN FEA Ret	MRN SPR 12	YMC FEA 16	YMC SPR 10			12th	62
2014	Carlin	BHR FEA 2	BHR SPR 3	CAT FEA 4	CAT SPR 5	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR 16	RBR FEA 13	RBR SPR 7	SIL FEA 5	SIL SPR 5	HOC FEA 16	HOC SPR 18	HUN FEA Ret	HUN SPR 15	SPA FEA 13	SPA SPR 10	MNZ FEA 14	MNZ SPR 17	SOC FEA 9	SOC SPR 17	YMC FEA 12	YMC SPR 11			10th	68
2015	Carlin	BHR FEA 8	BHR SPR 5	CAT FEA Ret	CAT SPR 16	MON FEA 6	MON SPR 5	RBR FEA 14	RBR SPR 22	SIL FEA 9	SIL SPR 12	HUN FEA 16	HUN SPR 15	SPA FEA 4	SPA SPR 11	MNZ FEA 12	MNZ SPR 9	SOC FEA	SOC SPR	BHR FEA	BHR SPR	YMC FEA	YMC SPR			14th	38

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	DC	Points
2011	Rapax	YMC FEA Ret	YMC SPR 17	IMO FEA 17	IMO SPR 18	26th	0

Complete GP2 Final results

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

Year	Entrant	1	2	DC	Points
2011	Trident Racing	YMC FEA 16	YMC SPR 21	22nd	0

Complete European Le Mans Series results

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	Rank	Points
2016	SMP Racing	LMP2	BR Engineering BR01	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL 2	IMO 4	RBR 4	LEC 2	SPA	EST	6th	60

References

1. "Euroseries 3000 2008". driverdb.com. Driver Database. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
2. "Formula 3000 Italy 2008". driverdb.com. Driver Database. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
3. Mills, Peter (5 December 2008). "Prema sign Colombian Leal for 2009". Autosport. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
4. "Leal completes Draco line-up". crash.net. Crash Media Group. 7 December 2009. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
5. "World Series by Renault 2010". driverdb.com. Driver Database. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
6. . autogp.org. Auto GP. 18 March 2010. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2010.
7. . autogp.org. Auto GP. 25 September 2010. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
8. "Julian Leal completes Rapax GP2 Asia line–up". crash.net. Crash Media Group. 29 January 2011. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
9. Beer, Matt (11 March 2011). "Leal to complete season with Rapax". Autosport. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 15 March 2011.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Julián Leal.

• Official website (in Spanish)
• Julián Leal on Twitter  
• Julián Leal on Facebook
• Julián Leal on Instagram

Sporting positions
Preceded by Davide Rigon	Italian F3000 champion 2008	Succeeded by Will Bratt