Pedro de la Rosa

Pedro de la Rosa may not have made as big a splash in the F1 world as his Spanish counterpart, Fernando Alonso, but he did achieve a notable feat by scoring a championship point on his debut with Arrows in 1999.

Nationality	Spanish
Born	Pedro Martínez de la Rosa 24 February 1971 Barcelona, Spain

De la Rosa clinched the Formula Renault Eurocup in 1992. However, after two unremarkable years in British Formula Three, he moved to Japan.

In Japan, he won the F3 championship in 1995 and then progressed to Formula Nippon, where he secured the title in 1997 on his second attempt. This success led him to become a test driver for Jordan, which was using Japanese Mugen-Honda engines at the time.

Arrows

Pedro de la Rosa’s debut point came with Arrows but was a fleeting success; he never finished in the top six again that season, plagued by repeated technical failures.

In 2000, the pattern continued, though he managed two sixth-place finishes, adding two points to his tally.

Jaguar

In 2001, de la Rosa moved to Jaguar, replacing Luciano Burti. He occasionally challenged teammate Eddie Irvine, but both drivers were out by the end of 2002.

This marked the end of de la Rosa’s initial stint in F1, though he would return.

McLaren

After losing his race seat, de la Rosa joined McLaren’s test team alongside Alexander Wurz, contributing to the team’s resurgence.

Although McLaren favoured the faster Wurz, a shoulder injury sidelined Juan Pablo Montoya for the 2005 Bahrain race, and de la Rosa stepped in since Wurz was too tall for the MP4-20. De la Rosa delivered a strong performance, finishing fourth, but relinquished the car to Wurz for Imola after it was modified to fit him better.

With Wurz moving to Williams, de la Rosa stayed at McLaren for 2006. This paid off when Montoya left mid-season, and de la Rosa was called up again, achieving his best career result with a second-place finish at the Hungaroring.

In 2007, de la Rosa returned to full-time testing as Lewis Hamilton joined the team. He remained in the spotlight due to his involvement in the McLaren-Ferrari espionage scandal. It was revealed that de la Rosa and Alonso, who also joined McLaren that year, exchanged emails discussing confidential Ferrari information obtained by Mike Coughlan.

These emails led to McLaren’s expulsion from the 2007 Constructors’ Championship and a $100 million fine. Despite Alonso’s departure at the end of the year, de la Rosa stayed on as the third driver, with Heikki Kovalainen taking the second race seat.

Sauber

After two years on the sidelines, Pedro de la Rosa joined Sauber as a race driver for the 2010 season. However, he was dropped and replaced by Nick Heidfeld five races before the end of the year.

De la Rosa then conducted a series of tyre tests for Pirelli to help develop their new F1 tyre until early 2011. He returned to McLaren as a test driver at the beginning of the 2011 season. When Sergio Perez was injured in Monaco, de la Rosa made a one-off return to Sauber as a substitute driver for the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix.

HRT

De la Rosa secured a full-time seat with the Spanish team HRT in 2012. Although it was intended to be the start of a two-year deal, it became apparent as the season progressed that the team would not continue into 2013.

Despite limited opportunities to showcase his potential, de la Rosa consistently outperformed teammate Narain Karthikeyan and occasionally out-qualified the Marussias. Toward the end of the season, the F112s experienced several failures, but de la Rosa denied that the team was overextending their parts’ lifespan.

Unsurprisingly, the team folded at the end of the season, ending de la Rosa’s chances of continuing in 2013.

Ferrari

In 2013, de la Rosa joined Ferrari as a test driver and remained with the team until 2014.

In 2022, Aston Martin announced de la Rosa as the new ambassador for their Formula 1 team.

Pedro de la Rosa Formula One World Championship career

F1 Career	1999–2002, 2005–2006, 2010–2012
Teams	Arrows, Jaguar, McLaren, Sauber, HRT
Entries	107 (104 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	1
Career points	35
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
First entry	1999 Australian Grand Prix
Last entry	2012 Brazilian Grand Prix

Pedro de la Rosa Teammates

Teammates	Involvement	First Year	Last Year
Tora Takagi	16	1999
Jos Verstappen	17	2000
Eddie Irvine	30	2001	2002
Kimi Räikkönen	21	2005	2006
Juan Pablo Montoya	11	2005
Alexander Wurz	2	2005
Kamui Kobayashi	15	2010	2011
Sergio Pérez	1	2011
Narain Karthikeyan	20	2012
Dani Close Clos	6	2012
Ma Qinghua	4	2012

Complete Formula One Results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	WDC	Points
1999	Repsol Arrows	Arrows A20	Arrows T2-F1 3.0 V10	AUS 6	BRA Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	ESP 11	CAN Ret	FRA 11	GBR Ret	AUT Ret	GER Ret	HUN 15	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	EUR Ret	MAL Ret	JPN 13					18th	1
2000	Arrows F1 Team	Arrows A21	Supertec FB02 3.0 V10	AUS Ret	BRA 8	SMR Ret	GBR Ret	ESP Ret	EUR 6	MON DNS	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	AUT Ret	GER 6	HUN 16	BEL 16	ITA Ret	USA Ret	JPN 12	MAL Ret				16th	2
2001	Jaguar Racing	Jaguar R2	Cosworth CR-3 3.0 V10	AUS	MAL	BRA	SMR	ESP Ret	AUT Ret	MON Ret	CAN 6	EUR 8	FRA 14	GBR 12	GER Ret	HUN 11	BEL Ret	ITA 5	USA 12	JPN Ret				16th	3
2002	Jaguar Racing	Jaguar R3	Cosworth CR-3 3.0 V10	AUS 8	MAL 10	BRA 8	SMR Ret	ESP Ret	AUT Ret	MON 10	CAN Ret	EUR 11												21st	0
		Jaguar R3B	Cosworth CR-4 3.0 V10										GBR 11	FRA 9	GER Ret	HUN 13	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	USA Ret	JPN Ret
2005	West McLaren Mercedes	McLaren MP4-20	Mercedes FO 110R 3.0 V10	AUS TD	MAL TD	BHR 5	SMR TD	ESP TD	MON	EUR	CAN TD	USA TD	FRA TD	GBR TD	GER									20th	4
	Team McLaren Mercedes	McLaren MP4-20	Mercedes FO 110R 3.0 V10													HUN	TUR TD	ITA TD	BEL	BRA	JPN TD	CHN TD
2006	Team McLaren Mercedes	Team McLaren Mercedes MP4-21	Mercedes FO 108S 2.4 V8	BHR	MAL	AUS	SMR	EUR	ESP	MON	GBR	CAN	USA	FRA 7	GER Ret	HUN 2	TUR 5	ITA Ret	CHN 5	JPN 11	BRA 8			11th	19
2010	BMW Sauber F1 Team	Sauber C29	Ferrari 056 2.4 V8	BHR Ret	AUS 12	MAL DNS	CHN Ret	ESP Ret	MON Ret	TUR 11	CAN Ret	EUR 12	GBR Ret	GER 14	HUN 7	BEL 11	ITA 14	SIN	JPN	KOR	BRA	ABU		17th	6
2011	Sauber F1 Team	Sauber C30	Ferrari 056 2.4 V8	AUS	MAL	CHN	TUR	ESP	MON	CAN 12	EUR	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	SIN	JPN	KOR	IND	ABU	BRA		20th	0
2012	HRT F1 Team	HRT F112	Cosworth CA2012 2.4 V8	AUS DNQ	MAL 21	CHN 21	BHR 20	ESP 19	MON Ret	CAN Ret	EUR 17	GBR 20	GER 21	HUN 22	BEL 18	ITA 18	SIN 17	JPN 18	KOR Ret	IND Ret	ABU 17	USA 21	BRA 17	25th	0