Moisés
Solana

Moisés Solana Arciniega was born in Mexico City on 26 December 1935. He began racing in a 1954 special called the "Solana Sports", built by Javier Solana. Between 1960 and 1968 he won the Mexican Formula Libre Championship nine times, taking more than 200 victories from 270 races.

He made his Formula One World Championship debut on 27 October 1963 in the Mexican Grand Prix, driving for BRM. He started with the number 13 and was classified 11th even though his engine failed eight laps from the finish. Until Pastor Maldonado chose 13 as his permanent number in 2014, Solana was the only driver to start a World Championship race with that number. In all he made eight starts: he drove for Lotus in 1964 and 1965, for Cooper in 1966, and for Lotus again in 1967 and 1968. He scored no points. He also took part in one Formula One race that was not part of the championship.

From 1966 to 1968 he also drove for Lola and McLaren in the USRRC and Can-Am series. In March 1968 he won the first points-scoring round of the USRRC Group 7 series, the first international race held in Mexico City. That year he also tested a Formula Two car for Ferrari and competed in Formula Two for Team Lotus at Jarama. Solana died in an accident during a hill climb at Valle de Bravo-Bosencheve in Mexico on 27 July 1969. The first chicane at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City is named after him: the Ese Moisés Solana.

Source: Wikipedia, “Moisés Solana”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.