Gastón Mazzacane
| Born |
8 May 1975 La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
|---|---|
| Formula One World Championship career | |
| Nationality |
 Argentine |
| Active years | 2000–2001 |
| Teams | Minardi and Prost |
| Entries | 21 |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podiums | 0 |
| Career points | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| First entry | 2000 Australian Grand Prix |
| Last entry | 2001 San Marino Grand Prix |
Gastón Hugo Mazzacane (born 8 May 1975) is an Argentine racing driver. He participated in 21 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 12 March 2000. He scored no championship points. His father named him after Gastón Perkins, a successful Argentine touring car racer. His last name literally translates from Italian as "kill the dog".
He is Argentina's most recent Formula One driver, but is often known as a "pay driver". He began his Formula One career in 1999 as the test driver for Minardi. In late February 2000, it was announced that he would be the teammate of Marc Gené in the race team. "I intend to learn over the first half of the season and then I feel I will have the confidence to perform well," Mazzacane told the press at Minardi's car debut at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. His debut year in Formula One began with a broken gearbox at his first race, the 2000 Australian Grand Prix, followed by a 10th place in Brazil. He went on to outqualify Gené at Imola, a feat he later accomplished four more times. The German Grand Prix was a relative high point for him; after outqualifying his teammate, he finished 11th. His highlight in the spotlights this season was on a damp Indianapolis track when he famously overtook Mika Häkkinen, who was struggling after an early gamble on dry tyres. After running up to third without stopping, he ran over his pitcrew and dropped out of the race later. Nevertheless, he finished 11 of the 17 races that year and ranked third among drivers with the most kilometres raced.
At the start of 2001, Mazzacane tested for Arrows, but finally settled into the Prost team, taking over the seat of the Sauber-bound Nick Heidfeld. He beat CART's Oriol Servia for the Prost spot, and was announced as the second driver in January 2001. However, the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix was his final Formula One race. Alain Prost fired him by using a performance clause in his contract, and the vacancy was filled by Luciano Burti, who had recently been sacked from Jaguar Racing.
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