(born
February 24 1971 ) is a
Spanish Formula One driver. He was born in
Barcelona (
Spain ). De la Rosa has participated in 64 grand prix, debuting on
March 7 ,
1999 , becoming one of very few drivers to score a point at his first race. He scored a total of 6 championship points with the old scoring system, and an additional 4 points in the expanded scoring format in the
2005 Bahrain Grand Prix .
Unlike most drivers, Pedro started his career in European radio controlled off-road cars. He also became the Two-times European radio controlled off-road car Champion during from
1983 to
1987 It was only after that when he started
Karting in a local
Spanish Championship in
1988 . He then joined the
Spanish Formula Fiat Uno and became champion in
1989 .
In
1990 Pedro joined the Spanish
Formula Ford 1600 and became champion. He also joined the
British Formula Renault 1600 and got two podiums out of six races. In
1991 ,Pedro got fourth in the Spanish Formula Renault Championship with three podium finishes. In
1992 he won both the European and British Formula Renault. However, he slipped down the order in the next two years. In
1995 , he was champion of the
Japanese Formula 3 series and third in the
Macau Grand Prix . In
1996 Pedro was 8th in both the Formula Nippon F3000 and All Japan GT Championship. The next year he was champion of the Formula Nippon F3000. He was also the Japan All GT Champion.
In
1998 , Pedro shifted to the
Formula One series as a test driver for Jordan. The next year, he joined
Arrows and scored only one point in the driver's standings. He picked the point up in the
Australian Grand Prix . In
2000 , he bettered his performance by one point scoring at both
Hockenheim and
Nurburgring . For the next two years, he joined
Jaguar Racing ,having a difficult relationship with the team's lead driver
Eddie Irvine . He scored 3 points in 2001 but was pointless in 2002 and was dropped in 2003 (along with Irvine,who retired). He then moved to
Team McLaren as a test driver.
He became a
Test Drive r for
McLaren and was promoted to a competing driver for the 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix when
Juan Pablo Montoya injured his shoulder.
(Note: grands prix in denote '''points scoring''' races.)
