Ricardo Maurício (born January 7, 1979) is a Brazilian

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

. He currently drives in the

Stock Car Brasil Stock Car Pro Series, formerly known as Stock Car Brasil, is a touring car auto racing series based in Brazil organized by Vicar. It is considered the major Brazilian and South American motorsports series. Starting in 1979 with Chevrolet as the ...

series, which he won in 2008, 2013 and 2020. Prior to this he raced in several European single-seater formulae, winning the

Spanish Formula Three Championship The Euroformula Open Championship (formerly the Spanish Formula Three Championship, European F3 Open Championship) is a junior formula racing series based in Spain. It was one of six national and international Formula Three championships in Europe ...

and recording podium finishes in

International Formula 3000 The Formula 3000 International Championship was a motor racing series created by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) in 1985 to become the final preparatory step for drivers hoping to enter Formula One. Formula Two had become t ...

Career

Formula Vauxhall/Opel

Maurício was born in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

. After some time spent

kart racing Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on kart circuit, scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are als ...

, he moved up to

formula racing Formula racing (known as open-wheel racing in North America) is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. The origin of the term lies in the nomenclature that was adopted by the FIA for all of its post-World War II single- ...

in Brazil and won the local

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. Formula For ...

championship in 1995. For 1996, he moved to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, where he competed in

Formula Vauxhall In science, a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically, as in a mathematical formula or a ''chemical formula''. The informal use of the term ''formula'' in science refers to the general construct of a relationship betwee ...

, finishing fourth in the championship. At the end of the year he took part in the

1996 EFDA Nations Cup The EFDA Nations Cup, was a Country vs Country competition for Formula Opel cars between 1990 and 1998. It had always been Dan Partel's dream to stage a race that pitted drivers in equal cars racing for their country. The Formula Opel/Vauxhall o ...

for

Formula Opel In science, a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically, as in a mathematical formula or a ''chemical formula''. The informal use of the term ''formula'' in science refers to the general construct of a relationship betwee ...

cars, representing Brazil alongside compatriot

Wagner Ebrahim Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

and taking third place.

British Formula 3

For

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, Maurício drove for the works

TOM'S is a factory supported racing team and tuner of Toyota and Lexus vehicles. The name stands for Tachi Oiwa Motor Sport. Their head office is located in Tokyo, Japan. They are currently heavily involved with Super GT, Super Formula and Super Formu ...

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

team in the

British Formula 3 Championship The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single seat ...

, finishing joint 11th place in the championship with

Darren Manning Darren Manning (born 30 April 1975) is a British motor racing driver who has raced in the IRL IndyCar Series for Chip Ganassi Racing and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Career history Early career Manning was born in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, ...

and just behind

Kevin McGarrity Kevin McGarrity (born 3 August 1973) is a Northern Irish racing driver from Belfast. McGarrity won the Formula Ford Festival in 1995 after finishing second in the British Formula Ford series. He was nominated for the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award b ...

, the best-placed driver with a TOM'S chassis. At the end of the season he moved to the

Alan Docking Racing Alan Docking Racing (ADR) is a motor racing team based in Silverstone, United Kingdom. The team was formed in 1975 by Australian Alan Docking. The team competed in the British Formula 3 series throughout most of its existence; however, it has ...

team to compete in the

Macau Grand Prix The Macau Grand Prix ( pt, Grande Prémio de Macau; ) is a motorsport road race for automobiles and motorcycles held annually in Macau. It is the only street circuit racing event in which both cars and motorcycles participate, and one of onl ...

, but failed to finish the race. He remained in the championship for

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, driving an ADR-run

Dallara 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 "D ...

chassis, and improved to seventh place overall, with two podium finishes, well ahead of teammates

Yudai Igarashi is a retired Japanese professional race car driver, who last competed in 2003. Career Igarashi competed in British Formula 3 in the late 1990s before returning to Japan to compete in the 2000 Formula Nippon Championship with Team LeMans. He dro ...

and Miku Santavirta. However, his performance was overshadowed by his compatriots

Mario Haberfeld is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his cre ...

Enrique Bernoldi Enrique Antônio Langue e Silvério de Bernoldi (born 19 October 1978) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who raced for the Arrows Formula One team in 2001 and 2002, and was the test driver for British American Racing (later Honda) be ...

and

Luciano Burti Luciano Pucci Burti (born 5 March 1975) is a Brazilian racing driver who briefly raced in Formula One. He is now a commentator for TV Globo. Early career Burti's early career saw him graduate through the usual channels and he found himself i ...

, who dominated the championship between them, taking the top three positions in the drivers' standings. He switched to champion team

Paul Stewart Racing Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

for the Macau Grand Prix, and finished the race in second place behind

Peter Dumbreck Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

Formula 3000

Maurício moved up to

for the 1999 season, driving for

Super Nova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when a ...

alongside

Jason Watt Jason Watt (born 24 February 1970) is a Danish racing driver. Watt enjoyed a fruitful karting career before moving into Formula Ford in 1992. He graduated to the British Formula Vauxhall Lotus Winter Series in 1993, winning the championship, as ...

, but after a difficult start he was dropped after three races in favour of

David Saelens David Saelens (born 2 July 1975 in Ypres, West Flanders) is a racing driver from Belgium. He drove in several racing classes such as Formula Three, International Formula 3000, American Le Mans Series, DTM and most recently the 2018 Porsche Superc ...

. He moved to the

Red Bull Junior Team The Red Bull Junior Team is a driver development program run by the energy drink company Red Bull GmbH in an attempt to identify potential future racing stars in open wheel racing. The similar Red Bull Driver Search, now ended, was an American ...

-backed team run by

Helmut Marko Helmut Marko (born 27 April 1943) is an Austrian former professional racing driver and current advisor to the Red Bull GmbH Formula One teams, and head of Red Bull's driver development program. Biography Marko was born in Graz, Austria. He wa ...

, replacing

Markus Friesacher Marcus, Markus, Márkus or Mărcuș may refer to: * Marcus (name), a masculine given name * Marcus (praenomen), a Roman personal name Places * Marcus, a main belt asteroid, also known as (369088) Marcus 2008 GG44 * Mărcuş, a village in Dobâr ...

and partnering Bernoldi. Despite failing to qualify for three of the remaining races in a heavily oversubscribed field of drivers, he scored his first point at the

Spa-Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), frequently referred to as ''Spa'', is a motor-racing circuit located in Stavelot, Belgium. It is the current venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, hosting its first Grand Prix in 1925, and has he ...

circuit, placing him 22nd in the championship. He stayed with the team alongside Bernoldi for

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, making up for a seven-race run of retirements at the start of the season by securing his first podium finish in the category at the

Hungaroring The Hungaroring is a motorsport racetrack in Mogyoród, Pest County, Hungary where the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix is held. In 1986, it became the location of the first Formula One Grand Prix behind the Iron Curtain. Bernie Ecclestone wan ...

, improving his final championship position to 17th. He was, however, overshadowed somewhat by Bernoldi, who scored just one more point but lost the lead in two races due to mechanical problems. Maurício began the 2001 season without a drive, despite initially being reconfirmed at the Red Bull Junior Team alongside

Patrick Friesacher Patrick Friesacher (born 26 September 1980) is an Austrian racing driver. He is the longest-serving Red Bull driver, and also drove for the Minardi Formula One team during the first half of the 2005 season. After his departure from Formula One, ...

, who replaced the

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

-bound Bernoldi. The seat was taken by Antonio García for the first four rounds of the championship, but Maurício resumed it thereafter, becoming a consistent points-scorer on his way to eighth in the championship, including two more podium finishes. Maurício remained at the team for

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, but it was a disappointing season for him as he dropped to ninth in the championship, and was consistently outperformed by Friesacher. The highlight of the year was a podium finish in front of his home fans at the

Interlagos Interlagos is a neighborhood located in the district of Socorro in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Its name comes from the fact that the region is located between two large reservoirs, Guarapiranga and Billings, built in the early 20th century ...

circuit, where he completed a Brazilian 1-2-3-4 finish with

Rodrigo Sperafico Rodrigo Sperafico (born 23 July 1979) is a Brazilian professional racing driver. He currently drives in the Stock Car Brasil series. He belongs to the Sperafico family of racing drivers, which includes twin brother Ricardo (with whom his career ...

, Haberfeld and

Antônio Pizzonia Antônio Reginaldo Pizzonia Júnior (born 11 September 1980) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who has raced in Formula One and the Champ Car World Series. Born in Manaus, he started his car racing career in the Formula Vauxhall Junior s ...

. However, he was best remembered for his large crash at

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...

, in which his car was launched into a series of aerial rolls after running into the back of

Rob Nguyen Rob Nguyen (born 18 August 1980 in Brisbane) is an Australian racing car driver of Vietnamese descent who competed in the 2002 and part of the 2003 International Formula 3000 seasons before running out of money. He was noted for coming straight ...

Spanish Formula Three

Dropped by the Red Bull Junior Team and unable to find an F3000 drive, Maurício stepped back to the

, where he drove for the

Racing Engineering Racing Engineering is a Spanish racing team founded in 1999 by Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón that currently competes in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. The team's headquarters are located in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, near Jerez, where all car prepar ...

team, initially sponsored by

Marlboro Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (now separate from Altria) outside the US. The largest Marl ...

. He won the championship, winning six of the thirteen races, ahead of local drivers Daniel Martin, Borja García and

Andy Soucek Andy may refer to: People *Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds *Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and piano ...

, and comfortably ahead of a succession of six teammates. However, this series was less prestigious than the F3 championships in other countries, and was not enough to advance his formula racing career any further, despite topping a

World Series by Renault The Renault Sport Series (formerly known as World Series by Renault) is a motor racing series. The series latterly consisted of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, and used to contain the Renault Sport Trophy and the Formula Renault 3.5 Series. T ...

test session during the winter off-season period.

Stock Car Brasil

For 2004, Maurício returned to Brazil to take part in the

championship, a common location for Brazilian ex-single seater drivers. He took part in five races for the Katálogo Racing and Andreas Mattheis Motorsport teams, finishing 23rd in the championship driving a

Chevrolet Astra Astra (Latin for "stars") may refer to: People * Astra (name) Places * Astra, Chubut, a village in Argentina * Astra (Isauria), a town of ancient Isauria, now in Turkey * Astra, one suggested name for a hypothetical fifth planet that became t ...

, taking a podium finish and fastest lap in the process. The following year he committed to a full season in the series, driving a similar car run by the

L&M Racing L&M is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Altria and Philip Morris International. The name comes from the tobacco company founded in 1873 called Liggett & Myers, predecessor of today's Liggett Group, in which L ...

team. Another podium finish and fastest lap saw him improve to 16th in the championship. Maurício returned to Katálogo for 2006, for whom he drove a

Mitsubishi Lancer The Mitsubishi Lancer is an automobile produced by the Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors since 1973. The Lancer has been marketed as the Colt Lancer, Dodge Colt, Plymouth Colt, Chrysler Valiant Lancer, Chrysler Lancer, Eagle Summit, Hin ...

. He took his first

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

in the series and broke into the top ten in the drivers' standings for the first time. In 2007 he returned to Andreas Mattheis and the Chevrolet Astra in the form of the

WA Mattheis In August 2010, Bueno ran a Chevrolet Vectra on the Bonneville Salt Flats at speeds over 340 km/h (~210 mph). WA Mattheis was a Brazilian auto racing team based in Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro. The team won three times the Stock Car Br ...

team, a new outfit formed by the association of Mattheis and

William Lube William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

. He improved to ninth in the championship, taking his first win in the process. For 2008, WA Mattheis switched cars to the

Peugeot 307 The Peugeot 307 is a small family car produced by the French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroën, under their Peugeot marque, from 2001 to 2008 in Europe, and was the successor to the Peugeot 306, which was discontinued in 2002 after being in product ...

, which Maurício took to championship victory with five wins from the twelve races, narrowly beating the Astras of

Marcos Gomes Marcos Giffoni de Melo Gomes (born July 26, 1984) is a Brazilian professional racing driver currently set to compete in the Stock Car Brasil series for Cavaleiro Sports, where he won the 2015 championship. Marcos is the son of four-time Stock C ...

and

Thiago Camilo Thiago Camilo Palmieri (born September 20, 1984 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian racing driver. Since 2003 he competes in the Stock Car Brasil touring car championship driving for Chevrolet. He was Runner-up in 2009 and 2013. He is a three-time wi ...

in the process. It was Peugeot's first championship win in Stock Car Brasil history. In 2009, he moved to the

RC Competições RC Competições / Team RC, currently competing as Eurofarma RC, is a Brazilian auto racing team based in Curitiba, Paraná. RC Competições has won the driver's championship of Stock Car Brasil Championship 9 times, with the most recent being ...

team, and once again raced an Astra. He was unable to successfully defend his championship, losing it to

Cacá Bueno Carlos Eduardo Santos Galvão Bueno Filho, better known as Cacá Bueno (born 24 January 1976) is a Brazilian professional racing driver. He competes full-time in the Stock Car Pro Series, driving the No. 0 Chevrolet Cruze for Crown Racing. He i ...

. He remained with RC Competições for 2010, driving a

Chevrolet Vectra Vectra may refer to the following: *Opel Vectra car (Chevrolet Vectra, Holden Vectra, Vauxhall Vectra) *Opel Vectra GTS V8 DTM car * HP Vectra computer series by Hewlett-Packard *Vectra AI, a private company specializing in artificial intelligence * ...

. He won two races and finished third in the championship, behind teammate

Max Wilson Max Wilson (born August 22, 1972 in Hamburg, West Germany) is a racing driver of Brazilian parentage. Racing career Junior formulae Wilson started his motor racing career in 1985 in go-karts. He moved into single-seaters in 1993, when he was o ...

and Bueno.

Brazilian GT3

Maurício first competed in the GT3 Brasil Championship in 2009, winning four races for WB Motorsport and finishing fourth in the championship. For 2010, he drove a

Lamborghini Gallardo The Lamborghini Gallardo (; ) is a sports car built by the Italian automotive manufacturer Lamborghini from 2003 to 2013. It is Lamborghini's second car released under parent company Audi, and best-selling model with 14,022 built throughout its ...

with Bruno Garfinkel for the Scuderia 111 team and finished tenth in the championship.

Other series

Since his move into

stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It ori ...

, Maurício has also made occasional appearances in the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

World of Outlaws The World of Outlaws (often abbreviated WoO) is an American motorsports sanctioning body. The body sanctions two major national touring series. It is best known for sanctioning the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and the World of Outlaws Late ...

series and the

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

TC 2000 The TC2000 (''Turismo Competición 2000'', formerly ''Súper TC2000'') is a touring car racing series held in Argentina since 1979. Rules Prior to 2012, engines of up to were allowed, with only limited modifications from standard engines. ...

championship, winning the TC 2000's endurance series cup in 2009.

Racing record

Career summary

† - ineligible for points.

Complete International Formula 3000 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 ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Stock Car Brasil results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

Ricardo Maurício career details at driverdb.comStock Car Brasil-based profile at forix.autosport.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mauricio, Ricardo 1979 births Living people Brazilian racing drivers Formula Ford drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers International Formula 3000 drivers Euroformula Open Championship drivers Stock Car Brasil drivers World of Outlaws drivers TC 2000 Championship drivers EFDA Nations Cup drivers 24 Hours of Daytona drivers Rolex Sports Car Series drivers Súper TC 2000 drivers Racing drivers from São Paulo RSM Marko drivers TOM'S drivers Alan Docking Racing drivers Super Nova Racing drivers Paul Stewart Racing drivers Racing Engineering drivers 24H Series drivers