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. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

. He currently drives in the

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

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 and recording podium finishes in International Formula 3000.

Career

Formula Vauxhall/Opel

Maurício was born in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

. After some time spent

kart racing Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using 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 also held on fu ...

, he moved up to

formula racing Formula racing, also known as open-wheel racing in North America, is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. A "formula", first devised by FIA for its post–World War II single-seater races, is a set of regulations for ...

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 have historically been an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...

championship in 1995. For 1996, he moved to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, where he competed in Formula Vauxhall, finishing fourth in the championship. At the end of the year he took part in the 1996 EFDA Nations Cup for Formula Opel cars, representing Brazil alongside compatriot Wagner Ebrahim and taking third place.

British Formula 3

For

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, Maurício drove for the works

TOM'S is an automotive aftermarket parts manufacturer and tuner of Toyota and Lexus vehicles, as well as a factory-backed racing team. The TOM'S head office is located in Tokyo, Japan. TOM'S most prominently produces aftermarket parts for current ...

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

team in the British Formula 3 Championship, finishing joint 11th place in the championship with Darren Manning and just behind Kevin McGarrity, the best-placed driver with a TOM'S chassis. At the end of the season he moved to the Alan Docking Racing team to compete in the

Macau Grand Prix The Macau Grand Prix (; ) is an annual motorsport road racing event for automobiles and motorcycles held on the Guia Circuit in Macau. The event includes the Formula Regional and Motorcycle Grand Prix title races, with other races for Touri ...

, 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 Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, driving an ADR-run

Dallara Dallara Group S.r.l. is the largest multi-national Italian race car manufacturer, founded by its current President, Giampaolo Dallara. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, in 1972 in his native village of Varano de' M ...

chassis, and improved to seventh place overall, with two podium finishes, well ahead of teammates Yudai Igarashi and Miku Santavirta. However, his performance was overshadowed by his compatriots Mario Haberfeld,

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 former racing driver who raced in Formula One in 2000 and 2001. He was later a commentator for TV Globo. Early career Burti's early career saw him graduate through the usual channels and ...

, who dominated the championship between them, taking the top three positions in the drivers' standings. He switched to champion team Paul Stewart Racing for the Macau Grand Prix, and finished the race in second place behind Peter Dumbreck.

Formula 3000

Maurício moved up to International Formula 3000 for the 1999 season, driving for Super Nova alongside Jason Watt, but after a difficult start he was dropped after three races in favour of David Saelens. He moved to the Red Bull Junior Team-backed team run by Helmut Marko, replacing Markus Friesacher 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 circuit, placing him 22nd in the championship. He stayed with the team alongside Bernoldi for

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

, 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 motor racing, Grand Prix behind the Iron Curtai ...

, 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, who replaced the

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

-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 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, 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 (district of São Paulo), 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 ...

circuit, where he completed a Brazilian 1-2-3-4 finish with Rodrigo Sperafico, Haberfeld and Antônio Pizzonia. However, he was best remembered for his large crash at

Monza Monza (, ; ; , locally ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the Lambro, River Lambro, a tributary of the Po (river), River Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the province of Mo ...

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

Spanish Formula Three

Dropped by the Red Bull Junior Team and unable to find an F3000 drive, Maurício stepped back to the Spanish Formula Three Championship, where he drove for the Racing Engineering team, initially sponsored by

Marlboro Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (PMI, now separate from Altria) in most global territories outside the ...

. He won the championship, winning six of the thirteen races, ahead of local drivers Daniel Martin, Borja García and Andy Soucek, 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 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, 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 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 that was produced by the Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors from 1973 until 2024. The Lancer has been marketed as the Colt Lancer, Dodge Colt, Plymouth Colt, Chrysler Valiant Lancer, Chrysler Lancer, ...

. 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 ra ...

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 team, a new outfit formed by the association of Mattheis and William Lube. He improved to ninth in the championship, taking his first win in the process. For 2008, WA Mattheis switched cars to the Peugeot 307, which Maurício took to championship victory with five wins from the twelve races, narrowly beating the Astras of Marcos Gomes and Thiago Camilo in the process. It was Peugeot's first championship win in Stock Car Brasil history. In 2009, he moved to the RC Competições 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 Tracker for Scuderia Chiare ...

. He remained with RC Competições for 2010, driving a Chevrolet Vectra. He won two races and finished third in the championship, behind teammate Max Wilson 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 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 Auto racing, automobile racing run on oval track racing, oval tracks and road courses. It originally used Production vehicle, production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifical ...

, Maurício has also made occasional appearances in the American

World of Outlaws World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, originally known as the World of Outlaws (often abbreviated WoO) is an American national touring dirt track racing series. It is owned and operated by World Racing Group, and was rebranded when the World of O ...

series and the

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

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

Racing record

Career summary

† - ineligible for points.

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

Stock Car Brasil results

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

References

External links

*
Stock 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