Roland Ratzenberger

**Roland Walter Ratzenberger** (born 4 July 1960) is an Austrian racing driver who currently competing in Formula One, driving for Pacific Grand Prix.

He would compete in a series of formulae from Formula Ford, World Touring Cars, Formula 3 and British and Japanese Formula 3000. Ratzenberger would make his Formula One debut with Leyton House for the start of the 1992 season.

## Early life and career

Ratzenberger was born in Salzburg, Austria, on 4 July 1960. When he was seven, his grandmother took him to a local hillclimb race at Gaisberg. Ιn 1969, the Salzburgring opened near his home. As a teenager, he discovered that racer and Formula Ford team owner Walter Lechner was based nearby and, while studying at a technical school, began to hang around the workshop. On finishing his education at eighteen, he joined Lechner, who was at this time opening a racing school at the Salzburgring. Ratzenberger began racing in German Formula Ford in 1983, and in 1985 won both the Austrian and Central European Formula Ford championships. In 1985, he entered the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in England, finishing second. He returned in 1986 to win the event, before graduating to British Formula 3 the following season. While in the UK, he briefly gained fame for the similarity of his name to that of TV puppet Roland Rat, with whom he appeared in an edition of *TV-am*; the *TV-am* branding appeared for a time on his car.

Two years in British F3 yielded two 12th places in the championship with West Surrey Racing and Madgwick Motorsport. He also raced in other cars besides single seaters, once finishing second in the 1987 World Touring Car Championship driving a Team Schnitzer BMW M3. In 1988, he entered the final few rounds of the British Touring Car Championship in a class B BMW M3, racing for the Demon Tweeks team. The next year, he entered the British Formula 3000 series, finishing third overall, and also raced in the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time; the Brun Motorsport, Porsche 962 he shared with Maurizio Sandro Sala and Walter Lechner retired in the third hour. He would take part in the next four Le Mans races, with Brun again in 1991, and with the SARD team in 1990, 1992 and 1993.

In the 1990s, Ratzenberger began racing primarily in Japan. He won one race each in 1990 and 1991 in the Japanese Sports Prototype Championship with the same SARD team he drove for at Le Mans. He also returned to touring car racing in the Japanese Touring Car Championship, finishing seventh in 1990 and 1991 in a BMW M3. During the latter year, Ratzenberger tested a CART Lola T91/00 for Dick Simon Racing at Willow Springs.

## Formula One

### 1992: Leyton House

Ahead of the 1992 season Ratzenberger would sign for the Leyton House team to accompany the experienced Maurício Gugelmin. The 1992 season would be a struggle for the Leyton House team and they would face many difficulties in both performance and finance. Because of this and Ratzenberger's limited financial resources he would only participate in the first 4 races of the season, losing his seat to the French racing driver Paul Belmondo, who had substantially more financial resources to offer. In his 4 races for Leyton House they would fail to pre-qualify, but he did make a good account of himself, only twice being outpaced by his more experienced team mate. Ratzenberger was discussed as a potential mid-season stand in for a number of teams in 1992, but none came to pass and he would spend much of the rest of the 1992 season in Japanese Formula 3000.

### 1993: Pacific Grand Prix

The new Paciic Grand Prix team would sign Ratzenberger to accompany Grand Prix rookie Mika Salo for the 1993 season.

## Personal life

In the winter of 1991, in Monaco, and after what Adam Cooper described as "a whirlwind courtship," Ratzenberger married the former partner of another driver, becoming stepfather to her son from a previous relationship. They were divorced early in 1992.

## Formula One Statistical Overview

### Formula One Record

 1993 |  Pacific Grand Prix

Notes

* \* – Season still in progress.

### Complete Formula One results

(key)

Notes

* \* – Season still in progress.