Ricardo Zonta
Ricardo Zonta ( born March 23, 1976 in Curitiba ) is a Brazilian automobile racing driver. He took part in the race of the Formula 1 World Championship, among others, between 1999 and 2005. He currently denies sports car racing.
- 2.1 Statistics in Formula 1 2.1.1 Individual Results
Career
Kart
Like almost all of today's Formula 1 driver Ricardo Zonta began his career in karting. From 1987 to 1992 Zonta drove in several Brazilian karting series. In 1991, he won the Brazilian Karting Championship and began to enter into formula racing.
Formula racing
1993 Zonta graduated its first year in the Formula Opel Championship, a national racing series in Brazil. A year later he moved to the Brazilian Formula 3 Championship, where he da Matta met his future Formula 1 team-mate Cristiano. While da Matta won the series itself, Zonta finished fifth.
1995 Zonta showed for the first time his talent: He stepped in two series at the same time, in the Formula 3 in Brazil and in the South African Formula 3 In both series, he became a master. Thus he managed to jump into the European Formula 3,000.
In the Team Draco Racing in a Lola - Judd - Zytec Zonta finished the 1996 season fourth. He also drove a race in the C-Class Mercedes in the International Touring Car Championship.
In 1997, Zonta joined Supernova Racing and was thus able to secure four wins this season the European title in Formula 3000. In addition, he played first Formula 1 tests for the Jordan team.
Formula 1
1999 Zonta graduated its first Formula 1 season at the newly founded British American Racing team, shortly BAR. Not only for the team, for the season Zonta itself was far from satisfactory. In training for the second race Zonta had an accident just with his home Grand Prix and suffered injuries to the root chord. BAR and thus Zonta 1999 remained without points.
2000 BAR then got the support of Honda, which were new engine partner. Zonta drove a three championship points and was 14th in the World Championship.
The next year spent Zonta as test driver for Jordan. With two races he was allowed to replace regular driver Heinz -Harald Frentzen, but in 2002 he joined the Telefonica World Series by Nissan and won the title there.
From 2003 Zonta was a test driver for Toyota. In 2004 he replaced Cristiano da Matta for five races. As a replacement for Ralf Schumacher Zonta took part in the Grand Prix of USA 2005.
In the 2007 season Zonta drove as a test driver for the French Renault F1 team.
Sports car and GT racing
Even before his Formula 1 career Zonta was active in GT racing. 1998 Zonta drove a Mercedes -Benz CLK LM in the FIA GT Championship. Together with Klaus Ludwig, he won five out of ten races and secured the championship title. In addition to the FIA -GT, the Brazilian also drove the 24 - hour race at Le Mans and completed tests at McLaren - Mercedes.
2008, ie well exactly ten years later, Zonta experienced its return to the sports car. For Peugeot Sport he went as a factory driver at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In addition, he drives for Andretti Green Racing currently in the American Le Mans Series in an Acura ARX 01b. The third race series Zonta 2008 is also active in the American Grand-Am Sports Car Series. He drove for the Krohn Racing team in a Daytona prototype, to on a podium with Niclas Jönsson had little success. 2009 remained at Zonta Krohn Racing and focused in the sports car segment of the Grand - Am. However, his results remained with Jönsson changeable. Two overall victories and a further podium were several midfield positions over and finished the season ranked 17th
In the 2010 season Zonta drove for the German team Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Murcielago LP 670 with a R -SV in the newly formed FIA GT1 World Championship. Along with Frank Kechele he won the race at Spa- Francorchamps and Navarre.
Stock Car
In 2007 Ricardo Zonta drove in the Brazilian Stock Car series. Since 2008, he has his own stock car racing team, the Panasonic Racing Team. He is not only team boss, but also the driver of his racing team.