Drivers

Mauricio Gugelmin

From the town of Joinville in the south of Brazil, Gugelmin came from a wealthy family and began competing at the age of eight in a car which had previously been raced by his brother. He became a regular winner and then moved to karting at the age of 12 before switching to cars at the age of 17 in Brazilian Formula Fiat.

In 1982 he moved to Europe to race in Formula Ford 1600, sharing a house in Egham, Surrey, with another rising star Ayrton Senna da Silva. By 1985, following in Senna's footsteps, Gugelmin had moved up to the British Formula 3 series, running with West Surrey Racing. He won three races and took the title at his first attempt with a consistent series of results. An attempt was then made to put Gugelmin into Team Lotus alongside Senna but that did not work out. Gugelmin and West Surrey moved to Formula 3000 with JPS sponsorship, but the programme was not a success

At the end of 1987 Gugelmin moved on to join Ivan Capelli at the March Formula 1 team and he stayed with the marque through its transformation to Leyton House, posting an excellent third place at Rio de Janeiro in 1989. That marked the high point of his Grand Prix career although he remained with Leyton House until the end of 1991. After a disappointing 1992 season with Jordan-Yamaha, he headed off to America.

He became an Indycar driver with Dick Simon Racing in 1993 and then alongside Michael Andretti at Chip Ganassi Racing in 1994. He then moved on the PacWest team and finally won a race at Vancouver in 1997. He continued to drive until end of the 2001 season when he moved over to working as a racing consultant.