Adrián Campos Suñer (born 17 June 1960 in Alzira, Valencia – died 28 January 2021) is a Spanish former Formula One driver.
He participated in 21 Grands Prix, debuting on 12 April 1987, without scoring a championship point. He later moved into team management, with more success. He was the founder of the Campos Meta Formula One team (later known as HRT), which competed in Formula One from 2010 to 2012. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
After starting racing in 1981, in 1983 Adrian Campos commissioned an Avidesa 383-Alfa Romeo (the car was named after the family’s frozen food company)to compete in the European F3 Championship. Over the next two seasons he drove Bertram Schäfer’s Ralt-Volkswagen and finished third in 1985’s German F3 Championship. In the following year he graduated to F3000 for 1986 with Peter Gethin’s March 86B-Cosworth but moved to the works Lola team for the final two races and finished seventh at Járama.
During the year although he had tested for Tyrrell he eventually went on to race for Minardi in 1987 and 1988, alongside Alessandro Nannini and then Luis Pérez-Sala. However they would be frustrating seasons as he only finished two of the twenty one races he entered, and although most of these were due to mechanical failures rather than driving errors it eroded away at his motivation. After five races in 1988 he left the team after the Canadian GP and Pierluigi Martini joined the team.
Adrian returned to racing, competing in Spanish Touring Cars and won the championship in 1994 with an Alfa Romeo 155 TS.
1997 would be his last year as a professional driver and he contested that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Pilot Racing Ferrari 333SP (with Michel Ferte and Charlie Nearburg).
He then became a driver manager and team owner, forming Adrian Campos Motorsport (later renamed Campos Racing). Marc Gené won the Open Fortuna by Nissan championship for the team in its first year. Following a championship name change to ‘Euro Open Movistar by Nissan’, Fernando Alonso became champion with six wins in his first season and Campos Motorsport retained the title. In 2000 Antonio García took the drivers’ championship and the team achieved its third consecutive championships, for team and driver.
2004 saw them compete in Spanish F3 with two teams; Minardi Team F3 Campos and Campos Lease Plan Team. There was a name change to Campos Racing in 2005 and in GP2 in 2007 GP2 series Giorgio Pantano took two victories and teammate Vitaly Petrov won the season’s final race at Valencia. The team won the 2008 Teams’ Championship though towards the end of the year Adrian stepped down from running the GP2 team and it was taken over and renamed Barwa Addax.
In 2009, Campos Grand Prix successfully lodged an entry for the following F1 season and the team, renamed Campos Meta, announced that Bruno Senna would be one of their drivers. However, after financial struggles, when they eventually raced they were renamed Hispania Racing (or HRT F1) with Adrian as executive vice-president.
In AutoGP in 2011 Campos Racing performed strongly and finished second (with Adrien Tambay and Adam Carroll) while the following year saw a return European F3. Over the following years they would race in GP2, GP3, WTCC and Euro Formula Open and in 2016 became involved in Formula E, managing the Mahindra team.
His son, Adrián Campos Jr, also became a race driver and competed in European F3 (formerly the Spanish F3 Championship) and Indy Lights in America.
