Badoer first entered Formula One back in 1993, making his debut in the series for BMS Scuderia Italia, during the South African Grand Prix. After being dropped by the team at the end of that season, he rejoined the new organization – in the meantime, it merged with Minardi – two years later. Before joining the Scuderia as a test and reserve driver in 1999, he also used to drive for Forti.
Badoer started in 50 F1 races, but only 2 of those happened with Ferrari, last season. The Italian driver was heavily criticized for his poor performances at the wheel of the Ferrari F60 during the European and Belgian Grand Prix, before being replaced by Giancarlo Fisichella.
As far as his testing career with Ferrari goes, Badoer has set a few records of his own, having driven Ferrari F1 cars for more than 130,000 km through the last decade. According to Autosprint however, the laps Badoer did at the wheel of the F60 during last weekend's season-end celebration in Valencia were his last with the Scuderia.
A couple of months back, Ferrari revealed that French rising star Jules Bianchi will be offered a testing role with the Scuderia for the 2011 season. Before the announcement, there were 3 other drivers in that position at Maranello, namely Giancarlo Fisichella, Marc Gene and Badoer. Now that Badoer is out (the move it yet to become official) and Fisico will likely continue his racing career in sportscars, Bianchi and Gene will probably remain the only two regular test drivers for the team next year.
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