Esteban Tuero
Esteban Tuero was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 22nd, 1978 and is the Race Car Driver. At the age of 46, Esteban Tuero biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 46 years old, Esteban Tuero physical status not available right now. We will update Esteban Tuero's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.
Tuero moved up to car racing in 1993, spending a season with the Crespi team in Formula Renault. In 1994, he switched to Formula Honda with the Kissling team, becoming champion. All of his career so far had been in his native Argentina, so despite the pressures of racing in a Formula series whilst only 14, he was given his first taste of traveling the continent with a few races in South American Formula Three, driving a Ralt/Opel with the INI team.
In 1995, he moved to Europe, his father knowing his career would need to go there in order to gain momentum. He won the Italian Formula 2000 National Trophy by a large margin in a Dallara 392, and was also given a taste of Italian Formula Three in a Dallara 395. In 1996, he joined the bigger Italian F3 team Coloni Motorsport, driving a Dallara 396 with an Alfa Romeo engine. His performances in the series started generating interest from Formula One teams, with Benetton in the frame for signing him. It would be Minardi, though, who secured his services as a test driver for the team, despite being just 18 years old.
Formula One career
Initially there were doubts over whether Tuero would be allowed to compete in the 1998 season. Although Minardi had contracted him to drive an M198, alongside Japan's Shinji Nakano, he failed to meet all Super License requirements. Formula One pundit and former driver Martin Brundle said, "As for Tuero, it would have been scary. I don't like to see these guys out there with so little experience. Imagine it: even if he didn't qualify, he'd be getting in the way during qualifying. And if he did qualify, then he'd definitely be lapped plenty. He'd have really needed to have his wits about him. To be honest, it annoys me, people like that, with zilch credibility."
Tuero was eventually awarded his license by the FIA and upon starting the season at 19 years of age, he became the third-youngest ever Formula One driver at the time. Tuero answered his doubters by qualifying an impressive 17th in Australia, ahead of teammate Nakano and the likes of 1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner Olivier Panis. Race day was a more frustrating affair, he jumped the start and received a 10-second penalty. He incurred the same penalty for speeding in the pit lane before retiring with a blown engine. Gearbox problems in Brazil followed by a poor pitstop and spin into the gravel at his home race in Argentina left Tuero with no finishes in the opening three races.
The San Marino Grand Prix was a race of attrition, but Tuero nursed his Minardi home to 8th for his first finish of the year before coming home 15th in Spain, where he served a stop-and-go penalty for speeding in the pit lane. For five races in a row, Tuero then failed to finish; Monaco, where he spun off before a lap was completed, Canada, France, Great Britain, where he was one of many to spin off in awful conditions, and Austria, where he spun off for the second race running.
16th in Germany halted the run of retirements, but only briefly. Tuero lasted 13 laps in Hungary, and, though he was not involved in the multi-car crash at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix, still retired prior to half-distance. 11th in Italy preceded another retirement at the Luxembourg Grand Prix.
His final race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix, would also be his final race in a top-level single-seater series. Starting 21st on the grid, he crashed into Toranosuke Takagi on lap 29, after accidentally hitting the throttle rather than the brakes. His Minardi vaulted Takagi's Tyrrell and upon landing he damaged a number of vertebrae in his neck. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher who was challenging McLaren's Mika Häkkinen for the Drivers' Championship, passed the accident spot where carbon fibre debris were littering the race track. Schumacher then suffered a catastrophic rear tyre failure forcing him to retire and thus handing Häkkinen his first World Drivers' Championship. Meanwhile, Tuero's sole Formula One season proved fruitless with no points and no ranking in the Drivers' Championship.
The restructured Minardi squad headed toward the 1999 season with plans to run Tuero once more, this time alongside Spaniard Marc Gene. Tuero was due to test the new car, the M01, in late January after recuperating from his injuries, but on the eve of that first test he announced his retirement from Formula One.