Ricardo
Zonta

Ricardo Zonta was born on 23 March 1976 in Curitiba, Brazil. He started karting in 1987 and won the Curitiba karting championship in 1991. He moved into single-seaters in 1993, and in 1995 he won both the Brazilian and South American Formula 3 championships. In 1996 he went to Europe, finished fourth in International Formula 3000 with Draco Racing and, driving for Mercedes, became the first Brazilian to race in International Touring Cars. He won the Formula 3000 title in 1997 and then became an official test driver for Jordan. In 1998 he tested for McLaren and won the GT1 class of the FIA GT Championship.

Zonta made his Formula One debut in 1999 with BAR, alongside Jacques Villeneuve. An accident in practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix ruled him out of several races, and he finished that year without a championship point. He stayed with BAR in 2000 and scored his first point with sixth place in the season opener. Further points came in Italy and the United States, and he ended the year 14th in the standings, his best championship position. In 2001 he was Jordan's third driver and made two starts for the team as a stand-in for Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

In 2002 Zonta won the World Series by Nissan. From 2003 he was a Toyota test driver. Late in 2004 he replaced Cristiano da Matta in the race car and contested five races. In Belgium he was running fourth with three laps to go when his engine failed, and at his home race in Brazil he finished 13th. At the 2005 United States Grand Prix he was due to stand in for the injured Ralf Schumacher, but Toyota withdrew from the race along with the other Michelin-shod teams for safety reasons, so he never started. In 2006 he remained Toyota's third and test driver, and he was confirmed as a Renault test driver for 2007.

From 2007 he also raced in Brazil's Stock Car series. In 2008 he took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Peugeot Sport, sharing a car with Franck Montagny and Christian Klien. He also drove in the American Grand-Am series for Krohn Racing. He never reached the podium in Formula One, and his 36 starts were made with BAR, Jordan and Toyota.

Source: Wikipedia, “Ricardo Zonta”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.