Puneet Varma (Editor)

Formula One drivers from Portugal

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Formula One drivers from Portugal

There have been 5 Formula One drivers from Portugal.

Former drivers

Casimiro de Oliveira is regarded as Portugal's first Formula One driver, despite not arriving to the only race he was entered in, the 1958 Portuguese Grand Prix. He did test a Maserati 250F at the Circuito da Boavista before the race, however withdrew on safety grounds. Ironically, he was responsible for the organisation of the event.

Mário de Araújo Cabral participated in five Grands Prix between 1959 and 1964, qualifying for all but one and finishing once, with 10th at the 1959 Portuguese Grand Prix.

Pedro Chaves became the third Portuguese F1 driver 27 years after Cabral when he signed for Scuderia Coloni in 1991. The car was out of date, fragile and hard to handle and as a result he failed to pre-qualify for any of the 13 races he entered, quitting the sport with three races to go in the 1991 season.

Pedro Lamy made his debut for Lotus at the 1993 Italian Grand Prix, filling in for the injured Alessandro Zanardi. He completed the final four races of 1993 and the first four races of 1994 with the team, before breaking both legs and wrists in a testing crash at Silverstone. Post-recovery, he returned to the sport with Minardi, picking up the teams' only point of 1995 in Australia. Lamy remained with Minardi for 1996, however the team's lack of resources saw him fail to score another point and he subsequently left Formula One at seasons' end.

Tiago Monteiro made his debut for backmarkers Jordan Grand Prix in 2005. Despite the cars' uncompetitive nature he managed an 8th place at the Belgian Grand Prix and scored the first podium for a Portuguese driver in Formula One with 3rd in the controversial 2005 United States Grand Prix. The team, re-branded Midland, retained him for 2006 however he did not score another point and with Midland taken over by Spyker for 2007 Monteiro did not retain his drive, switching to the World Touring Car Championship.

References

Formula One drivers from Portugal Wikipedia