Ricardo Rosset

Ricardo Rosset (born July 27, 1968) is a former Formula One driver from Brazil. He participated in 32 grands prix, debuting on March 10, 1996. He scored no championship points and his career is not regarded as matching his ability, which included race wins in Formula 3000. He was hired by Footwork in 1996 as team-mate to Jos Verstappen, but never matched the Dutch driver's pace, although the team largely stopped development on the car when Tom Walkinshaw bought it. In 1997 he joined Lola, but they pulled out after one failure to qualify, with an underperforming and under-funded car, taking the company to the brink of folding. He was chosen by Craig Pollock, who had bought into the Tyrrell team to eventually establish BAR as the team's second driver, to the fury of Ken Tyrrell, whose choice was, ironically, Verstappen. This season was another unsuccessful one, leading to a joke from Martin Brundle, who, upon Murray Walker suggesting that people were debating whether Rosset was F1 quality, he remarked "it's a fairly short debate". Also, after severely damaging his car in practice at the 1998 Monaco Grand Prix, his furious mechanics switched the first and last letters of his surname on his moped to leave a quite uncomplimentary word. After leaving the team he quit racing entirely to concentrate on his sportswear business in Brazil.