Career Summary	Picture Index
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Last updated: 22-September-2001

Before Formula One Formula One, I Between Formula One Formula One, II After Formula One
1988-91 An early starter, he was a winner in karts by age 11	With the likes of Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonen getting into F1 whilst barely out of their teens, and Fernando Alonso making his debut while he was still 19, you'd be forgiven for thinking that F1 was currently undergoing a youth revolution. But, ironically, when it comes to young achievement, look no further than the man who was Alonso's team-mate at Minardi for most this year, Tarso Marques from Curitiba in Brazil, whose mediocre 2001 belied a career history littered with extensive success in his teens. Tom Prankerd tells us that Marques' father was very rich, and that would come as no surprise. As early as 1988 Marques was already winning titles in Curitiba and Parana state karting championships. Through until 1991 he continued to race in Parana state, Brazilian and South American karting championships, where he proved to be a dominant force, and a driver to keep an eye on.
	In South American F3 in 1993, he took a pole and won a race, in the process becoming the youngest man in history to do either in an F3 event. Picture from TarsoMarques.com.
1992-94 Becomes youngest winner in a car with 4 victories in FChevrolet title	If anyone thought that Marques' transition to car racing would have been a little more difficult, they were in for a rude shock when he moved into Brazilian Formula Chevrolet in 1992. With 4 wins, 4 poles and 5 fastest laps, he led 117 of 150 laps, and became the youngest man to win a car race ever. He retired in all those races he didn't win, and that cost him the title. Still, he was labelled the best driver in Formula Chevrolet by some, and by Auto Esporte magazine as the best Brazilian driver of the year! The step up to South American F3 in 1993, though, did prove more trying. In his Ralt RT34 Mugen, he managed to come 5th overall, which was still an excellent effort. However, he did take a pole and win a race, in the process becoming the youngest man in the world to do either in an F3 event. A man in a hurry, for 1994 he then went to Europe to race in F3000, and at just 18 was the youngest man ever to race in that category at the time.
1994 Joins a lower rung team, but is on the pace and takes 3 points	However, the team he joined was perhaps not the best. Vortex Motorsport did (for the first race of the year at least) have David Coulthard on their books, but in truth they were not one of the top teams. Saddled with a Reynard Cosworth 94D, Marques was at a disadvantage, having to learn all the tracks, but he qualified in the midfield most of the time. Yet come race day he would generally be on the pace, so much so that at Spa and Barcelona, respectively the most challenging and the most technical courses on the calendar, he set lap records to confirm his undoubted talent. He then ended the season on a high at Magny-Cours, qualifying 5th and finishing 4th, becoming the youngest man to ever score F3000 points. With those 3 points he was equal 12th in the championship, and destined for greater things.
	At Pau in 1995 F3000, he was taken out in a big accident by team-mate Guillaume Gomez, who had started from 2nd and went for a closing gap... Thanks to Pure Racing.
1994-95 15 points in the F3000 bag, was 5th overall and looking to F1	Many F3000 team bosses had noticed him, and before 1994 was out Paul Stewart Racing gave him a test, in which Marques destroyed the time set by PSR's regular driver Didier Cottaz by 1.5 seconds. In the end, though, he linked up with the famous DAMS team to drive their Reynard Cosworth 95D, and responded admirably to his move up to the pointy end of the field. In 8 races, Tarso qualified once in both 6th and 5th, and twice each in 3rd, 2nd and pole. But in the two races from he started 1st, he had vastly differing fortunes. At Pau he was taken out in a big accident by team-mate Guillaume Gomez who had started from 2nd and went for a closing gap; at Estoril Marques won from pole, becoming the youngest ever to win in F3000. But in other races Marques only finished 3rd once and 5th once, and ultimately ended up with 15 points and 5th overall, which was less than what his speed deserved.
1996 Minardi Minardi make the call, and Tarso makes his F1 debut at home in Brazil	Marques was in no mood to hang around in F3000 any longer, and with financial support from back home, he was given his F1 break in 1996 by the Minardi team, first giving him a test, and then signing him to drive their M195B chassis with a Ford ED V8 engine in the two South American races in Brazil and Argentina. At just 20, Tarso became one of the youngest drivers in F1 history (and is still 7th on the list, shaded only on Mike Thackwell, Alonso, Ricardo Rodriguez, Esteban Tuero, Chris Amon and Button). At Interlagos, Marques impressed by setting the 19th fastest time in qualifying out of 22, beating experienced team-mate Pedro Lamy, but his time was subsequently disallowed along with that of Pedro Diniz, and the two home-town heroes had to share the back row. Heavy rain then fell on race day, and not surprisingly Tarso was caught out, spinning on the first lap, his stricken car momentarily stranded in the middle of the track.
	Tarso started his F1 career with a bang, smashing into Martin Brundle's Jordan in Marques' 2nd GP start in Buenos Aires, 1996.
1996 Stuns the paddock in Buenos Aires, but has to make way Fisi	If he had been impressive in Brazil, he was downright sensational in Argentina. There he stunned the establishment by qualifying 14th, ahead of such luminaries as Martin Brundle and Johnny Herbert, and outdoing Lamy by 1.2 seconds. In the race he battled with Brundle's Jordan, but after a safety car period ran up the back of the Jordan in a fairly violent collision. Tarso even had the presence of mind to then blame Brundle for brake-testing him; Martin merely shrugged that the rookie had forgotten to brake. The other driver Minardi had scheduled to be in their car 21 was another rookie, Giancarlo Fisichella, who replaced Marques for the next round at the Nurburgring. It was thought that Marques and Fisichella would continue swapping the seat for the rest of the season, but as it turned out neither had enough backing, and so in the end Minardi used Giovanni Lavaggi in the second half of the season, and Marques never sat in the car again.
1996-97 Tests for Bridgestone; then Panis' cruel break gives Tarso his	However, he kept his eye in by getting himself a few tests towards the end of the year. Bridgestone had announced its intention to enter F1 in 1997, and in the second half of 1996 had attained an Arrows chassis with which they could do some preliminary testing. Marques was one of the drivers used for this purpose, and he proved faster than Arrows' regular drivers Jos Verstappen and Ricardo Rosset. Tom Prankerd tells us that Arrows was so impressed, they then gave Marques first run of the Yamaha engine they would use in 1997. But for 1997, Marques was no longer in the Arrows picture, and Minardi took him up again as a test and back-up driver for Ukyo Katayama and Jarno Trulli. But after Olivier Panis had his awful accident at Montreal which broke both his legs, Trulli was called up to join Prost, and Marques filled in the void at Minardi for the rest of the season, driving the M197 chassis with the Hart V8 engine.
	One of Tarso's best qualifying efforts was at the Luxembourg GP at the Nurburgring in 1997. He took his wretched Minardi to 18th on the grid. Picture from Motor Racing Retro.
1997 Minardi A down and dour season sees him at the back, outshone by ailing Ukyo	However, unlike his heroics when he first drove in F1, those ten entries he had in 1997 hardly drew any attention. In the first six of those, from France to Italy, he only ever qualified either 21st or 22nd out of 22, and in Austria he was thrown out of the meet when his car was found to be underweight. He qualified a superb 18th at the Luxembourg GP, and in Japan and at Jerez he started 20th, with the Minardis having gotten the better of the floundering Tyrrells. To put things in perspective, he only out-qualified Katayama twice, even though the Japanese driver was winding down his career. But to his credit Marques usually drove reliably, only falling off the road at Spa. Apart from 4 mechanical failures, at Magny Cours, Hockenheim, the Nurburgring and Suzuka, he finished 10th at Silverstone, 12th at the Hungaroring, 14th at Monza, and 15th at Jerez.
1998-99 Superb CART test signals talent; another leg break sees Tarso get a drive	It was not enough, though, to keep Tarso in F1. Minardi went for the money both Tuero and Shinji Nakano offered in 1998, and Marques was out of a drive and unable to find a seat. Perhaps also his failure to impress in 1997 had come as a bit of a surprise to himself, having been such a star in the making during all those years in junior categories, and in those two drives for Minardi in 1996. As a result, he decided to take 1998 off to re-assess his options. Towards the end of the year, though, he turned his attention to Champ Cars in America. A superb test for the Payton-Coyne team in the off-season brought him to the attention of CART team bosses, and sure enough, when Penske driver Al Unser Jr broke his leg in the opening round of the 1999 series, illustrious team boss Roger Penske called Marques up for a test. Despite having never driven on an oval before, he impressed sufficiently to take Unser's seat in the Penske PC27B Mercedes-Benz.
	Roger Penske was so impressed by Tarso that he ran a third car for the Brazilian in 1999 CART once Al Unser Jr had returned from injury. Picture from TarsoMarques.com.
1999-2000 Saddled for 2 years with a poor chassis sees few points	In his first race at Motegi in Japan, Marques qualified 22nd and finished 14th. Then at Long Beach, he qualified 19th but crashed out after 24 laps. Although Unser then returned, Penske was pleased enough with Marques to run a third car for him in four more races, including at Rio, where Tarso came 9th from 8th on the grid, scoring 4 points in the process. That left him 28th in the series on count-back. In truth, his good efforts had been blighted by a poor Penske chassis, and it was the last year Penske would run their own design. For 2000 he remained in Champ Cars, joining the Forsythe team and competing in 17 of the 20 races. Once again he was disadvantaged by a poor chassis, his Swift 011 chassis (the only one in the field) being outclassed by the Lolas and Reynards. His one moment of notoriety was at the Michigan superspeedway, where his was the lapped car that gave Juan-Pablo Montoya the tow he needed to inch ahead of Michael Andretti to take the win. With 11 points, Marques was 25th overall.
2001 Minardi Paul Stoddart comes to the rescue of a team on the brink of collapse	In the 2000-2001 off-season, Marques parted company with Forsythe, and it appeared as though he would find himself on the sidelines once again for 2001. At the same time, the Minardi F1 team was in dire financial straits. Of their two pay-drivers, Marc Gene had become Williams test driver, and Gaston Mazzacane had signed with Prost, after the Argentine's backer, the South American PSN television network, unsuccessfully tried to buy Minardi out. At almost the last minute, Minardi's saviour came in the form of ex-pat Aussie Paul Stoddart, the owner of European Aviation, who bought the team, and arranged a deal to run upgraded Ford engines in the back of the PS01 chassis. Alonso was confirmed as one of the drivers, but the identity of the other was said to be a "surprise experienced driver". Drivers such as Gianni Morbidelli were bandied around, but soon the rumours fell on Marques, and indeed it was Tarso who got the nod for a second (third?) chance at F1.
	It was a miracle that Minardi even had 2 cars at Melbourne in 2001. Here Marques is half-way through his ragged first qualifying run on his F1 return.
2001 Last ditch effort sees Tarso with a car for the season opener, but he's beyond 107%	Like some other recent drivers who had come to F1 from Champ Cars, Marques found the skittish narrow-track groove-tyred F1 cars a handful. Not only that, but Alonso was the unspoken number one in the team, and naturally had the better of the equipment, which at times could run a little short. This was exemplified superbly in the 2001 season opener in Melbourne, where Marques' car had its first ever shakedown in Friday practice! Tarso was always going to struggle to make the 107% cut. His first qualifying lap was one of the most ragged seen for a very long time, and soon afterwards he spun into a gravel trap. With Minardi having only brought two cars to Australia, he had to wait until the end of the session to have a go at making the grid in Alonso's car, but he missed out by a few tenths. Still, he was given special dispensation by the stewards to start the race, although it ended early after brake problems.
2001 Marques is consistent come race day, if mechanical gremlins didn't hit	Marques then out-qualified Alonso in Malaysia, the only time he would manage to do so, and eventually started the race from 20th after Enrique Bernoldi's times were disallowed. He came home 14th, but thereafter never set anything but the slowest time in qualifying (although in Canada he did start 21st after Alonso was relegated to the back of the grid), usually around half a second slower than his Spanish team-mate. Once again, though, Tarso proved to be a consistent and reliable performer if somewhat off Alonso's pace, coming 9th in Brazil and Canada, 15th in France and 16th in Spain. But not surprisingly the Minardis were often beset by mechanical problems, and at Imola Marques suffered an engine blow-up, followed by transmission problems in Austria and Monaco, electrical gremlins at the Nurburgring, a gearbox failure in Germany and oil pressure problems in Hungary. He didn't qualify in Britain and was not allowed to start.
	In his last GP before being replaced by Alex Yoong, Tarso negociates the Bus Stop at Spa on his way to a solid race finish, 4 laps down. Picture from F1 Racing.net.
2001 Yoong arrives on the scene, and money talks loudly at Minardi	But from about half-way through the season, it was clear that Stoddart was looking for a driver to replace Marques, someone who could bring more money to the team. In a none-too-subtle fashion, he had his eyes set on the Malaysian, Alex Yoong, securing a sponsorship deal with Yoong's backers, the Magnum gaming group, and giving the Formula Nippon driver a number of tests to meet superlicence requirements. Once this was granted, it was announced at Yoong would take over Marques' car from Italy onwards. Which meant Marques' last race would be in Belgium. In the bizarre qualifying session there, he once again failed to make the cut, but due to the extenuating circumstances he was allowed to start last. It was hoped that he would have a good race for a swansong, but unfortunately, mechanical problems beset his efforts, and he eventually finished a lonely 14th, 4 laps down.
2001 Settles back into testing role and Minardi 2-seater pilot	To his credit, Marques fully understood the situation. Stoddart had initially chosen him for his experience and for what backing he could bring, but I think even Tarso himself would admit that he had not done awfully well. Given their financial position, if Minardi were going to have anyone in the second car, then they might as well hire a driver who could bring a wad of cash. And since the deal with Magnum had already been done, even Marques himself admitted that it was only fair for Yoong to get the drive. In doing so, he may just be the first F1 driver ever to agree with their own replacement! Stoddart thanked Marques for his efforts, and it would seem as though the two are still on good terms. Tarso has been kept on as a test and reserve driver for the remainder of 2001. Meanwhile, as Minardi take their two-seater F1 cars on show around Europe, Marques has been one of the drivers used. He drove one of the cars in the Donington two-seater race (which Stoddart himself won!), and in the last few days also demonstrated one of the cars at Valencia in Spain.

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