35 years old, he was the oldest driver in the field; therefore, he had to fight against the scepticism of the F1 media. The Pacific PR02 was an unreliable machine and he retired from all 4 races in 1995. His last experience in F1 was the 1996 Bologna Motorshow. Racing in a Minardi against two Benettons (driven by Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella), two Ligiers (Olivier Panis and Shinji Nakano) and the other Minardi (Tarso Marques), he finished second, losing the final against Fisichella by a nose. After his F1 career, Lavaggi founded his own team “Scuderia Lavaggi” and in 2006 he became a constructor designing and building his own Le Mans Prototype, the Lavaggi LS1. He raced the car in the Le Mans Series until 2009 and he scored a pole position at 2008 Vallelunga 6h. Lavaggi is the only example of a driver-constructor in the modern era of motorsport at high-level. He was nicknamed "Johnny Carwash" (an approximate translation of his name from Italian to English, John Washes) by people in the paddock; US talk show host David Letterman helped bring the nickname to popular attention. Family The Lavaggi noble family moved from Genoa to Sicily (Palermo) in 1420 and then from Palermo to Augusta in 1711. A cousin of Giovanni’s grandfather, also called Giovanni Lavaggi, was a war hero. He was a pilot of the Italian Air Force and he died because of the sabotage of his airplane, while bringing to Asmara the Italian minister of public works Luigi Razza, who also was killed in the crash. In the cities of Catania and Augusta, Via Giovanni Lavaggi (Giovanni Lavaggi Road) is named after him. Racing record Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results Complete International Formula 3000 results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.) American Open-Wheel racing results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest race lap) PPG Indycar Series (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) Complete Formula One results (key) References External links Profile on F1 Rejects Driver Website Race Team Website Racing Reference profile Driver database profile 1958 births Living people People from Augusta, Sicily Italian racing drivers International Formula 3000 drivers Champ Car drivers Italian Formula One drivers Pacific Formula One drivers Minardi Formula One drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers Speedcar Series drivers 24 Hours of Daytona drivers European