Ricardo Rosset

Former F1 driver


image-size = 150
pixels = 150
Name = Ricardo Rosset
Nationality = flagicon|Brazil Brazilian
Years = F1|1996-F1|1998
Team(s) = Footwork, MasterCard Lola, Tyrrell
Races = 33 (26 starts)
Championships = 0
Wins = 0
Podiums = 0
Points = 0
Poles = 0
Fastest laps = 0
First race = 1996 Australian Grand Prix
First win =
Last win =
Last race = 1998 Japanese Grand Prix

Ricardo Rosset (born July 27, 1968 in São Paulocite web |url=http://www.oldracingcars.com/bydriver/watn.asp?letter=R |title= The World Championship drivers - Where are they now? |accessdate=2007-07-29 |last=Jenkins |first=Richard |publisher=OldRacingCars.com] ) is a former racing driver from Brazil. He participated in 33 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on March 10, 1996. 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 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

1996: Footwork

Rosset was hired by Footwork in F1|1996 as team-mate to Jos Verstappen, but never matched the Dutch driver's pace, although the team largely stopped development on the car when Tom Walkinshaw bought it.

1997: MasterCard Lola

In F1|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.

1998: Tyrrell

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 practice 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". [Autosport magazine, end-of-season review supplement, 1998.]

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, 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.

Post-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. After eight races, the pair have won three times in their Ford GT and lie second in the overall standings. [GT3 Brasil standings [http://www.gt3.com.br/classificacao-geral] ]

Complete Formula One results

()

External links

* [http://www.f1rejects.com/drivers/rosset/index.html Profile on F1 Rejects]

References