Ricardo Rosset

Ricardo Rosset
Born 27 July 1968
São Paulo, Brazil
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality Brazil Brazilian
Active years 19961998
Teams Footwork, Lola, Tyrrell
Races 33 (26 starts)
Championships 0
Wins 0
Podiums 0
Career points 0
Pole positions 0
Fastest laps 0
First race 1996 Australian Grand Prix
Last race 1998 Japanese Grand Prix

Ricardo Rosset (born July 27, 1968 in São Paulo[1]) is a racing driver from Brazil. He participated in 33 Formula One Grands Prix, making his debut at the 1996 Australian Grand Prix. He scored no championship points and ultimately his results are not regarded as matching his ability, given that he finished as runner-up in the 1995 International Formula 3000 Championship.

Career

Formula Three

After graduating from the Formula Opel Euroseries, Rosset competed in the British Formula Three 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.

Formula 3000

Rosset made his début in International Formula 3000 with the Super Nova Racing team in 1995. His team-mate was the more experienced Vincenzo Sospiri, who won the drivers' championship that year. In a dominant season for his team, Rosset backed up Sospiri by winning two races including his first ever F3000 race and finishing second in the championship.

Formula One

Footwork (1996)

Rosset was hired by Footwork in 1996 as team-mate 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.

Lola (1997)

In 1997 Rosset joined MasterCard Lola, where he was partnered with former F3000 team-mate 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.

Tyrrell (1998)

In 1998, Rosset was chosen by Craig Pollock to be Tyrrell's second driver, to the fury of Ken Tyrrell, whose choice was, ironically, 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, leading to a joke from Martin Brundle, who, upon Murray Walker's suggestion that people were debating whether Rosset was F1 quality, he remarked "it's a fairly short debate". Also, after severely damaging his car in qualifying at the 1998 Monaco Grand Prix and receiving 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 6 hundredths of a second, and an injury during practice for the German Grand Prix which prevented him from taking part in qualifying, while in Belgium he crashed at full speed 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 again hindered by injury caused by a ride on the rollercoaster next to the circuit 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 Formula One

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 and 2013.[6]

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 DC Points
1995 Super Nova Racing SIL
1
CAT
2
PAU
9
PER
1
HOC
9
SPA
4
EST
5
MAG
Ret
2nd 29

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 WDC Points
1996 Footwork Arrows Hart Footwork FA17 Hart V8 AUS
9
BRA
Ret
ARG
Ret
EUR
11
SMR
Ret
MON
Ret
ESP
Ret
CAN
Ret
FRA
11
GBR
Ret
GER
11
HUN
8
BEL
9
ITA
Ret
POR
14
JPN
13
NC 0
1997 MasterCard Lola F1 Team Lola T97/30 Ford V8 AUS
DNQ
BRA
DNP
ARG SMR MON ESP CAN FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA AUT LUX JPN EUR NC 0
1998 PIAA Tyrrell Ford Tyrrell 026 Ford V10 AUS
Ret
BRA
Ret
ARG
14
SMR
Ret
ESP
DNQ
MON
DNQ
CAN
8
FRA
Ret
GBR
Ret
AUT
12
GER
DNQ
HUN
DNQ
BEL
DNS
ITA
12
LUX
Ret
JPN
DNQ
NC 0

Complete Stock Car Brasil results

Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Rank Points
2014 Vogel Motorsport Chevrolet Sonic INT
1

16
SCZ
1
SCZ
2
BRA
1
BRA
2
GOI
1
GOI
2
GOI
1
CAS
1
CAS
2
CUR
1
CUR
2
VEL
1
VEL
2
SCZ
1
SCZ
2
TAR
1
TAR
2
SAL
1
SAL
2
CUR
1
NC† 0†
2015 Vogel Motorsport Chevrolet Sonic GOI
1

Ret
RBP
1

RBP
2

VEL
1

VEL
2

CUR
1

CUR
2

SCZ
1

SCZ
2

SAL
1
SAL
2
GOI
1

CAS
1

CAS
2

BRA
1

BRA
2

CUR
1

CUR
2

TAR
1

TAR
2

INT
1

NC† 0†

Ineligible for championship points.

References

  1. Jenkins, Richard. "The World Championship drivers - Where are they now?". OldRacingCars.com. Retrieved 2007-07-29.
  2. Noble, Jonathan (1998). "1998 FIA Formula 1 World Championship: Monaco GP". In Strang, Simon. Autosport Grand Prix Review 98. Haymarket Publications. p. 93.
  3. Salles-Rosset defeat Xandy-Mattheis (Portuguese)
  4. GT3 Brasil standings
  5. Turner, Kevin (ed.) (April 2009). "Rosset to make F1 racing return in his own Arrows". Autosport 196 (2): 89.
  6. "Ricardo Rosset". Driver Database. Retrieved 6 May 2014.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Miguel Paludo
Porsche GT3 Cup Brasil Champion
2010
Succeeded by
Constantino Júnior
Preceded by
Ricardo Baptista
Porsche GT3 Cup Brasil Champion
2013
Succeeded by
Incumbent