Ricardo Teixeira (born 2 August 1984 in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

) is an

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

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 holds dual nationality and has raced under both nationalities at various points in his career. He was the first Angolan driver to drive a Formula 1 car when he was announced as a test driver for

Team Lotus Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport categories including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, IndyCar, and sports car racing. More ...

for

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. He has been sponsored throughout his career by the Angolan oil company

Sonangol Group Sonangol ( pt, Grupo Sonangol) is a parastatal that formerly oversaw petroleum and natural gas production in Angola. The group consisted of Sonangol E.P. ( pt, Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola, E.P.) and its many subsidiaries. ...

Career

Formula BMW

Teixeira began his

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- ...

career in 2001 by driving in the

Formula BMW Formula BMW was a junior racing formula for single seater cars. It was positioned at the bottom of the motorsport career ladder alongside the longer established Formula Ford category. Like Formula Ford, it was intended to function as the young k ...

Junior Cup in Portugal. He finished in 20th position in the drivers' championship.

Formula Three

Teixeira moved to the National Class of 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 ...

in 2002, but did not start a race that year. In 2003 he raced occasionally in the

BRSCC The British Racing and Sports Car Club (BRSCC) is one of the major organisers of motorsport events in the United Kingdom. The club currently runs around forty track racing championships for cars as diverse as Caterham, BMWs and Mazda. Formed in B ...

's ARP Formula Three Championship, taking one win and three podiums finish at club racing level. He returned to the British Championship in 2005 after taking a couple of years out for study with the

Carlin Motorsport Carlin, formerly Carlin Motorsport, is a motor racing team based in the United Kingdom. It currently competes in five championships: FIA Formula 2 Championship, FIA Formula 3 Championship, F4 British Championship, BRDC British Formula 3 and E ...

team, finishing ninth in the National Class. The following season, he improved to seventh, despite switching teams to Performance Racing Europe part-way through the year finishing twice in the podium. In 2007, he moved up to the Championship Class of the series with Performance Racing, scoring no points. For 2008, he moved to the

Ultimate Motorsport Ultimate Motorsport was a British racing team who completed in the British Formula 3 Championship and the World Series by Renault Championship. The team closed near the end of the 2009 season. History The team were formed in 2007 and was heade ...

team's

Mygale Mygale Racing Car Constructor (Mygale SARL) is a French racing car manufacturer that specialises in the production of single seater chassis for use in formula racing. It is most notable for its Formula Ford chassis. Mygale also produces the cha ...

chassis. Teixeira also competed in two races of the German ATS Formel 3 Cup in 2007, and has driven in two

Masters of Formula Three Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans * Grandmaster (chess), National Maste ...

races, with a best finish of 24th.

GP2 Series

Teixeira was signed by the

Trident Racing Trident Racing is a motor racing team that competes in single-seater formula racing. It was founded in 2006 in order to compete in the GP2 championship, which was Europe's second highest-ranking single-seater formula below Formula One. Trident is ...

team to drive in the fifth and sixth rounds of the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season. He replaced

Frankie Provenzano Francesco "Frankie" Provenzano (born February 12, 1986 in Rome) is an Italian racing driver. Career Formula Renault Provenzano began his formula racing career with the BVM Minardi team in Italian Formula Renault, finishing second to Jaime Algue ...

, and was the seventh competitor to drive one of the team's two entries. He was the first Angolan driver to compete at this level of motorsport. Trident kept a hold of Teixeira for the 2009 GP2 Series. After two years away from the series, one in

FIA Formula Two Championship The FIA Formula 2 Championship is a second-tier single-seater championship organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Held on road racing, racing circuits, the championship was introduced in 2017, following the rebrandi ...

and then as a test driver for the Lotus

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, ...

team, Teixeira returned to GP2 by signing with the

Rapax Rapax Team was an Italian motor racing team. The team's history can be traced back to when the GP Racing team was founded in 1997, and also to when Piquet Sports was created in 2000 by triple world champion Nelson Piquet. In 2007, Piquet Sports an ...

team for the 2012 season, in which he partnered

Tom Dillmann Tom Dillmann (born 6 April 1989 in Mulhouse) is a French racing driver, formerly competing for Nio Formula E Team, in Formula E. He is probably best known for winning the German Formula Three Championship in the 2010 season and the Formula V8 ...

. After ten races, and with a best finish of 13th, he was replaced by

Daniël de Jong Daniël de Jong (born 9 July 1992) is a professional racing driver from the Netherlands. Career Formula Renault 2.0 After a lengthy karting career in his native Holland and a brief stint in the Dutch Winter Endurance Series, de Jong made his s ...

after suffering from illness. He returned to action for the next round at

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 ...

, with De Jong taking Dillmann's seat instead. Teixeira eventually finished 29th in the championship.

FIA Formula Two Championship

Teixeira moved to the

for

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. He finished fifth in his third race in the series, at

Marrakech Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...

, but suffered a spectacular aerial accident in the following race when he collided with Ivan Samarin under braking for a chicane. Teixeira was uninjured in the accident. Over the course of the season he amassed 23 points to finish 16th in the drivers' championship: his best showing in any series since 2006.

Formula One

After driving for

in pre-season testing for the 2011 season, Teixeira was confirmed as a test driver for the team in March 2011.

GP2 again

In July 2013, Ricardo Teixeira returned to the GP2 series in Hungary with the Trident team.

Racing record

Career summary

Complete GP2 Series 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)

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(

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

Complete FIA Formula Two Championship results

(

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

Complete Auto GP results

(

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

References

External links

Ricardo Teixeira career details at driverdb.comBritish F3 driver profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Teixeira, Ricardo 1984 births Living people Sportspeople from Lisbon Angolan racing drivers Portuguese racing drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers German Formula Three Championship drivers GP2 Series drivers GP2 Asia Series drivers FIA Formula Two Championship drivers Auto GP drivers Carlin racing drivers Performance Racing drivers Trident Racing drivers Rapax Team drivers Super Nova Racing drivers Portuguese people of Angolan descent