Pedro de la Rosa

24/2/1971

Record updated 24-Feb-07

Spanish Formula One driver, De la Rosa has participated in 64 grand prix, debuting on March 7, 1999.

Pedro de la Rosa
De la Rosa  was born in Barcelona, Spain. De la Rosa has participated in 69 grands prix, debuting on March 7, 1999, becoming one of very few drivers to score a point at his first race. He scored a total of six championship points with the old scoring system, and an additional 22 points in the expanded scoring format.

Unlike most drivers, de la Rosa started his career in European radio controlled off-road cars. He also twice the European radio controlled off-road car Champion during from 1983 to 1987. It was only after that when he started karting in a local Spanish Championship in 1988. He then joined the Spanish Formula Fiat Uno and became champion in 1989.

In 1990 de le Rosa joined the Spanish Formula Ford 1600 and became champion. He also joined the British Formula Renault 1600 and got two podiums out of six races. In 1991, de la Rosa got fourth in the Spanish Formula Renault Championship with three podium finishes. In 1992 he won both the European and British Formula Renault. However, he slipped down the order in the next two years. In 1995, he was champion of the Japanese Formula 3 series and third in the Macau Grand Prix. In 1996 Pedro was 8th in both the Formula Nippon F3000 and All Japan GT Championship. The next year he was champion of the Formula Nippon F3000. He was also the Japan All GT Champion.

In 1998, de la Rosa shifted to the Formula One series as a test driver for Jordan. The next year, he joined Arrows and scored only one point in the driver's standings. He picked the point up in the Australian Grand Prix, his début race. In 2000, he bettered his performance by one point scoring at both Hockenheim and Nürburgring. For the next two years, he joined Jaguar Racing, having a difficult relationship with the team's lead driver Eddie Irvine. He scored 3 points in 2001 but was pointless in 2002 and was dropped in 2003 along with Irvine, who retired.

He became a test driver for McLaren and made a points scoring debut at the 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix when Juan Pablo Montoya injured his shoulder. He came fifth and also set the fastest lap in the race.

On July 11, 2006 it was announced that de la Rosa would take over the second McLaren race seat with immediate effect following Juan Pablo Montoya's departure to NASCAR. It was initially unclear whether he would remain in the seat until the end of the season, but some successful results led to him being retained.

At the Hungarian Grand Prix of 2006 De la Rosa scored his first ever podium, coming 2nd behind Jenson Button.

After a long period of speculation as to who would be Fernando Alonso's team-mate in 2007, Lewis Hamilton secured the seat. De la Rosa will carry on as the team's test driver.

Starting in 2005 he became a race commentator for Spanish broadcaster Telecinco until when in 2006 he had to race. It's supposed that he will be commenting again for 2007.




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