Ricardo Teixeira (born 2 August 1984 in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

) is an

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

n- Portuguese

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

. He holds dual nationality and has raced under both nationalities at various points in his career. He was the first Angolan driver to drive a Formula 1 car when he was announced as a test driver for

Team Lotus Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport categories including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, American Championship Car Racing, Ind ...

for

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. He has been sponsored throughout his career by the Angolan oil company

Sonangol Group Sonangol () is a Government-owned corporation, parastatal that formerly oversaw petroleum and natural gas production in Angola. The group consisted of Sonangol E.P. () and its many subsidiaries. The subsidiaries generally had Sonangol E.P. ...

Career

Formula BMW

Teixeira began his

formula racing Formula racing, also known as open-wheel racing in North America, is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. A "formula", first devised by FIA for its post–World War II single-seater races, is a set of regulations for ...

career in 2001 by driving in the

Formula BMW Formula BMW was a junior racing formula for single seater cars. It was positioned at the bottom of the motorsport career ladder alongside the longer established Formula Ford category. Like Formula Ford, it was intended to function as the young ...

Junior Cup in Portugal. He finished in 20th position in the drivers' championship.

Formula Three

Teixeira moved to the National Class of the

British Formula 3 Championship The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single sea ...

in 2002, but did not start a race that year. In 2003 he raced occasionally in the

BRSCC The British Racing and Sports Car Club (BRSCC) is one of the major organisers of motorsport events in the United Kingdom. The club currently runs around thirty circuit racing championships for cars as diverse as Citroën, BMWs and Mazda. Formed i ...

's ARP Formula Three Championship, taking one win and three podiums finish at club racing level. He returned to the British Championship in 2005 after taking a couple of years out for study with the

Carlin Motorsport Carlin, formerly known as Carlin Motorsport and Rodin Carlin, was a motor racing team based in the United Kingdom. It primarily competed in junior racing championships such as FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3. Carlin also competed in top level ...

team, finishing ninth in the National Class. The following season, he improved to seventh, despite switching teams to Performance Racing Europe part-way through the year finishing twice in the podium. In 2007, he moved up to the Championship Class of the series with Performance Racing, scoring no points. For 2008, he moved to the Ultimate Motorsport team's

Mygale Mygale Racing Car Constructor (Mygale SARL) was a French racing car manufacturer that specialised in the production of Open wheel car, single seater chassis for use in formula racing. It is most notable for its Formula Ford chassis. Mygale also ...

chassis. Teixeira also competed in two races of the German ATS Formel 3 Cup in 2007, and has driven in two

Masters of Formula Three Master, master's or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles In education: *Master (college), head of a college *Master's degree, a postgraduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in the specified discipline *Schoolmaster or master, presiding office ...

races, with a best finish of 24th.

GP2 Series

Teixeira was signed by the

Trident Racing Trident Motorsport (formerly known as Trident Racing) is a motor racing team that competes in Open-wheel car, single-seater formula racing. It was founded in 2006 in order to compete in the GP2 Series, GP2 championship, which was Europe's second h ...

team to drive in the fifth and sixth rounds of the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season. He replaced Frankie Provenzano, and was the seventh competitor to drive one of the team's two entries. He was the first Angolan driver to compete at this level of motorsport. Trident kept a hold of Teixeira for the 2009 GP2 Series. After two years away from the series, one in FIA Formula Two Championship and then as a test driver for the Lotus

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

team, Teixeira returned to GP2 by signing with the

Rapax Rapax Team was an Italian motor racing team. The team's history can be traced back to when the GP Racing team was founded in 1997, and also to when Piquet Sports was created in 2000 by triple world champion Nelson Piquet. In 2007, Piquet Sports an ...

team for the 2012 season, in which he partnered

Tom Dillmann Tom Aston Dillmann (born 6 April 1989 in Mulhouse) is a French racing driver who competes for Inter Europol Competition in the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans, 2025 European Le Mans Series and in the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship. He has won the 2025 ...

. After ten races, and with a best finish of 13th, he was replaced by Daniël de Jong after suffering from illness. He returned to action for the next round at

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...

, with De Jong taking Dillmann's seat instead. Teixeira eventually finished 29th in the championship.

FIA Formula Two Championship

Teixeira moved to the FIA Formula Two Championship for

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. He finished fifth in his third race in the series, at

Marrakech Marrakesh or Marrakech (; , ) is the fourth-largest city in Morocco. It is one of the four imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakesh–Safi Regions of Morocco, region. The city lies west of the foothills of the Atlas Mounta ...

, but suffered a spectacular aerial accident in the following race when he collided with Ivan Samarin under braking for a chicane. Teixeira was uninjured in the accident. Over the course of the season he amassed 23 points to finish 16th in the drivers' championship: his best showing in any series since 2006.

Formula One

After driving for

in pre-season testing for the 2011 season, Teixeira was confirmed as a test driver for the team in March 2011.

GP2 again

In July 2013, Ricardo Teixeira returned to the GP2 series in Hungary with the Trident team.

Racing record

Career summary

Complete GP2 Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete FIA Formula Two Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Auto GP results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

*
archive

British F3 driver profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Teixeira, Ricardo 1984 births Living people Racing drivers from Lisbon Angolan racing drivers Portuguese racing drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers German Formula Three Championship drivers GP2 Series drivers GP2 Asia Series drivers FIA Formula Two Championship drivers Auto GP drivers Carlin racing drivers Performance Racing drivers Trident Racing drivers Rapax Team drivers Super Nova Racing drivers Portuguese people of Angolan descent