Pedro Chaves

The Saleen S7-R of Thomas Erdos , Mike Newton and Pedro Chaves at the 2003 Le Mans 24 Hours

Pedro Pinto Ferreira Matos Chaves (born February 27, 1965 in Porto ) is a former Portuguese automobile racing driver and two-time national rally champion.

Career

Chaves' career in motorsport began in 1980 in karting nationally. In 1986 he switched to the Portuguese Formula Ford and shortly afterwards was able to win the championship in the Portuguese and the Iberian Formula Ford. After Chaves was third in the British Formula Ford in 1988, he switched directly to the international Formula 3000 , the foundation of Formula 1 at the time , in 1989. However , he was unable to convince there - he qualified in only six out of ten races - and drove the following year in the British Formula 3000 Championship for Nigel Mansell's Team Mansell Madgwick Motorsports ; he won the championship straight away with five wins this season. This year Chaves started again in the international Formula 3000, but this time only for three races in which he achieved three championship points with fourth place at Brands Hatch . He also took part in the Formula 3 race in Macau , but without success.

In 1991 Chaves signed up for the Italian Coloni team in Formula 1 . Due to the inferior vehicle and a lack of experience, however, he never managed to make it into the top four of seven pilots in the pre-qualification and thus to move into the qualifying round. For the last three races of the season he left the team - among other things because he could not pay for the flight tickets to the overseas races - and was replaced by the Japanese Naoki Hattori , who brought sponsorship money to the underfunded team.

After an unsuccessful return to Formula 3000 in 1992, Chaves moved the following year to the USA for the Indy Lights , the junior series of the CART championship. He was able to achieve several podiums and was fourth in the overall standings. In 1994 and 1995 he achieved fifth place overall.

In 1996 he started in the Spanish touring car championship and finished second overall. In 1997 Chaves started in the FIA GT Championship for Roock Racing in a Porsche 911 GT1 . After two races he switched to the GT2 vehicle of the Porsche 911 and was 13th in the GT2 classification at the end of the year.

In 1998, Chavez entered national rallying in Portugal and became national champion in 1999 and 2000.

In 2002 Chaves switched back to GT racing and initially competed in the Spanish GT championship for Graham Nash Motorsport . By the end of the year, he and Miguel Ramos had won four championship races and finished four more on the podium. The success enabled Chaves to make his first appearance in the 24-hour race of Le Mans in 2002 , where he and Ramos received a cockpit from the European tuner RML of the Saleen S7R and were able to record a finish. In 2003 he switched to the FIA ​​GT Championship again with Gaham Nash Motorsport. Except for a fifth place in the race on the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours , he could not achieve any successes worth mentioning.

Private

Chaves' father was Vice President of the Automobile Club of Portugal at the time, which made his entry into motorsport much easier. He is married to Helena and the marriage had two children.

statistics

Formula 1 results

year	team	chassis	engine	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	WM	Points
1991	Coloni	Coloni C4	Ford V8																	-	0
				DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2002	Ray Mallock Racing	Saleen S7-R	Miguel Ramos	Gavin Pickering	Rank 23
2003	Graham Nash Motorsport	Saleen S7-R	Thomas Erdos	Mike Newton	not classified

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2003	Graham Nash Motorsport	Saleen S7-R	Thomas Erdos	Gavin Pickering	failure	Gearbox damage

Web links

Commons : Pedro Chaves  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Biography on f1rejects.com (English)