Roberto Moreno

Meanwhile, in Europe, he drove the same car to three more victories, earning himself second place in the EFDA Townsend Thoresen Euroseries Formula Ford 1600 Championship.

His also finished 4th in the RAC British series and 6th the P&O Ferries series.

He then rounded out the season by winning the Formula Ford Festival.

Moreno would return to race at the Formula Ford Festival in the same car at the 50th anniversary of the Festival in 2021.

Moreno's success alerted the attention of no lesser person than Colin Chapman, the successful owner and founder of Formula One's Team Lotus.

Roberto Pupo Moreno (born 11 February 1959 ), usually known as Roberto Moreno and also as Pupo Moreno, is a Brazilian former racing driver.

He participated in 75 Formula One Grands Prix, achieved 1 podium, and scored a total of 15 championship points.

After winning the 1976 Brazilian 125cc Karting championship, Moreno set his sights on getting to Europe.

He arrived in England in 1979, to race in his first season in Formula Ford.

He did some races with Marc Smith racing who was the works Royale driver for that year.

Marc had a two car transporter to take his and Roberto's car.

Roberto was the driver and the mechanic for his Royale car.

Ralt owner/designer Ron Tauranac lent Moreno an old shed to work out of as his home base.

He had a couple of good results, and these convinced Ralph Firman Sr, to sign him as a works Van Diemen driver for the 1980 season.

Whilst driving for Firman, he would win the Townsend Thoresen British Formula Ford title, winning eight races in the process.

Roberto only returned to Europe in 1981, because Chapman had given him a F1 testing contract with enough money to continue racing.

With these funds, he raced Formula Three, but money was tight.

In this period, Moreno (who like his friend Nelson Piquet was managed by Australian Greg "Pee Wee" Siddle) was a popular triple winner of the Australian Grand Prix in 1981, 1983 and 1984, before it became a Formula One World Championship race from 1985.

These wins came in the days when the Grand Prix was a Formula Mondial race held at Melbourne's 1.6 km (1.0 mi) Calder Park Raceway.

He often defeated current or past World Drivers' Champions to win the AGP, including Piquet, Alan Jones, Niki Lauda and Keke Rosberg, as well as other F1 drivers such as Jacques Laffite, Andrea de Cesaris and François Hesnault.

Despite that, paired with Barron Racing, he managed to win two races, however he was more successful across the Atlantic the following season, racing in the CASC North American Formula Atlantic Championship, defeating Al Unser Jr.. in a supporting race at the 1982 United States Grand Prix West in Long Beach.

Later in 1982, he made another big impression by winning the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières.

Prior to that victory, Moreno had found some money to do half a season in the British Formula 3 Championship with Ivens Lumar Racing, winning three races in the process, before he was given the opportunity to drive at the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort for Lotus, though he ultimately failed to qualify.

In the only Australian Grand Prix he competed in but did not win during the period (1982), he finished third behind future four time World Champion Alain Prost, and Ligier F1 driver Laffite.

In all of his pre-F1 Australian Grand Prix drives, Moreno drove a Formula Pacific or Formula Mondial Ralt RT4 powered by a 1.6 litre Ford 4cyl engine.

Moreno was winning races in Formula Atlantic, Formula Mondial and Formula Three, when he received a call-up from Colin Chapman to stand in for Nigel Mansell at Lotus at the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix after Mansell broke his wrist in the previous Grand Prix in Canada.

Prior to this, Theodore Racing's Jan Lammers broke a thumb during the Detroit Grand Prix and team owner Teddy Yip wanted Moreno to take over the seat, however Chapman refused to release him.

Then during the race in Montréal, Mansell injured his wrist, allowing for Moreno to stand in.

This soon turned into a nightmare, as the Lotus 91 was a beast to handle, Moreno had barely driven the car, as regular drivers, Mansell and Elio de Angelis did most of the testing, with Moreno being restricted to the older Lotus 87B and Lotus 88 models.

Moreno failed to come to grips with the Lotus 91, with his best qualifying lap over two seconds away from making the grid.

At the end of 1982, Lotus released him from his duties as test driver and it took his reputation a while to recover from this poor showing.

He was to get another chance, but that Dutch race handicapped him for a number of years.

At the end of the season he was called up to replace Pascal Fabre for the AGS team at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Five years after the Lotus fiasco, Moreno was set to make his debut, except he was the slowest of all and once again did not qualify.

However, Williams driver Nigel Mansell injured himself during practice and the team subsequently withdrew his entry, thus letting Moreno in for his debut Grand Prix.

He raced in CART in 1986, and was Formula 3000 champion (in 1988) before joining Formula One full-time in 1989.

He returned to CART in 1996 where he enjoyed an Indian summer in 2000 and 2001, and managed to extend his career in the series until 2008.

He also raced in endurance events and GT's in Brazil, but now works as a driver coach and consultant, and although this takes up a lot of his time, he is not officially retired yet, as he appears in historic events.

Away from the sport, he enjoys building light aeroplanes.

Moreno was known as the "Super Sub" late in his career as he was used to replace injured drivers several times.