About Julien

Julien Gerbi has always had racing around him. His uncle Pierre-Henri Raphanel was a Formula 1 and Le Mans driver, and his godfather is the famous driver Roberto Moreno. The first time Julien came in contact with racing was at age 7, and only one year later he won his first kart race.

Today, Julien has participated in a good number of competitions, including the Formula 3, Formula Palmer Audi, and the US Barber Mazda series. Julien has also taken the responsibility of his growing notoriety, and gives some of his time to charity organizations in need of promotion. He is currently the Ambassador of the French League against Cancer, and each year he supports the fund raising events that are held in association with this.

In mid 2009, Julien put together an innovative online program in order to boost his fundraising. He is now the first ever professional racecar driver to allow private investors to buy shares in his career online.

Julien took part in his first professional championship: the European Sport Prototypes Series, competing against some ex-F1 and IndyCar drivers. Julien acquitted himself quickly, climbing on the podium at Monza after his first race, and setting the pole position/lap record on the new track of Dubai. He eventually finished 4th in the general standings, and became the European Champion in his category.

Julien reached a higher step in his career, signing up in F3. For his first Formula 3 race, he went back from the last position at the start to overtake all his competitors and take his maiden F3 victory, at just 21 years of age. This 2006 season eventually saw him taking 3 wins and 5 podiums in 8 races. Thanks to those results, Julien entered into the classification of the World’s best 100 young drivers, among Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.

Julien decided to leave Europe, as his funds didn’t allow him to show his potential in the higher categories. He raced in the USA during two years, in the famous US Barber Mazda Series – where drivers such as Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Speed and Marco Andretti have competed in the past. The 2007 season was used as a learning season. Julien took the 10th place in the championship against 36 drivers.

This was aimed to be his real competition year. In 14 races, he took 10 podiums on his way to 4th in the standings, against 95 drivers. He was the leader of the championship until the 10th race, where Julien suffered from technical difficulties which made him go down in the classification. However an important part of the work had been done; he had proved himself to be a race winner on both continents.

Julien eventually came back to Europe following some British Formula 3 testing. He raced in Formula Palmer Audi, during a year marked by lots of mechanical issues, but eventually managed to take a 1st row at Snetterton’s last race. After having shown himself as the most improved driver of the season, he tested in Formula 3000 and Formula 2 during the winter, where he again showed great abilities by beating the times of European F3000 champions and current F1 test drivers.