Pedro de la Rosa
Pedro Martínez de la Rosa (born 24th February, 1971 in Barcelona, Spain) is a Spanish Formula One driver whose Grand Prix career spanned twenty years between 1998 and 2018.
Formula One
1998-1999: Stewart & Arrows
Following an excellent 1997 in Japan, where he'd picked up both the Formula Nippon and All-Japan GT titles, De la Rosa was courted by a number of Formula One teams ahead of the 1998 season. In the end, it would be with Stewart Grand Prix where he'd find his first home in the top flight of motorsport, albeit as a test driver. De la Rosa was close to a debut midway through that year, but an unexpected win for Jan Magnussen secured the Dane's position.
Stewart's signing of Dario Franchitti caused De la Rosa to seek an alternative for 1999 and as such he'd sign for Benetton Arrows, racing alongside Rubens Barrichello. He would take a third place in the third race of the season at Imola, before following this result up two races later with an unexpected win on the streets of Monaco. De la Rosa would finish the season in seventh place, two points more than his more experienced teammate Barrichello.
2000: Ferrari
An unexpected win in Monaco the previous year meant that De la Rosa had offers from the leading teams in Formula One; McLaren and Ferrari, as well as an option to remain with Arrows. In the end, the departure of David Coulthard from Ferrari saw De la Rosa fulfil the dreams of many young drivers and don the famous red of the Scuderia. Although initially results were hard to come by for the Spaniard, De la Rosa would take his first win of the season at the European Grand Prix.
2001-2002: Jaguar
With only a single win the previous year, De la Rosa found himself victim to the Ferrari driver roundabout - being replaced by Arrows refugee Giancarlo Fisichella. De la Rosa would make a return to the same outfit that brought him into F1 by signing with Jaguar.
De la Rosa would fail to score any points with the Jaguar team for one and a half seasons, and would be sacked by the team ahead of the 2002 French Grand Prix - being replaced by André Lotterer.
2003: BAR
Out of a drive for the remainder of 2002, de la Rosa would return in 2003 with the BAR team, who after a difficult year in 2002 had lost the services of Sammy Jones and were keen to sign a race winner to replace him, with the Spaniard teaming up with Justin Wilson, who remained with the team from 2002 and started the season notionally team leader. Unfortunately, 2003 proved to be even worse for BAR, with the team's package simply not anywhere near the sharp end of the grid, leaving both him and Wilson fighting for the lower points positions, his best results being a couple of seventh places. De la Rosa also had further issues (even as by far the more experienced driver at BAR) asserting himself as team leader, even after Wilson left to join Sauber at the mid-season break, with his replacement Anthony Davidson immediately outperforming the Spaniard, scoring the teams best result all year, a fourth place at Indianapolis. As a result, de la Rosa would be sacked for the second year in a row, being benched in favour of the Honda-backed Takuma Sato for the final round in Japan.
2005: Sauber
After a year out, De la Rosa made his return to the grid in 2005, racing for Sauber Petronas alongside Jacques Villeneuve.