Pedro
De la Rosa

Pedro Martínez de la Rosa was born in Barcelona on 24 February 1971. His career began with radio-controlled 1:8 off-road cars. During the 1980s he won several Spanish and European titles and finished runner-up at the first world championship in the class in 1986. He took up karting aged 17, won the Spanish Formula Fiat Uno title in 1989 and the Spanish Formula Ford 1600 title in 1990. In 1992 he was both European and British Formula Renault champion. In 1995 he won the Japanese Formula 3 title and was third at the Macau Grand Prix, then in 1997 he took the Formula Nippon championship and the All-Japan GT Championship in Japan with Michael Krumm.

He was a Jordan test driver in 1998. In 1999 he joined Arrows and finished sixth on his debut at the Australian Grand Prix. He stayed with Arrows in 2000, alongside Jos Verstappen, and took sixth again in Germany and at the European Grand Prix. He drove for Jaguar in 2001 and 2002 next to Eddie Irvine, scoring three points in 2001. From 2003 he worked as a McLaren test driver. At the 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix he stood in for Juan Pablo Montoya and finished fifth. In July 2006 he took over the second McLaren seat after Montoya left for NASCAR. He finished second behind Jenson Button in Hungary, his only podium, and ended the season 11th in the championship. He then remained a test driver until 2009 and became chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA) in 2008.

In 2010 he returned to a race seat with Sauber, partnered by Kamui Kobayashi. He finished seventh in Hungary, the last points of his career, and after the Italian Grand Prix the team replaced him with Nick Heidfeld. In 2011 he stood in for Sergio Pérez in Canada and finished 12th. In 2012 he drove for HRT alongside Narain Karthikeyan, failed to qualify at the opening race in Australia and ended the year 25th in the standings. After HRT folded, he worked for Ferrari from 2013 on simulator work and testing. In total he made 104 starts from 107 entries, with no wins and one podium.

Away from the track, he founded the junior racing team Drivex in 2005 and worked as a commentator and analyst for Spanish television. In the 2018-19 Formula E season he was technical and sporting director of Techeetah, who won the teams' championship. In October 2022 he became an ambassador for Aston Martin.

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