Norberto Fontana

Fontana was a highly impressive German F3 champion in 1995 with ten wins from sixteen starts and the Marlboro Masters title to boot. The diminutive Argentinian defeated rivals such as Ralf Schumacher, Jarno Trulli and Alexander Wurz but, while these drivers have since established themselves as Grand Prix fixtures, Norberto unsuccessfully spent two and a half seasons trying to regain ground lost after an unimpressive four-race stint at Sauber in 1997 after deputising for the injured Gianni Morbidelli

Norberto could well have grabbed a seat at Sauber at the beginning of 1996 had it not been for a neck injury sustained in an accident at the end-of-year F3 Macau GP in 1995. Instead, he had to be content with the test-driver role with the Swiss team and headed out to Japan to compete in Formula Nippon.

During his three seasons in the Far East Fontana was, predictably, a front-runner. He won four times, but the championship itself was to prove elusive and, with his ultimate goal a place on the Formula 1 grid, Norberto opted to return to Europe in 1999 to contest the FIA F3000 series. It was not a move which brought much success, the well-funded Red Bull Sauber Junior Team star scoring a meagre four points to finish 13th in the final standings.

For 2000 the Argentinian tried his hand in the Champ Car series for the under-funded Della Penna team without making much of an impression, and he subsequently he has raced in his homeland, spearheading the Toyota in their popular TC2000 Touring Car Series. His first victory came in 2001, and took the title in 2002. By the end of the 2006 season Fontana had a total of nine career victories in this closely fought class, but his machine was no longer one of the absolute front runners, finishing seventh in the overall standings for the second successive season.