Ricardo Rosset

After graduating from the Formula Opel Euroseries, Rosset competed in the British Formula 3 Championship in 1993 for Alan Docking Racing. He finished joint sixth in the standings, tied with Pedro de la Rosa, with his best finish being one second place at Silverstone. Rosset moved to the AJS team in 1994, and improved to fifth in the standings in a season dominated by Jan Magnussen. He won his first F3 race that year at Snetterton, albeit on an occasion where Magnussen retired.

Rosset made his début in International Formula 3000 with the Super Nova Racing team in 1995. His teammate was the more experienced Vincenzo Sospiri, who won the drivers' championship that year. In 1995 Rosset came second to his teammate – winning two races, including his first ever F3000 race – and finished second in the championship.

Rosset was hired by Footwork in 1996 as teammate to Jos Verstappen, but never matched the Dutch driver's pace (Verstappen was quicker in qualifying for all the races), although the team largely stopped development on the car when Tom Walkinshaw bought it.

Rosset driving for Lola during the 1997 Australian Grand Prix meeting.

In 1997 Rosset joined MasterCard Lola, where he was partnered with former F3000 teammate Sospiri. However, the team pulled out of F1 after one failure to qualify at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix due to an uncompetitive car, the Lola T97/30 and a breakdown in sponsorship from MasterCard. Rosset was left without an F1 drive for the rest of the season.

In 1998, Rosset was chosen by Craig Pollock to be Tyrrell's second driver, to the fury of Ken Tyrrell, whose choice was Verstappen. Pollock had bought into the team with a view to establishing BAR, and saw Rosset's superior sponsorship finance as essential in balancing the team's budget. The 1998 season was another unsuccessful one for Rosset, and led to increasing criticism of his abilities. When Murray Walker suggested that people were debating whether Rosset was F1 quality, co-commentator and ex-F1 driver Martin Brundle replied, "it's a fairly short debate, Murray". Even Rosset's own mechanics were critical of him: after he severely damaged his car during qualifying for the 1998 Monaco Grand Prix and received a warning from the stewards, his furious mechanics switched the first and last letters of his surname on his paddock scooter to form the word "tosser".[2]

Rosset's problems included missing out on qualification for the 1998 Spanish Grand Prix by 0.06s, and an injury during practice for the German Grand Prix which prevented him from taking part in qualifying, while in Belgium he crashed into the carnage of the 14-car pile-up on the first lap after being unsighted by the heavy spray, and was unable to take the restart. A further failure to qualify at Tyrrell's final race in Japan, where he was hindered by a neck injury caused by a crash in practice, marked the end of his Formula One career. Arguably, the atmosphere within the Tyrrell team and the antagonism towards Rosset's very presence, which had in fact led Ken Tyrrell to quit his own team, was hardly beneficial to the Brazilian's confidence, and ultimately his performance.

After leaving the team at the end of the season, Rosset quit racing entirely to concentrate on his sportswear business in Brazil. However, he made a return to racing in the 2008 Brazilian GT3 Championship, partnering Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles.[3] At the end of the season, the pair had won four times in their Ford GT and finished second in the overall standings.[4]

Encouraged by this performance, Rosset bought the Footwork FA17 chassis that he raced in 1996, and was planning to enter it in a historic F1 series in 2009.[5]

Rosset went on to win the Porsche GT3 Cup Brasil in 2010, 2013, and 2015.[6]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key)

† Ineligible for championship points.