Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Enrique Bernoldi? Huh. Sounds foreign

Conquest Racing has confirmed that former F1 shoe and occasional Champ Car tester Enrique Bernoldi will pilot one of the squads' Indy Car entries this season. For those not familiar with Bernoldi, he spent two uneventful years in a F1 race seat with the defunct Arrows squad (28 GP starts and nine finishes), spent time as an F1-tester, and was signed to race this season with Rocketsports in Champ Car.

Here is a glimpse into the early career of Bernoldi courtesy of F1DB:

1987 - Winner of kart championship in Curitiba
1988 - Eighth place in the Paulista Kart Championship, Brazil
1989 - Winner of the Paulista Kart Championship, Brazil
1990 - Winner of the Brazilian Kart Championship, winner of the Paulista Kart Championship, Brazil
1991 - Winner of the Brazilian Kart Championship
1992 - Third place in the Paulista Kart Championship, Brazil
1993 - Third place in the South American Kart Championship; Fourth place in the Pan-American Kart Championship
1995 - Fourth place in the Italian Formula Alfa-Boxer
1996 - Winner of European Formula Renault Championship, winning nine out of 11 races.
1997 - Fifth place in the British Formula 3 Championship with one race win. Third place in the Macau Grand Prix
1998 - Runner-up in British Formula 3 Championship, winning six of the 16 races. Runner-up at the Marlboro Masters Formula 3 race. Third place in the Macau Grand Prix.
1999 - Eighteenth place in the FIA F3000 Championship. Test Driver for the Sauber Formula One team.
2000 - Fifteenth place in the FIA F3000 Championship. Test Driver for the Sauber Formula One team.
2001 - Formula One with the Orange-Arrows team
2002 - Formula One with the Orange-Arrows team.

Bernoldi is probably best remembered for this bout with David Coulthard at Monaco in 2001.



*What? You can't understand what the commentators are saying? Well, I can*

Bernoldi will take his first laps in an Indy Car later this week at Sebring. The Brazilian has no experience racing on ovals.

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