Enrique Bernoldi

19/10/1978

Record updated 18-Oct-06

Bernoldi is a former Formula One driver who raced for the Arrows team.

Enrique Bernoldi
Enrique Antônio Langue de Silvério e Bernoldi was born in Curitiba, Brazil. Bernoldi started out in karting in 1987 at age nine and won many regional and national titles before heading to Europe at age 17 to try out car racing. He entered Formula Alfa Boxer in Italy, where he finished fourth in his first attempt. He then entered Formula Renault and was immediately successful, winning the final round of the series. The following year he took in nine victories and the title. After that he entered British Formula 3 and got his first victory at Spa and finished fifth in the championship. The following year he got six victories.

In 1999 Bernoldi moved to Formula 3000 and began to do some testing for Sauber, in the hopes of earning a Formula One drive with them. At this time, he was a member of the Red Bull Junior Team. However, in 2000 Sauber signed up Kimi Räikkönen for the 2001 season and Bernoldi's hopes went down.

In 2001 he was able to get a drive from Arrows and did a respectable job, sometimes matching Jos Verstappen. However, he gained notoriety for his efforts at the Monaco Grand Prix when he held up David Coulthard for 35 laps. The Scot had qualified on pole position and was a championship contender at that stage of the season, but had suffered launch control failure on the grid and had to start from last place, so they were fighting for position. After the race, Bernoldi was told by irritated McLaren Mercedes executives that he was never going to make a good racing driver, and Coulthard called him an idiot.

However, he was retained by Arrows for 2002. But his efforts in 2002 against Heinz-Harald Frentzen were less impressive and thus, there was little demand for him when Arrows closed down three-quarters of the way into the 2002 season, and he ended up racing in the Nissan World Series.

In mid-2004 he was named a test driver for BAR.



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