Esteban Tuero (born 22 April 1978) is an Argentine racing driver who raced for the Minardi Formula One team in 1998.
At 19, he became the then-third-youngest (now eighth youngest) F1 driver in history when he landed his seat alongside Shinji Nakano, but left the sport at the end of the season.
Initially there were doubts over whether Tuero would be allowed to compete in the 1998 season. Although Minardi had contracted him to drive an M198, alongside Japan’s Shinji Nakano, he failed to meet all Super License requirements. Formula One pundit, and former driver, Martin Brundle was quoted as saying, “As for Tuero, it would have been scary. I don’t like to see these guys out there with so little experience. Imagine it: even if he didn’t qualify, he’d be getting in the way during qualifying. And if he did qualify, then he’d definitely be lapped plenty. He’d have really needed to have his wits about him. To be honest, it annoys me, people like that, with zilch credibility.”
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. He qualified 17th in Australia, ahead of teammate Nakano and the likes of 1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner Olivier Panis but retired with a blown engine. Gearbox gremlins in Brazil followed by a poor pitstop and spin into the gravel at his home race in Argentina left Tuero with three DNF’s after the opening three races.
The San Marino Grand Prix was a race of attrition, but Tuero nursed his Minardi home to 8th for his first finish of the year before coming home 15th in Spain, where he was forced to serve a stop-and-go penalty for speeding in the pit lane. For five races in a row, 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.
16th in Germany halted the run of retirements, but only briefly. Tuero lasted 13 laps in Hungary, and, though fortunate to miss the huge shunt at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix, still retired prior to half-distance. 11th in Italy preceded another retirement at the Luxembourg Grand Prix.
His final race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix, would also be his final race in a top-level single-seater series. Starting 21st on the grid, he crashed into Toranosuke Takagi on lap 29, after accidentally hitting the throttle rather than the brakes. His Minardi vaulted Takagi’s Tyrrell and upon landing he damaged a number of vertebrae in his neck.[3][failed verification] In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher who was challenging McLaren’s Mika Häkkinen for the Drivers’ Championship, passed the accident spot where carbon fibre debris were littering the race track. Schumacher then suffered a catastrophic rear tyre failure forcing him to retire and thus handing Häkkinen his first World Drivers’ Championship. Meanwhile, Tuero’s sole Formula One season proved fruitless with no points and no ranking in the Drivers’ Championship.
1999
The restructured Minardi squad headed toward the 1999 season with plans to run Tuero once more, this time alongside Spaniard Marc Gene. Tuero was due to test the new car, the M01, in late January after recuperating from his injuries, but on the eve of that first test astounded everyone by announcing his retirement from Formula One. Despite surprising many at the time, Tuero never explained why he quit at the age of just 20 and still hasn’t done so to this day. His Formula One career reached its destination after only 16 races. Info from Wiki
