Ricardo Zonta

Ricardo Zonta

Zonta in 2007, as a Stock Car Brasil driver
Born	Ricardo Luiz Zonta 23 March 1976 Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Brazilian
Active years	1999–2001, 2003–2005
Teams	BAR, Jordan, Toyota
Entries	38 (36 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	3
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1999 Australian Grand Prix
Last entry	2005 United States Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career Participating years 1998, 2008 Teams AMG-Mercedes, Peugeot Best finish 3rd (2008) Class wins 0

Ricardo Luiz Zonta (born March 23, 1976) is a Brazilian professional racing driver.

Early career

Born in Curitiba, Brazil, Zonta began karting in 1987, winning his first race shortly thereafter. The following year, he was runner-up for the Curitiba Karting Championship, and in 1991, he won the title. He continued karting until 1992, finishing fourth in the São Paulo Karting Championship before progressing to single-seaters for 1993. He finished 6th in the Brazilian Formula Chevrolet Championship, and then in 1994, came fifth in the Brazilian Formula Three Championship. A year later, Zonta won both the Brazilian and South American Formula Three Championships.

Moving to Europe in 1996, Zonta competed in the International Formula 3000 Championship for Draco Racing, winning two races and finishing fourth overall. In the same year, he became the first Brazilian to compete in International Touring Cars, with Mercedes. In 1997, he won three races and the Formula 3000 championship. He also took home the "Golden Helmet" award for best international driver for his efforts. The Jordan Formula One team signed him as their official test driver following his championship, and in 1998, he was signed by McLaren boss Ron Dennis. Zonta tested with the McLaren Formula One team in 1998, and concurrently won the FIA GT Championship (GT1 class) and the "Golden Helmet" award in the "world prominence" category.

In October 1998, immediately after winning the FIA GT championship, Zonta signed up with the B.A.R. Formula One racing team as one of its race drivers for the 1999 season,^[1][2] after rejecting offers from Jordan and Sauber.^[3]

Formula One career

Zonta qualifying in place of an injured Ralf Schumacher at the 2005 United States Grand Prix.

In 1999, Zonta started as a Formula One racing driver alongside 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve at new team B.A.R. Zonta injured his foot in an accident during practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix, and was forced to miss three races. He also had a large accident at Spa-Francorchamps, and finished the season with no championship points. Zonta remained with B.A.R for the 2000 season, scoring his first world championship point with a sixth place in the opening race. He had another large accident when his front suspension broke during testing at Silverstone, but continued the season, scoring points in both the Italian and United States Grands Prix, to finish 14th in the championship. Replaced by Olivier Panis for the 2001 season, Zonta became the third driver for the Jordan team, replacing the injured Heinz-Harald Frentzen for one race, and then again when Frentzen was sacked, but was overlooked to replace him for the remainder of the season. In 2002, he decided to focus on the Telefónica World Series, which he won. Zonta was then hired as test driver for the Toyota F1 team in 2003, retaining the position in 2004. Towards the end of the season, the team sacked Cristiano da Matta from a race seat, and Zonta drove in four Grands Prix. In Belgium a brilliant fourth place went beckoning when engine failure struck three laps from the finish. In Suzuka the team hired Jarno Trulli and Zonta had to sit the event out, however the team allowed him to compete in his home race, the Brazilian Grand Prix, which he finished in 13th. He continued as a test driver for Toyota in 2005, alongside veteran French pilot Olivier Panis. At the US Grand Prix later that year, he stood in for an injured Ralf Schumacher and took his place on the grid, only for Toyota, like the other six Michelin-shod teams, to withdraw from the race due to safety concerns. 2006 saw Zonta continue with Toyota as the team's third and test driver.

Ricardo Zonta was confirmed as test driver for the Renault Formula One team for the 2007 season on 6 September 2006.^[4]

After Formula One

In 2007, Zonta entered the Stock Car Brasil series in parallel with the work for the Renault team.^[5]

In 2008, Zonta kicked off his sportscar career by contesting the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Peugeot Sport, driving the #9 car alongside Franck Montagny and Formula One tester Christian Klien. He is also driving in the Grand Am Championship in America with Krohn Racing, while also being the team owner and driver of Panasonic Racing in Stock Car Brasil.

Racing career

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
1996	Draco Engineering	NÜR Ret	PAU 3	PER Ret	HOC 6	SIL 3	SPA 9	MAG Ret	EST 1	MUG 1	HOC 11	4th	27
1997	Super Nova Racing	SIL DSQ	PAU Ret	HEL Ret	NÜR 1	PER 2	HOC 1	A1R 2	SPA 5	MUG 1	JER Ret	1st	39

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1998	AMG-Mercedes	Jean-Marc Gounon Christophe Bouchut	Mercedes-Benz CLK LM	GT1	31	DNF	DNF
2008	Peugeot Sport Total	Franck Montagny Christian Klien	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	LMP1	379	3rd	3rd

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Pts.
1999	British American Racing	BAR 01	Supertec V10	AUS Ret	BRA DNQ	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN Ret	FRA 9	GBR Ret	AUT 15^†	GER Ret	HUN 13	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	EUR 8	MAL Ret	JPN 12				NC	0
2000	Lucky Strike Reynard BAR Honda	BAR 002	Honda V10	AUS 6	BRA 9	SMR 12	GBR Ret	ESP 8	EUR Ret	MON Ret	CAN 8	FRA Ret	AUT Ret	GER Ret	HUN 14	BEL 12	ITA 6	USA 6	JPN 9	MAL Ret			14th	3
2001	B&H Jordan Honda	Jordan EJ11	Honda V10	AUS	MAL	BRA	SMR	ESP	AUT	MON	CAN 7	EUR	FRA	GBR	GER Ret	HUN	BEL	ITA	USA	JPN			19th	0
2004	Panasonic Toyota Racing	Toyota TF104B	Toyota V10	AUS TD	MAL TD	BHR TD	SMR TD	ESP TD	MON TD	EUR TD	CAN TD	USA TD	FRA TD	GBR TD	GER TD	HUN Ret	BEL 10^†	ITA 11	CHN Ret	JPN	BRA 13		22nd	0
2005	Panasonic Toyota Racing	Toyota TF105	Toyota V10	AUS TD	MAL TD	BHR TD	SMR TD	ESP TD	MON TD	EUR TD	CAN TD	USA DNS	FRA	GBR TD	GER TD	HUN TD	TUR TD	ITA TD	BEL TD	BRA TD	JPN TD	CHN TD	NC	0

^† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they had completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete Stock Car Brasil results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Pos	Points
2007	L&M Racing	Peugeot 307	INT DNQ	CTB 22	CGD 26	INT Ret	LON Ret	SCZ 11	CTB Ret	BSB 25	ARG 9	TAR Ret	RIO 15	INT 22										29th	13
2008	Panasonic Racing	Peugeot 307	INT 14	BSB Ret	CTB	SCZ	CGD	INT	RIO	LON 22	CTB	BSB 7	TAR Ret	INT 5										24th	23
2009	RZ Racing	Peugeot 307	INT DSQ	CTB 6	BSB	SCZ	INT 25	SAL	RIO 10	CGD 14	CTB 14	BSB 2	TAR Ret	INT 13										16th	48
2010	RZ Corinthians Motorsport	Chevrolet Vectra	INT Ret	CTB 13	VEL 15	RIO Ret	RBP 8	SAL Ret	INT Ret	CGD 5	LON 21	SCZ	BSB Ret	CTB 5										20th	36
2011	Crystal Racing Team	Chevrolet Vectra	CTB 3	INT 8	RBP Ret	VEL 11	CGD 16	RIO 22	INT 15	SAL 7	SCZ 21	LON 5	BSB 20	VEL 25										15th	51
2012	Linea Sucrolose	Chevrolet Sonic	INT 26	CTB Ret	VEL 6	RBP 19	LON 12	RIO 24	SAL 14	CGD 22	TAR 10	CUR Ret	BRA 8	INT 5										13th	89
2013	BMC Racing	Chevrolet Sonic	INT 23	CUR 6	TAR 4	SAL 28	BRA 9	CAS 14	RBP 18	CAS 29	VEL 5	CUR 8	BRA 8	INT 1										7th	144
2014	RZ Motorsport	Chevrolet Sonic	INT 1 24	SCZ 1 17	SCZ 2 5	BRA 1 5	BRA 2 24	GOI 1 Ret	GOI 2 Ret	GOI 1 17	CAS 1 14	CAS 2 22	CUR 1 31	CUR 2 DNS	VEL 1 5	VEL 2 5	SCZ 1 23	SCZ 2 16	TAR 1 6	TAR 2 3	SAL 1 7	SAL 2 Ret	CUR 1 Ret	14th	108
2015	Shell Racing	Chevrolet Sonic	GOI 1 21	RBP 1 Ret	RBP 2 Ret	VEL 1 13	VEL 2 8	CUR 1 24	CUR 2 Ret	SCZ 1 12	SCZ 2 14	CUR 1 6	CUR 2 18	GOI 1 3	CAS 1 2	CAS 2 14	MOU 1 11	MOU 2 12	CUR 1 Ret	CUR 2 9	TAR 1 5	TAR 2 9	INT 1 8	13th	147
2016	Shell Racing	Chevrolet Sonic	CUR 1 5																					17th*	108*
		Chevrolet Cruze		VEL 1 14	VEL 2 DNS	GOI 1 16	GOI 2 4	SCZ 1 10	SCZ 2 9	TAR 1 Ret	TAR 2 8	CAS 1 2	CAS 2 10	INT 1 22†	LON 1 Ret	LON 2 5	CUR 1 14	CUR 2 Ret	GOI 1 Ret	GOI 2 DSQ	CRI 1 DSQ	CRI 2 DNS	INT 1

^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance. ^* Season still in progress.

FIA GT Championship results

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Rank	Points
1998	AMG Mercedes	GT1	Mercedes-Benz CLK LM	Mercedes-Benz M119 6.0L V8	OSC 1	SIL 4	HOC 2	DIJ 1	HUN 2	SUZ 2	DON 2	A1R 1	HMS 1	LAG 1	1st	77

GT1 World Championship results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pos	Points
2010	Reiter	Lamborghini	ABU QR 10	ABU CR 5	SIL QR	SIL CR	BRN QR	BRN CR	PRI QR 13	PRI CR 10	SPA QR 2	SPA CR 1	NÜR QR 4	NÜR CR 14	ALG QR	ALG CR	NAV QR 1	NAV CR 1	INT QR Ret	INT CR Ret	SAN QR	SAN CR	8th	75
2011	Sumo Power GT	Nissan	ABU QR 4	ABU CR Ret	ZOL QR 12	ZOL CR Ret	ALG QR 8	ALG CR 7	SAC QR	SAC CR	SIL QR	SIL CR	NAV QR	NAV CR	PRI QR	PRI CR	ORD QR	ORD CR	BEI QR	BEI CR	SAN QR	SAN CR	28th	9

FIA GT Series results

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos.	Points
2013	BMW Sport Trophy Team Brasil	BMW Z4 GT3	Pro	NOG QR 6	NOG CR 9	ZOL QR 11	ZOL CR 8	ZAN QR 9	ZAN CR 5	SVK QR 7	SVK CR 4	NAV QR	NAV CR	BAK QR 14	BAK CR Ret	15th	29

References

4. Grandprix.com article, retrieved September 6, 2006
5. Gazeta do Povo, retrieved April 3, 2007

External links

• Official website
• Ricardo Zonta career summary at DriverDB.com