15 Facts About Carlos Pace

Jose Carlos Pace was a racing driver from Brazil.

Carlos Pace participated in 73 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting at the 1972 South African Grand Prix.

Carlos Pace won one race, achieved six podiums, and scored a total of 58 championship points.

Carlos Pace travelled to Europe in 1970 and competed in British Formula 3, winning the Forward Trust championship in a Lotus car.

Carlos Pace scored points on two occasions and finished eighteenth in the Drivers' Championship.

Carlos Pace competed in some further F2 and Can-Am races.

For 1973, Carlos Pace moved to the Surtees team and improved to eleventh place in the championship after scoring a fourth place in Germany and his first championship podium finish with third in Austria.

Carlos Pace set the fastest lap in both of these events.

Carlos Pace competed in three F2 races for Surtees, but his main racing activities outside F1 were in the World Sportscar Championship, in which he drove for the works Ferrari team.

Carlos Pace remained with Surtees for 1974 and scored a fourth-place finish in Brazil, but parted company with the outfit mid-season after falling out with the founder, John Surtees.

Carlos Pace drove a privately entered Brabham for Goldie Hexagon Racing at the French Grand Prix but failed to qualify, before moving to the works team alongside namesake Carlos Reutemann for the next race.

Carlos Pace duly took his first and only Formula One victory in front of his home crowd at the Brazilian Grand Prix, took his first pole position at the following race in South Africa, and finished on the podium at Monaco and Silverstone, ending the season sixth overall in the Drivers' Championship and helping Brabham to second in the Constructors' Championship, behind Ferrari.

Carlos Pace remained with Brabham for 1976, but the car was much less competitive due to a change of engine, from Ford-Cosworth to Alfa Romeo.

Carlos Pace demonstrated this fact by taking second position at the season opener in Argentina, and running strongly in the next two Grands Prix before suffering from mechanical trouble, but he was unable to capitalise on the improved performance for the rest of the season due to his sudden death.

Carlos Pace was killed in a private light aircraft accident near Sao Paulo, Brazil on 18 March 1977,13 days after fellow F1 driver Tom Pryce and marshal Jansen Van Vuuren lost their lives during the 1977 South African Grand Prix.