Juan Ignacio "Fufi" Cáceres Stuart (born 1 May 1984) is a Uruguayan former racing driver from Punta del Este. He had a Formula One test with

Minardi Minardi was an Italian automobile racing team and constructor founded in Faenza in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. It competed in the Formula One World Championship from 1985 until 2005 with little success, nevertheless acquiring a loyal followin ...

in 2005 and one-race appearance in Champ Car World Series with Dale Coyne Racing. Cáceres later raced in the TC2000 touring car series in Argentina.

Racing career

Cáceres started his career in go-karting in 1995, competing in the Cadetes division of the Uruguayan Karting Championship. In 1996, he won the Copa Mercosur and Campeonato de Verano titles, and finished third in the Uruguayan Karting Championship. The following year, he moved to the 125 cc Pre-Junior category, finishing fifth in 1997 and fourth in 1998. The same year, he enrolled at José Valentin Bianchi's RAC driver academy, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Cáceres remained in Argentina in 1999, competing in the Fórmula Honda, but did not win a single race.

Move to Europe and North America

In 2000, he competed in the United States-based Skip Barber Formula Dodge Midwestern Regional Championship, where he won one race at

Road America Road America is a motorsport road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, United States on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Champ ...

. Cáceres began racing in Europe in 2001. He participated in

Italian Formula Renault Formula Renault 2.0 Italia was a Formula Renault 2.0 racing series that is based in Italy. The series raced mostly on Italian races but it had regular races at Belgium's Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and in Spain. Several Formula One drivers ...

for ADM Junior Team and in the Argentine Formula Super Renault, without much success. He competed in Argentina for a second season in 2002. In 2003, Cáceres won the Formula BMW Junior Cup, with four wins in six races. He also took part in the British Zip Formula championship. In the same year, Cáceres drove a Benetton B201 at a test session at the Circuit de Catalunya, his first experience driving a Formula One car. He was signed by

Giancarlo Minardi Giancarlo Minardi (born 18 September 1947) is the founder and managing director of the now-defunct Minardi Formula One team. Early life Minardi was born in Faenza (Ravenna), Italy and has spent his life with cars. As a young boy, his family ma ...

to be part of his driver academy. The 2004 season saw Cáceres progress to the higher-tier Spanish Formula Three. Driving a

Dallara F300 Dallara is an Italian race car manufacturer, founded by its current President, Gian Paolo Dallara. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, in 1972 in his native village of Varano de' Melegari (Parma), Italy he created ...

- Toyota car, he finished 14th in the Drivers' Championship with 10 points. His best result was a sixth-place finish at Estoril. Going into

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, Cáceres moved to the

Italian Formula 3000 Championship Auto GP, sometimes referred to as the Auto GP World Series and formerly known as both Euro Formula 3000 and the Euroseries 3000, was a European formula racing series. The series' roots can be traced back to 1999 and the Italian Formula 3000 serie ...

driving a

Lola B99/50 The Lola B99/50 is an open-wheel formula race car chassis developed by British manufacturer Lola, for use in the International Formula 3000 series, a feeder-series for Formula One, between 1999 to 2001, until it was replaced by the new Lola B02/5 ...

chassis for GP Racing. He took one podium, a third-place finish at

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

, for fifth position in the championship, scoring 20 points. Giancarlo Minardi stated that the Uruguayan driver had a lot of potential and his F3000 performances were "very good."

Formula One testing

Cáceres tested for Minardi in a PS05 car at

Vallelunga Vallelunga (Italian for ''long valley'') is a valley, or plateau,Tonino Floris, Marco Spada, ''Pedalando nel Lazio''p. 97 Edizioni Mediterranee, 1996 . near Campagnano di Roma, Italy. See also * Vallelunga Circuit The Autodromo Vallelunga P ...

in November 2005. He drove a total 32 laps with the, topping the table with a lap time of 1:21.019. For 2006, Cáceres remained in the Italian Formula 3000, now renamed

Euroseries 3000 Auto GP, sometimes referred to as the Auto GP World Series and formerly known as both Euro Formula 3000 and the Euroseries 3000, was a European formula racing series. The series' roots can be traced back to 1999 and the Italian Formula 3000 serie ...

. He took two second-place finishes at

Spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (and sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments, which are also known as balneoth ...

and

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and B ...

for 7th in the Drivers' Championship. In September 2006, he tested for Dale Coyne Racing at Sebring. He took part in a single round of the

2006 Champ Car season The 2006 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford season was the 28th overall and the third and penultimate season of the Champ Car World Series era of American open wheel racing. It began on April 9, 2006 in Long Beach, Cal ...

, replacing Mario Domínguez in the Grand Prix of Road America, where he qualified and finished last.

Complete Champ Car results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

)

References

External links

Juan Cáceres
- driver's official website
Champ Car
- biography and statistics 1984 births Living people Champ Car drivers Auto GP drivers Italian Formula Renault 2.0 drivers People from Punta del Este Sportspeople from Maldonado Department Euroformula Open Championship drivers TC 2000 Championship drivers Uruguayan racing drivers Uruguayan people of Spanish descent Piquet GP drivers Dale Coyne Racing drivers {{Uruguay-autoracing-bio-stub