Drivers

Roberto Moreno

Moreno was a great childhood friend of Nelson Piquet and originally tried his hand in Formula 1 at the wheel of a Lotus as long ago as the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix. After a patchy period of disappointing results, he restored his reputation by winning the 1988 European Formula 3000 Championship in a Ralt-Honda. He had been spending a disastrous F1 season with Eurobrun in 1990, when he was recruited by Benetton after Alessandro Nannini was badly injured in a helicopter smash. He created his place in the team in his first race for them by finishing second to Piquet in a Benetton 1-2 in the Japanese Grand Prix. Question marks about his fitness, allied to a keenness amongst the Benetton management to recruit the dynamic Michael Schumacher, saw him dismissed from the team less than a week after finishing fourth in the Belgian Grand Prix. He drove twice for Jordan by way of consolation before his serious front-line career fizzled out with spells at Andrea Moda and Forti Corse. He has since reinvented himself to brilliant effect on the CART scene and has a full-time ride with Patrick Racing for the 2000 season.