JANUARY 15, 1996

Who is Ricardo Rosset?

TWENTY-SEVEN year old Brazilian Ricardo Rosset has only recently made an impact on the international motor racing scene, although he has in fact been racing in Europe since 1992.

TWENTY-SEVEN year old Brazilian Ricardo Rosset has only recently made an impact on the international motor racing scene, although he has in fact been racing in Europe since 1992.

Rosset is a close friend of Rubens Barrichello but was a late-starter in serious motorsport, starting karting at Brazilian national level at the age of 22. In 1991 he jumped into single seater racing, competing in both Formula Ford 1600 and FormulaÊFordÊ2000 in Brazil. He was quite successful - winning three FF1600 races - and decided to move to Europe in 1992 to compete in the Opel Lotus Euroseries with the Peter Thompson Motorsport team. The season was disappointing, but Rosset moved on to British Formula 3, signing with the respected Alan Docking Racing for 1993. He found his feet and the following season - when driving for AJS Racing he won his first F3 race. He joined the Supernova Formula 3000 team last year and leapt into the spotlight with victory at the season-opener at Silverstone. He went on to score another win and finished second in the Championship to his team-mate, the much more experienced, Vincenzo Sospiri.

Rosset has been talking with Arrows, Tyrrell and Minardi about a ride in F1 this year.