De Oliveira began his motorsport career in karting in 1997 before moving to Brazilian national Formula Ford and Formula Chevrolet in 1998. He entered Formula Three competition in 1999 and won the South American Formula Three Class B title that same year.
He relocated to Europe to contest the German Formula Three championship and delivered one of the most dominant title campaigns in the series' history in 2003, winning thirteen of sixteen races to claim the championship by a commanding margin. That performance attracted immediate attention from Japanese teams, and de Oliveira arrived in Japan in 2004. He won the Japanese Formula Three championship the following year in 2005, adding seven victories to confirm his reputation as an outstanding single-seater talent.
In 2006, de Oliveira made his Super GT debut with a Hasemi Nissan Z in the GT500 class. He became a Nissan factory driver and remained loyal to the Japanese manufacturer for thirteen years, competing for the Kondo team from 2007 to 2010 and again in 2017, and for the Impul team from 2011 to 2016.
Over his Super GT career de Oliveira accumulated nine wins and nineteen podiums in the GT500 class before transitioning to GT300 competition. He won the GT300 championship in 2020 and again in 2022, having finished as GT500 runner-up in 2015. His combination of race pace and deep ability for car development made him a valued asset to Nissan throughout his time with them.
De Oliveira entered the last round of the 2006 Formula Nippon season with 5Zigen, then raced for Kondo in 2007 and 2008. After sitting out 2009, he returned with Impul in 2010 and won the Formula Nippon championship outright. He was runner-up in 2014 and accumulated ten race victories and 23 podiums across his formula racing career in Japan before retiring from single-seater competition after the 2016 season.
De Oliveira made his World Touring Car Championship debut at the 2009 FIA WTCC Race of Japan, driving for SUNRED Engineering. A decade later, in 2019, he appeared as a wildcard entry in the finale round of the World Touring Car Cup at Sepang International Circuit in a Honda Civic Type R TCR run by KCMG. He qualified 13th with a time of 2:14.746, finished fifth overall in race one — the best result by a wildcard driver that season — and set the fastest lap of the race while assisting championship contender Esteban Guerrieri. He dropped to eighteenth in race two and retired from race three on lap ten.
In June 2023, de Oliveira joined the Vanwall Racing Team in the FIA World Endurance Championship, replacing the departing Tom Dillmann. He described the move as a desire to "escape his comfort zone" after many years in Japan. He was scheduled to compete at Monza and Fuji but could not participate at Bahrain due to clashing Super GT commitments.
De Oliveira's record in Japan — domestic championships in three different categories spanning Formula Three, formula racing, and GT competition over more than fifteen years — places him among the most successful foreign drivers in the history of Japanese motorsport. His thirteen-win German Formula Three campaign in 2003 remains among the most dominant single-season performances in that series.
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