Luciano Bacheta

Luciano Bacheta

Akshay Luciano Bacheta (born April 26, 1990 in Romford, England) is a professional British racecar driver, born to Indian parents and with Italian ancestry.

Bacheta started karting at the age of fourteen in 2004 and stepped up to cars in 2005, racing in the Junior Ginetta series, recording six wins and the most fastest laps and pole positions. In 2006, Bacheta won the T Cars Championship after scoring six consecutive victories mid-season, and edged out Max Chilton by three points. In the off-season, Bacheta moved into open-wheel racing, competing in the Formula Palmer Audi Autumn Trophy. At Snetterton, Bacheta won his very first race in a single-seater car, and went on to finish the Autumn Trophy in third place after problems at round two.

Bacheta committed to racing a full campaign in Formula Palmer Audi for the 2007 season, and finished third overall in the championship standings with three poles and four wins. He competed in the Autumn Trophy again at the completion of the season, but could only finish a lowly fourteenth in the standings.

Bacheta moved into Formula Renault in 2008, moving into both the Eurocup and the West European Cup, driving for the Hitech Junior Team. Bacheta made six starts in the WEC, recording a best finish of ninth at Magny-Cours with left him 26th in the championship. He fared three places better in the pan-European series, amassing three points from an eighth place finish at Le Mans. Bacheta moved to Epsilon Sport for the 2009 campaigns, but put his main emphasis into the Eurocup, with just one appearance in the WEC – finishing fifth and sixth – at the World Touring Car Championship-supporting round in Pau. In the Eurocup, Bacheta finished in the points three times, en route to sixteenth in the championship, despite missing the rounds in Hungary with budgetary problems. He has returned to the series in 2010, with the new Interwetten Junior TeamFinishing as Vice Champion. He was also awarded BRDC Rising Star status and nominated for the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award.