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Oliver Gavin

When things go wrong during an F1 race and there is a pill-up, stalled cars or debris on the track, the Safety Car is despatched to slow down the competitors while the circuit is being cleared. When the FIA adopted a policy of having a permanent Safety Car driver, it was decided that the best candidate for the job would be a current driver with F1 experience. The problem was that most of the people with such qualifications were too busy racing to drive the Safety Car, but former British Formula 3 Champion Oliver Gavin was available as his hopes of competing in Formula 3000 had been dashed through lack of money.

The English driver first shot to prominence in 1992 when he won four races in the British Formula Vauxhall Lotus series and was named McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year. He moved into Formula 3 with Edenbridge Racing and in May 1993 gave Dallara its first win in British F3. He went on to win the British F3 title in 1995 at the wheel of an Edenbridge Dallara with six victories.

Even before then he had had his first F1 tests with McLaren in October 1993. This led to a testing deal with Pacific Grand Prix in 1994 and 1995 and he came very close to making his F1 debut with Pacific in Japan in 1995 as a replacement for Bertrand Gachot. Sadly Gavin was not granted a superlicence in the time available and ended up as a spectator. After an abortive attempt to break into Formula 3000 he returned to his role as a test driver with McLaren in the summer of 1997.

In 1998 he drove the Safety Car at F1 races and did some testing for Benetton, hoping that connections made in the F1 paddock would get him work. This proved to be correct as in 1999 he was hired by Jordan sponsor Paul Stoddart to drive for the European Formula F3000 team. He continued to drive the F1 Safety Car and early in 2000 did more testing for the Benetton team but thereafter he decided to stop working F1 and continue his racing career in sportscars.