21 Facts About Esteban Tuero

Esteban Eduardo Tuero was born on 22 April 1978 and is an Argentine former racing driver who raced in Formula One for the Minardi team in 1998.

Esteban Eduardo Tuero was born at a time when the likes of Nelson Piquet and Alain Prost were just beginning their careers.

Tuero was born to a family who had a huge interest in motor racing, his father being a minor race car driver, and so Esteban was groomed for the big time from an early age by beginning karts at the age of seven.

Esteban Tuero would drive karts until 1992, moving up to the Formula series the following year.

Esteban Tuero won the Italian Formula 2000 National Trophy by a large margin in a Dallara 392, and was given a taste of Italian Formula Three in a Dallara 395.

Esteban Tuero retired due to a flat battery later in the race.

Esteban Tuero opted to not finish the season in Formula Three, though, and jumped ship to Formula 3000 halfway through.

Esteban Tuero's run for Draco resulted in only one top ten and a final championship position of 16th.

Esteban Tuero only scored one point and finished 16th in the standings, but Tuero covered the required mileage making him eligible for an F1 Super License.

Esteban Tuero's continuing test role with Minardi impressed the team to the extent that the Italian outfit gave him a race seat for the 1998 season, alongside the Japanese driver Shinji Nakano.

Esteban Tuero was eventually awarded his license by the FIA and upon starting the season at 19 years of age, he became the third-youngest ever Formula One driver at the time.

Esteban Tuero answered his doubters by qualifying an impressive 17th in Australia, ahead of teammate Nakano and the likes of 1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner Olivier Panis.

Esteban Tuero incurred the same penalty for speeding in the pit lane before retiring with a blown engine.

The San Marino Grand Prix was a race of attrition, but Esteban Tuero nursed his Minardi home to 8th for his first finish of the year before coming home 15th in Spain, where he served a stop-and-go penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

For five races in a row, Esteban Tuero then failed to finish; Monaco, where he spun off before a lap was completed, Canada, France, Great Britain, where he was one of many to spin off in awful conditions, and Austria, where he spun off for the second race running.

Esteban Tuero lasted 13 laps in Hungary, and, though he was not involved in the multi-car crash at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix, still retired prior to half-distance.

Esteban Tuero's Minardi vaulted Takagi's Tyrrell and upon landing he damaged a number of vertebrae in his neck.

Esteban Tuero later won two races at the wheel of a Volkswagen Polo which was one of the three official Volkswagen cars on the grid.

The new car, a Volkswagen Bora, was far from reliable and Esteban Tuero lost potential race wins as a result.

Esteban Tuero was linked with a pay-drivers seat in the CART series for 2002, but it never happened.

Esteban Tuero announced his retirement from racing after the 2016 TC2000 season.