Pedro de la Rosa - Biography

Pedro de la Rosa has shown great talent, right from the day his racing career began. Starting back in 1989 at just 18 years of age, Pedro won the Spanish Formula Fiat Uno Championship followed by victory in the Spanish Formula Ford 1600 the following season before moving onto the Spanish Formula Renault series in 91, where he finished in an impressive 4th place.

Twelve months later Pedro took the win in the British Formula Renault Championship, as well as victory in the European Formula Renault series, securing many awards and gaining international recognition, as well as invaluable experience.
 
In 1993 he moved to the British F3 Championship, competing for West Surrey racing, finishing 6th overall and remained with the team the following season helping to develop Renault's new F3 engine. In 1995 he competed for TOM's (Toyota) in the Japanese F3 Championship, where he took the title by mid season. That year also saw him secure 8 pole positions, 8 victories, and a third place finish in the famous Macau G.P.

The following year Pedro moved up to Formula Nippon F3000, as well as competing in the All-Japan GT Championship where he finished 8th overall in both. He continued in both series' in 97, taking the Formula Nippon Championship after notching up an amazing ten out of ten podium finishes. Together with Michael Krumm, he also won the GT Championship in that same year and he was elected "1997 Driver Of The Year" by the Japanese Motorsports Journalists Association.

His Formula one career kicked off in 1998 when Eddie Jordan hired him as test driver, but he was quickly signed up by the Arrows team as their number one driver for the 99 Formula One championship season, impressing from the start with a sixth placed finish, scoring his first career point in his debut race at the Australian Grand Prix. Sadly, that was the only points finish for the season, but he remained with the team for 2000, losing a podium finish at Hockenheim, where he had run in a strong third for most of the race.

After Arrows, Pedro signed on to race with the now defunct jaguar Racing team where he partnered Eddie Irvine. However the Spaniard eagerly accepted the role of test driver for the Team McLaren Mercedes squad in the 2003 season where he still remains.