Pedro de la Rosa

It was the end of a long and winding road for Pedro de la Rosa when he finally found his way onto the Grand Prix grid in 1999. After karting from an early age, the Spaniard was the national Fiat Uno champion way back in 1989, and took the Formula Ford title the following year that lead to a move to Formula Renault in Britain.

This championship was duly added to the list in 1992 and when de la Rosa graduated to Formula Three in 1993 his upward career curve seemed untroubled. However, a satisfactory sixth place in that learning year was followed by a nightmare season when, saddled with an uncompetitive Renault engine, he could only watch as Jan Magnussen blitzed the rest of the field. Fortunately, a late-season engine change proved there was nothing wrong with the driver, who had decided to progress his career in Japanese Formula Three.

Driving for TOM's, he trounced the opposition with eight pole positions and eight wins from the nine rounds of the series, ensuring a move up to Formula Nippon for 1996. In his first year at this level Pedro was always quick but was let down by his lack of experience, which denied him better finishes. He was a good learner, though, and the following season took his Nova Engineering Lola to the championship with six wins from the ten rounds. As if his cup was not already overflowing, de la Rosa also clinched the All-Japan GT championship in a Toyota Supra.

Seeing no purpose in racing in the European F3000 series, Pedro secured backing from Repsol and negotiated a place for himself as the Jordan test driver for 1998, impressing all concerned with his technical feedback. His ability to make a healthy contribution to the Arrows sponsorship budget was no doubt a huge factor in Tom Walkinshaw's decision to sign the Spaniard the following season, but he soon proved his worth by scoring a priceless point for the team on his Grand Prix debut in Melbourne. Thereafter, lack of development saw Arrows treading water, but Pedro was held in high esteem by the team, who regarded him as a good find with excellent future prospects in Formula One.

Pedro’s promise saw him retained at Arrows for 2000. The new A21 had been flying in testing, but despite phenomenal straight-line speed in certain races, flattered to deceive on more than one occasion. Sixth place finishes at the European and German GPs left de la Rosa languishing in 15th place overall at the end of the year, but both he and similarly afflicted team-mate Jos Verstappen were expected to be retained for another season.

It came as something of a shock to de la Rosa, therefore, when he was released in favour of Brazilian rookie Enrique Bernoldi, who had barely tested with the team before being given a contract for 2001. Different sides of the story naturally followed, before the Spaniard appeared to join Prost as development driver with an eye on a race seat for 2002 – or as replacement for the moneyed Gaston Mazzacane should the Argentine not perform to expectation in 2001.

The Prost deal soon emerged to be little more than a rumour, as Pedro skipped the former world champion's team in favour of Jaguar, where he lined up as an unexpected test driver alongside the inexperienced Tomas Scheckter. After the first four races of the season, Luciano Burti was dropped from the Jaguar Team – eventually to resurface at Prost – which allowed de la Rosa to reclaim a race drive from the Spanish GP onwards. The recalcitrant Jaguar R2 was not the best car to have, however, and the Spaniard managed just two top six finishes in the 13 races he contested. This led to three points and only 16th spot in the standings, but was enough to see him retained alongside Eddie Irvine for 2002.

His second year with Jaguar was another difficult period, and the team's R3 was a disaster to the point of talk suggesting it be replaced by the older R2. Pedro struggled throughout the season and, more often than not, was shown up by his older team mate. Throughout the year, the Spaniard failed to score a single point and his best finish came in Australia, when he came home eighth after half the field had been obliterated in a first corner pile-up. On 1 November, the then Jaguar boss Niki Lauda announced that neither drivers Irvine or de la Rosa, would remain with the team in 2003, despite the fact that the Spaniard still had a contract.

De la Rosa appeared set for the F1 wilderness for 2003, until McLaren-Mercedes swooped to sign him as a test driver on the back of two successful 'development' outings at Jerez and Barcelona. The Spaniard thus became McLaren's 'fourth driver', testing alongside Alex Wurz and race drivers David Coulthard and Kimi Räikkönen.

He remained a vital part of Ron Dennis' squad in 2004, performing the same role, and, for 2005, getting a fresh chance to impress the pit-lane as he took on a share of the 'third driver' role, running in the Friday morning practice sessions. Indeed when Juan Pablo Montoya was sidelined by a 'tennis injury' Pedro stepped up to the plate in Bahrain taking a solid fifth place for the team.

With Alex Wurz departing for Williams, The Spaniard became the de-facto third driver team for 2006, and following the shock mid-season departure of Juan Pablo Montoya found himself with a chance to show his talent in a competitive car. In his eight starts, Pedro was placed in the points on five occasions and he came tantalizingly close to winning the Hungarian Grand Prix, only losing out to Jenson Button. However his performances were not deemed strong enough to gain him a race seat in 2007 alongside the incoming Fernando Alonso, the McLaren-Mercedes heirachy opting for the startling talents of the youthful Lewis Hamilton instead.

The unassuming Spaniard returned to his duties as the team’s test driver, a key role that continues into 2008.