page_title: Roberto Moreno
section_title: F1 substitute (1989–1995)
hierarchical_section_title: Roberto Moreno / Career / F1 substitute (1989–1995)
caption_attribution_description: English: Roberto Moreno driving for Forti at the 1995 British Grand Prix.
context_page_description: Roberto Pupo Moreno, usually known as Roberto Moreno and also as Pupo Moreno, is a Brazilian racing driver. He participated in 75 Formula One Grands Prix, achieved 1 podium, and scored a total of 15 championship points. He raced in CART in 1986, and was Formula 3000 champion before joining Formula One full-time in 1989. He returned to CART in 1996 where he enjoyed an Indian summer in 2000 and 2001, and managed to extend his career in the series until 2008. Also raced in endurance events and GT's in Brazil, but now works as a driver coach and consultant, and although this takes up a lot of his time, he is not officially retired yet, as he appears in historic events. Away from the sport, he enjoys building light aeroplanes.
  Moreno was known as the "Super Sub" late in his career as he was used to replace injured drivers several times.
context_section_description: Not even winning the FIA International Formula 3000 Championship in 1988 in an unsponsored Reynard 88D made the impression needed for a big team to recruit him. Instead, he signed a testing contract with Ferrari, who helped him land a racing drive with the ambitious Coloni outfit. The car was never competitive and Moreno only made the grid four times out of 16 attempts.
  Initially, 1990 seemed to be even less promising, with Moreno signing for the nosediving EuroBrun outfit, qualifying for just 2 out of the first 14 races of the season. However, shortly after being informed the team would not be competing in the last two rounds of the season, he was contacted by Benetton to drive their second car, with Alessandro Nannini having almost lost a hand in a helicopter crash following the Spanish Grand Prix. After qualifying 8th, he then shadowed his teammate, Piquet, coming home an excellent 2nd on his Benetton debut in the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix st Suzuka, although this result was helped by most other top cars dropping out, with Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna famously colliding at the first corner while their teammates Nigel Mansell (Ferrari) and Gerhard Berger (McLaren) would both retire. After then again qualifying 8th in the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide before going on to finish 7th (Piquet again won), Moreno got a full contract with Benetton for 1991 season.
  However, the Benetton B191, on Pirelli tyres, was not as competitive as anticipated, and Moreno's best results were 4th place at the Monaco Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix.  In the latter race, Moreno made the fastest lap, but this was overshadowed by F1 debutant Michael Schumacher (driving for the Jordan team); this would be Moreno's last race for Benetton before he was controversially paid off and dropped in favour of Schumacher. Schumacher had qualified 7th, and was up to 5th after the start when his clutch failed. The Benetton management, led by Tom Walkinshaw and team manager Flavio Briatore, were after a driver to rebuild the team around, convinced that neither the aging Piquet or Moreno were that driver. Walkinshaw engaged in some high-level dealing behind the scenes and managed to steal Schumacher from Jordan and Moreno was promptly fired. There are rumours to this day that Moreno was purposely driving within himself for the whole season in order to not show Piquet up (Piquet later admitted on Brazilian television in 2012 that after his qualifying accident at Imola in 1987 in which he lost around 80% of his depth perception, he only stayed in Formula One "for the money"). As it was, Moreno was offered the vacant Jordan drive for the 1991 Italian Grand Prix, where he qualified a very respectable 9th (ahead of teammate Andrea de Cesaris). Unfortunately he spun off on the second lap and retired. He would race the next race in Portugal, and then replaced Gianni Morbidelli in the Minardi, at the last race of the year in Adelaide, but Formula One seemed to have passed him by.
  For the 1992 season, he found himself back with the minnows, signing for Andrea Moda. The outfit had risen from the ashes of Scuderia Coloni, and after two non-starting races with Alex Caffi and Enrico Bertaggia, decided to start over with Moreno and Perry McCarthy (who would later claim fame as the original Stig on the BBC motoring show Top Gear). Moreno and McCarthy faced an uphill struggle, with the uncompetitive team scrambling to even get to most races. Moreno would only qualify the under-tested, under-funded car once, for the Monaco Grand Prix, before the team collapsed following team owner Andrea Sassetti's arrest at the Belgian Grand Prix.
  After the Andrea Moda disaster, he spent the next two seasons racing Italian and French Touring Cars, and also attempted to qualify for the 1994 Indianapolis 500. 1995 saw Moreno making a brief Formula One comeback, with the ambitious Forti team. Moreno's Brazilian heritage helped him land the drive. Sadly, their car was comparatively slow, and Moreno's best result was 14th in the Belgian Grand Prix. He would exit Formula One crashing into t
caption: Moreno spent his last season of Formula One with the Forti team.
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