Tarso Anibal Santanna Marques (born 19 January 1976) is a Brazilian racing driver.
He participated in 24 Formula One Grands Prix, all driving for the Minardi team, but scored no championship points in three separate seasons and never completed a full year in the sport. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in Curitiba, Brazil in 1976, Tarso Marques competed in karts for a number of years and after moving into Formula Chevrolet at the age of 16 he won the title at his first attempt. In 1993 he moved up to Formula Three Sudamericana and from there into European F3000 and became the youngest driver to win races in both series.
Then came a drive with Minardi in F1 in 1996 although due to the team’s financial situation there was competition between several drivers (including G.Fisichella, J.Trulli and P.Lamy) for the race seat over the next two seasons.
1999 saw a move to Champ Cars in America and after coming to the attention of team-owner Roger Penske, he signed him to fill in for the injured Al Unser Jr. Although there were retirements at three races in his others he finished fourteenth, ninth and eighteenth at Motegi, Long Beach and Portland. In the following season he signed with Dale Coyne Racing and contested all but the first three opening races, and his best results were tenth in Detroit and seventh at Fontana.
He returned to Formula One and Minardi in 2001 and raced alongside a young Fernando Alonso but it proved a difficult period for him due to the team’s financial situation. As he brought no money to the team he had been signed knowing that another driver with more sponsorship money would be allowed to replace him at any point in the year. Team boss Paul Stoddart stated “Tarso is not a pay driver. He’s on a race-by-race contract, there’s no secret about that, and the guy knows that we are great friends and we will be great friends if I do replace him throughout the year. We’ve always said that if somebody came along that provided the team with a serious budget and talent that we would change.” This came to be towards the end of the year when he was replaced by Alex Yoong for the final three races in Monza, Indianapolis and Suzuka. Tarso’s two ninth-place finishes, in Brazil and Canada, remained Minardi’s best results of the season but he generously welcomed this driver change as the extra finance would enable the team to progress. He stayed with the team for 2002 as their test and reserve driver though when Alex Yoong was dropped during the season he did not get the race seat, with the drive instead going to Anthony Davidson and Justin Wilson.
In 2004, driving JMB Racing’s Ferrari 575 Maranello GTC he and K.Wendlinger finished fourth in the 500Km Oschersleben and (also joined by I.Alexander) fifth in the 500Km Zhuhai events. 2004 and 2005 would see four Champ Car drives for Dale Coyne Racing, finishing eighteenth at Long Beach, Monterey and Mexico and eleventh in Cleveland. Following his Champ Car drives he returned to South America where he would go on to contest the TC2000 and Stock Car Brasil touring car championships and has been a Formula One commentator on Radio Jovem Pan, with Alex Dias Ribeiro and was also involved in a ‘Fast and Curious’ show.
In 2016 he raced a Benetton B197 for VES Racing in a round of the BOSS series at Imola and was first and third in the two races there.
He would later go on to establish Tarso Marques Concept, a business which built and customised bikes and cars plus develop projects involving aircraft and boats. His TMC Dumont motorbike (shown in the photographs) utilised a 1960 Rolls Royce Aircraft engine, 36inch wheels and is hub-less. Although a concept, it was criticised in some quarters for the safety and turning abilities that would result from having the back ‘wheel’ so close to the rider and called impractical. However, despite this the Dumont was awarded the ‘Best of Show’ at the 2018 Daytona Bike Week. The name Dumont is a tribute to Alberto Santos-Dumont, a national hero in Brazil and a renowned aviation pioneer.
