He started in Formula 1 in 1999 at the age of 25 when Minardi signed him up. He had won the Open Fortuna by Nissan Championship and this got him noticed! But it was a tough year and Gene regularly struggled to make a mark. After many retirements and a string of poor finishes, he broke through into the points scoring position with a sixth place finish in the 1999 European Grand Prix. This was also Minardi’s first point since 1995. This, however, would be the only highlight of the season for both Gene and Minardi. He ended they year in 18th place with the solitary point. Despite a poor show, he retained his seat for the 2000 season and the disappointments only grew. He did come close to scoring points on a couple of occasions, but the car was never good enough to push on the last mile. He could not score even a single point in 2000 and was unable to secure a full seat for the next two seasons. He returned to Formula 1 in 2003 as a Test Driver with Williams. During the same season, he also got to race in the Italian GP and made a big move up finishing fifth and scoring 4 points in the process. But since he was only a replacement, he could not race for the rest of the season. 2004 was pretty much more of the same except this time, he race in France and Britain but finished outside the points. At the end of 2004, Gene signed with Ferrari to be a test driver and will continue to be with the team in that capacity for 2007. However, with Luca Badoer also around, Apart from this, he will also be involved in testing for Peugeot for the Le Mans Series efforts. At the moment, he is happy to be part of testing at Ferrari and also aware that there may not be much for him to do. But hope floats and one day, he may just drive!