The Brazilian super sub – Roberto Moreno

I recently treated myself to re-watching the Japanese Grand Prix from 1990, courtesy of Youtube. Failing to find a BBC version of the race I settled down to enjoy an American transmission which was well worth the investment in time (as if I needed an excuse to watch Formula One from years ago!)

I was interested in reminding myself of how Johnny Herbert performed in his return to F1; following a dream debut in Brazil in 1989, only months after suffering life changing leg injuries at Brands Hatch, his season ended at Benetton following a non-qualification in Canada, then restarted courtesy of Tyrrell in Belgium and Portugal covering team regular Jean Alesi who was winning the Formula 3000 championship alongside a half season in the beautiful Tyrrell-Ford 018.

However after a non-qualification in Portugal it appeared that Johnny’s F1 career was at an end, in part as his recovery from the earlier leg injuries was far from over. A season in Japanese Formula 3000 in 1990 allowed a combination of working on his recovery and maintaining his race craft, and following the horrific accident in Spain to Martin Donnelly Lotus approached Johnny to race in the two end of season races in Japan and Australia in their Lotus-Lamborghini 102 car as team mate to Derek Warwick.

Johnny had raced 3 times at the Suzuka circuit over the course of 1990 so was well prepared to race in the Formula One race. The race is of course best known for the infamous collision between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna at the first corner, but after the dust had settled the race became a battle between Nigel Mansell (Ferrari) and the pair of Benettons. Johnny made it into a point scoring position during the first round of pit stops before suffering engine problems on lap 31.

However the real story of the race for me was the second Benetton chasing down Nigel’s Ferrari. Team mate to Nelson Piquet for the Japanese and Australian Grand Prix was Roberto Moreno, about whom I knew very little until now.

Moreno scored his best ever Grand Prix finish in this race, eventually 2nd behind team leader Piquet…….a phenomenal result as a substitute driver, but this race was far from his debut on the F1 scene. In fact a far younger Roberto had made his debut back in 1982 for Team Lotus at the Dutch Grand Prix, again as a substitute, this time for Nigel Mansell. A combination of poor car, no testing and a slight lack of racing experience led to a non-qualification, but the following few years saw race wins in Formula Atlantic, Mondial and Three; he won the Australian GP (prior to it becoming a F1 race) three times and came 3rd overall in the 1987 Formula 3000 championship.

1987 also saw Roberto start his first grand prix in Japan, then bringing home the AGS (a beast of a car….and not in a good way!) 6th in Australia giving him 19th in the World Championship. Many drivers have driven far more races without scoring a point, and at this point the omens looked positive.

After winning the Formula 3000 championship in 1988, Roberto signed up for the Coloni team for 1989 – 16 races led to 7 non-pre qualifications, 5 non qualifications and 4 races where he started, none which he finished. Hardly the greatest first full season in Formula One history, but fair to say the car had the biggest say in the results.

1990 started with a drive for Eurobrun, which felt like a repeat of the previous season – 9 non-pre qualifications, 2 non-qualifications and only 2 races started, with 1 finish in 13th place in South Africa……the first race of the season. Fate however would play its part as Benetton driver Alessandro Nannini suffered a severed arm in a helicopter accident, meaning the team were looking for a replacement driver whilst Sandro recovered.

Step up Roberto Moreno who qualified 9th, tucked in behind team leader Nelson Piquet and drove to his finest finish of his Formula One career, taking the 2nd step on the podium. This in turn led to a full season with the team in 1991, or at least it would of done without the appearance of a certain M Schumacher after the Belgium Grand Prix.

Further drives for Jordan, Minardi, Andrea Moda and Forti led to no further points being scored, but 10th place in the drivers championship in 1990 and 1991 were positive returns for the opportunities he had in his limited F1 career. Roberto didn’t fade into retirement though, heading to the CART / Champcar / Indycar championships (3rd overall in 2003) and even a 4th overall in the 2007 Daytona 24hrs.

Over a career lasting over 35 seasons Roberto was clearly a very quick driver, even if he wasn’t always able to express his talent in suitably quick race cars, and as is always the way as an armchair observer the driver struggling to escape pre-qualification in an Andrea Moda is measured by the limits of the car rather than the limits of his ability.