Pedro
Chaves

Pedro Chaves was born in Porto in 1965. In 1986 he became the second champion of the Portuguese Formula Ford Championship, and in 1987 he began his international career in the British Formula Ford Championship. In 1990 he won the British Formula 3000 Championship with Madgwick Motorsport and also took part in a few rounds of the international Formula 3000 series.

In 1991 Chaves was entered by Coloni for 13 Grands Prix. He failed to pre-qualify for every one of them, so he never started a Formula 1 race. He left the team after failing to pre-qualify for the Portuguese Grand Prix.

He went back to Formula 3000 in 1992, first with GJ Racing and later in the season with Il Barone Rampante. He then spent three years in the American Indy Lights series with Brian Stewart Racing, winning a race in Vancouver in 1995. That season only he and Robbie Buhl won races apart from Greg Moore, who took all the others. In 1996 he switched to touring cars and finished second in the Spanish Touring Car Championship in a BMW, before driving a Porsche in the FIA GT Championship.

Chaves moved to the Portuguese Rally Championship in 1998 and won the title in 1999 and 2000 with co-driver Sérgio Paiva in a Toyota Corolla WRC. In 2001 he won the Spanish GT Championship in a Saleen S7-R shared with Miguel Ramos. He also returned to the FIA GT Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Graham Nash Motorsport, and in 2005 and 2006 he came back to the Portuguese Rally Championship in a Renault Clio S1600.

In 2006 Chaves became a driver coach for A1 Team Lebanon, and in 2008 he took on managerial duties at A1 Team Portugal.

Source: Wikipedia, “Pedro Chaves”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.