Ricardo Rosset

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Ricardo Rosset

Nationality Brazilian

Formula One World Championship career
Active years	1996-1998
Teams	Footwork, MasterCard Lola, Tyrrell
Races	33 (26 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1996 Australian Grand Prix
Last race	1998 Japanese Grand Prix

Ricardo Rosset (born July 27, 1968 in São Paulo^[1]) is a former racing driver from Brazil. He participated in 33 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on March 10, 1996. He scored no championship points and ultimately his results are not regarded as matching his ability, given that he finished as runner-up in the 1995 Formula 3000 Championship with two race wins.

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 MasterCard Lola, but they pulled out of F1 after one failure to qualify, with an underperforming and under-funded car, taking the company to the brink of folding.

In 1998, Rosset was chosen by Craig Pollock to be Tyrrell's second driver, to the fury of Ken Tyrrell, whose choice was, ironically, Verstappen. Pollock had bought into the team with a view to establishing BAR, and saw Rosset's superior sponsorship finance as essential in balancing the team's budget. The 1998 season was another unsuccessful one for Rosset, leading to a joke from Martin Brundle, who, upon Murray Walker's suggestion 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 and receiving a warning from the stewards, his furious mechanics switched the first and last letters of his surname to form the word "tosser".^{[citation needed]}

Rosset's problems included missing out on qualification for the 1998 Spanish Grand Prix by 6 hundredths of a second, and an injury during practice for the German Grand Prix which prevented him from taking part in Qualifying, while in Belgium he crashed at full speed into the carnage of the 14-car pile-up on the first lap after being unsighted by the heavy spray, and was unable to take the restart. A further failure to qualify at Tyrrell's final race in Japan, where he was again hindered by injury, marked the end of his Formula One career. Arguably, the atmosphere within the Tyrrell team and the antagonism towards Rosset's very presence, which had in fact led Ken Tyrrell to quit his own team, was hardly beneficial to the Brazilian's confidence, and ultimately his performance. After leaving the team at the end of the season, he quit racing entirely to concentrate on his sportswear business in Brazil.

[edit] 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	WDC
1996	Footwork Hart	Footwork FA17	Hart V8	AUS 9	BRA Ret	ARG Ret	EUR 11	SMR Ret	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA 11	GBR Ret	GER 11	HUN 8	BEL 9	ITA Ret	POR 14	JPN 13		-
1997	Mastercard Lola F1 Team	Lola T97/30	Ford V8	AUS DNQ	BRA	ARG	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	AUT	LUX	JPN	EUR	-
1998	Tyrrell	Tyrrell 026	Ford V10	AUS Ret	BRA Ret	ARG 14	SMR Ret	ESP DNQ	MON DNQ	CAN 8	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	AUT 12	GER DNQ	HUN DNQ	BEL DNS	ITA 12	LUX Ret	JPN DNQ		-