About Me
I speak Spanish. Yo hablo español.
i am spanish Fan.Soy una fan española.
Pedro MartÃnez de la Rosa (born February 24, 1971) is a Spanish Formula One driver. He was born in Barcelona (Spain). De la Rosa has participated in 65 grands 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 six championship points with the old scoring system, and an additional 14 points in the expanded scoring format.
Early career
Unlike most drivers, de la Rosa started his career in European radio controlled off-road cars. He also twice the 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.
Professional career
In 1990 de le Rosa 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, de la Rosa 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.
To Formula One
In 1998, de la Rosa 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, his début race. In 2000, he bettered his performance by one point scoring at both Hockenheim and Nürburgring. 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 became a test driver for McLaren and made a points scoring debut at the 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix when Juan Pablo Montoya injured his shoulder. He came fifth and also set the fastest lap in the race.
On July 11th 2006 it was announced that de la Rosa would take over the second McLaren race seat with immediate effect following Juan Pablo Montoya's departure to NASCAR. It is still unclear whether or not he will remain in the seat until the end of the season, but he will definitely race for McLaren until at least the 2006 Italian Grand Prix. There have been rumours that either Gary Paffett or Lewis Hamilton will step into the seat in future races, but as yet unconfirmed.
At the Hungarian Grand Prix of 2006 De la Rosa scored his first ever podium, coming 2nd behind Jenson Button.
