Chico
Serra

Francisco Adolpho "Chico" Serra was born in São Paulo on 3 February 1957. He won the Formula Ford Festival in 1977 and the British Formula 3 Championship in 1979, a year after his compatriot Nelson Piquet had taken the title. That caught the attention of Emerson Fittipaldi, who signed him for his Formula One team, Fittipaldi.

Serra made his debut at Long Beach on 15 March 1981, finishing seventh alongside Keke Rosberg. It remained the team's best result of that season. In 1982 Fittipaldi ran only one car, for Serra. He finished sixth in the Belgian Grand Prix to score his first championship point, which left him 26th in the standings. As the car lacked pace, he occasionally failed to qualify. In 1983 he drove for Arrows and finished in the top ten in three of his first four races, but the team replaced him with Thierry Boutsen after the Monaco Grand Prix. In all, Serra made 18 starts.

After Formula One he made a single CART start in 1985 at Portland for Ensign Racing, which ended with an engine failure. In Brazilian stock car racing he won the Mil Milhas Brasil in 1981 and was series champion in 1999, 2000 and 2001. His son Daniel Serra is also a racing driver.

Source: Wikipedia, “Chico Serra”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.