Roberto Moreno

After winning the 1976 Brazilian 125cc karting championship, Moreno moved to England in 1979 to race Formula Ford. Ralph Firman Sr. signed him as a works Van Diemen driver for 1980, and Moreno won the Townsend Thoresen British Formula Ford title, taking eight victories, while also adding three wins in Europe to finish second in the EFDA Euroseries. He capped the year by winning the Formula Ford Festival. These results attracted the attention of Colin Chapman at Team Lotus, who provided Moreno with a Formula One testing contract and enough funding to continue racing.

In the early 1980s Moreno became a three-time winner of the Australian Grand Prix — held as a Formula Mondial race at Calder Park Raceway in Melbourne — in 1981, 1983, and 1984. He defeated current and former world champions including Nelson Piquet, Alan Jones, Niki Lauda, and Keke Rosberg in those victories. He also won the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières in 1982 and defeated Al Unser Jr. in a Formula Atlantic support race at the United States Grand Prix West at Long Beach.

Moreno's first Formula One attempt came at the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, where he stood in for Nigel Mansell at Lotus but failed to qualify. A 1987 call-up to the AGS team at the Japanese Grand Prix similarly ended without making the grid, but Mansell's withdrawal promoted Moreno into the field by default. At the following 1987 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, Moreno drove the AGS JH22 to seventh on the road, which became sixth — and the team's first championship point — after Ayrton Senna's Lotus was disqualified post-race.

After finishing runner-up to Mike Thackwell in the final European Formula Two Championship in 1984 driving a works Ralt-Honda, Moreno moved to Formula 3000. He competed for Bromley Motorsport, a team led by technical director Gary Anderson, in 1988 with virtually no budget. Driving a sponsorless Reynard-Cosworth 88D, Moreno won three consecutive races at Pau, Silverstone, and Monza, then added a fourth win at the Birmingham Superprix, taking the FIA International Formula 3000 Championship title.

Despite winning the F3000 title, Moreno could not secure a competitive Formula One seat immediately, spending time as a Ferrari test driver and then racing for the underfunded Coloni outfit in 1989. In 1990 he signed with EuroBrun, qualifying for just two of the first fourteen races. However, after Alessandro Nannini lost part of his hand in a helicopter accident following the Spanish Grand Prix, Benetton contacted Moreno to drive the second car. He qualified eighth for the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka and finished second behind teammate Piquet, with most front-runners having retired or collided at the start. The result earned Moreno a full Benetton contract for 1991.

At Benetton in 1991, Moreno's best results were fourth at Monaco and fourth at Spa-Francorchamps, where he also set the fastest lap — though that performance was overshadowed by Michael Schumacher's Formula One debut for Jordan. Benetton management, led by Flavio Briatore and Tom Walkinshaw, subsequently paid off Moreno's contract to sign Schumacher, a move that ended his time with a competitive team.

Moreno drove for Jordan at the 1991 Italian and Portuguese Grands Prix before replacing Gianni Morbidelli at Minardi for the season finale. In 1992 he joined the ill-fated Andrea Moda team alongside Perry McCarthy, qualifying the car only once — at Monaco — before the team folded after its owner's arrest at the Belgian Grand Prix. Brief stints in Italian and French touring cars followed, along with an attempt to qualify for the 1994 Indianapolis 500. A 1995 return with Forti yielded no significant results, and Moreno exited Formula One for the last time after the 1995 Australian Grand Prix.

Moreno resumed North American open-wheel competition in 1996 with Payton-Coyne Racing. He built a reputation as a reliable substitute, earning the "Supersub" nickname for replacing injured drivers at multiple teams. His career reached a late high point in 2000 when he was granted a full-time seat at Patrick Racing. He led the Champ Car standings for stretches of the season and finished third overall. Moreno won his first Champ Car race at Cleveland — weeping openly after the victory, his first since the 1988 F3000 season — and added a second win at Vancouver in 2001. He raced in the series until 2008, with further substitute appearances including a run at the 2007 Indianapolis 500 for Chastain Motorsports.

Moreno's career spanned Formula Ford to Formula One and from European F3000 to North American open-wheel racing across nearly three decades of active competition. His 1988 F3000 title with a virtually unfunded operation, his second place at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix in a last-minute substitute role, and his late-career Champ Car victories illustrated a driver whose talent consistently outpaced the resources available to him. After retiring from regular competition, he has worked as a driver coach and consultant and appeared in historic racing events.