Roberto Pupo Moreno (born 11 February 1959) is a Brazilian former racing driver. He participated in 75 Formula One Grands Prix, achieved one podium, and scored a total of fifteen championship points. He raced in CART in 1986, and was Formula 3000 champion (in 1988) before joining Formula One full-time in 1989. He returned to CART in 1996, where he enjoyed an Indian summer in 2000 and 2001, and managed to extend his career in the series until 2008. He also raced in endurance events and GT's in Brazil, but now works as a driver coach and consultant, and although this takes up a lot of his time, he is not officially retired yet, as he appears in historic events. Away from the sport, he enjoys building light aeroplanes.
Moreno was known as the "Super Sub" late in his career as he was used to replace injured drivers several times.
Career
Early career After winning the 1976 Brazilian 125cc Karting championship, Moreno set his sights on getting to Europe. He arrived in England in 1979, to race in his first season in Formula Ford. He did some races with Marc Smith racing who was the works Royale driver for that year. Marc had a two car transporter to take his and Roberto's car. Roberto was the driver and the mechanic for his Royale car. Ralt owner/designer Ron Tauranac lent Moreno an old shed to work out of as his home base. He had a couple of good results, and these convinced Ralph Firman Sr, to sign him as a works Van Diemen driver for the 1980 season. Whilst driving for Firman, he would win the Townsend Thoresen British Formula Ford title, winning eight races in the process. Meanwhile, in Europe, he drove the same car to three more victories, earning himself second place in the EFDA Townsend Thoresen Euroseries Formula Ford 1600 Championship. His also finished 4th in the RAC British series and sixth the P&O Ferries series. He then rounded out the season by winning the Formula Ford Festival. Moreno would return to race at the Formula Ford Festival in the same car at the 50th anniversary of the Festival in 2021.
Moreno's success alerted the attention of no lesser person than Colin Chapman, the successful owner and founder of Formula One's Team Lotus. Roberto only returned to Europe in 1981, because Chapman had given him a F1 testing contract with enough money to continue racing. With these funds, he raced Formula Three, but money was tight. Despite that, paired with Barron Racing, he managed to win two races, however he was more successful across the Atlantic the following season, racing in the CASC North American Formula Atlantic Championship, defeating Al Unser Jr. in a supporting race at the 1982 United States Grand Prix West in Long Beach. Later in 1982, he made another big impression by winning the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières. Prior to that victory, Moreno had found some money to do half a season in the British Formula 3 Championship with Ivens Lumar Racing, winning three races in the process, before he was given the opportunity to drive at the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort for Lotus, though he ultimately failed to qualify.
Australian Grand Prix (1981–1984)
In this period, Moreno (who like his friend Nelson Piquet was managed by Australian Greg "Pee Wee" Siddle) was a popular triple winner of the Australian Grand Prix in 1981, 1983 and 1984, before it became a Formula One World Championship race from 1985. These wins came in the days when the Grand Prix was a Formula Mondial race held at Melbourne's 1.6 km (1.0 mi) Calder Park Raceway. He often defeated current or past World Drivers' Champions to win the AGP, including Piquet, Alan Jones, Niki Lauda and Keke Rosberg, as well as other F1 drivers such as Jacques Laffite, Andrea de Cesaris and François Hesnault. In the only Australian Grand Prix he competed in but did not win during the period (1982), he finished third behind future four time World Champion Alain Prost, and Ligier F1 driver Laffite. In all of his pre-F1 Australian Grand Prix drives, Moreno drove a Formula Pacific or Formula Mondial Ralt RT4 powered by a 1.6 litre Ford 4cyl engine.
F1 substitute (1982 and 1987)
Moreno was winning races in Formula Atlantic, Formula Mondial and Formula Three, when he received a call-up from Colin Chapman to stand in for Nigel Mansell at Lotus at the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix after Mansell broke his wrist in the previous Grand Prix in Canada. Prior to this, Theodore Racing's Jan Lammers broke a thumb during the Detroit Grand Prix and team owner Teddy Yip wanted Moreno to take over the seat, however Chapman refused to release him. Then during the race in Montréal, Mansell injured his wrist, allowing for Moreno to stand in. This soon turned into a nightmare, as the Lotus 91 was a beast to handle, Moreno had barely driven the car, as regular drivers, Mansell and Elio de Angelis did most of the testing, with Moreno being restricted to the older Lotus 87B and Lotus 88 models. Moreno failed to come to grips with the Lotus 91, with his best qualifying lap over two seconds away from making the grid. At the end of 1982, Lotus released him from his duties as test driver and it took his reputation a while to recover from this poor showing.Bruce Jones, "The Complete Encyclopedia of Formula One: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Most Exciting Sport" (Carlton Books Ltd, , 1998)
Moreno was to get another chance, but that Dutch race handicapped him for a number of years. At the end of the season he was called up to replace Pascal Fabre for the AGS team at the Japanese Grand Prix. Five years after the Lotus fiasco, Moreno was set to make his debut, except he was the slowest of all and once again did not qualify. However, Williams driver Nigel Mansell injured himself during practice and the team subsequently withdrew his entry, thus letting Moreno in for his debut Grand Prix. In the following race, the Australian Grand Prix, he drove the ungainly JH22 between the walls of the Adelaide Street Circuit to finish a fine seventh, while others hit the walls and broke their cars. Following post-race scrutineering, Ayrton Senna's Lotus-Honda was disqualified from 2nd for oversized brake ducts and Moreno was promoted to sixth place, scoring his, and the team's, first-ever point in Formula One.
In between years
Moreno went back to North America with Siddle. A sponsor had been found for a whole season of Formula Atlantic, but the support race at Long Beach GP was changed to Super Vee, then he lost his sponsor. Despite the set-back, his new team, Theodore Racing went off and won the first race at Willow Springs. With the prize money, he did two more races, before the team stopped racing. Luckily for Moreno, the team owner, Teddy Yip, helped finance a move to another team. He won four races, while championship rival, Michael Andretti won three. Moreno missed out on the title as every time he won, Andretti would finish second.
For 1984, Roberto decided to return to Europe to race F3. Whilst pre-season testing with West Surrey Racing, he got an invitation from Tauranac to join the works Ralt Formula Two team. Moreno finished runner-up to Mike Thackwell, the pair dominated the final European Formula Two Championship, in their Ralt-Hondas. He tasted victory at the Hockenheim and Donington Park races. Tauranac wanted Moreno to stay for the inaugural International Formula 3000 season (1985), but Moreno had been testing the Toleman at the end of 1984, with Senna's car. He look set to get a drive with the team, only to be told that they did not have any tyres, and the deal fell through. A move to Indycars was next for Roberto with Rick Galles's Galles Racing, as he had seen Moreno impress frequently. The deal was for Roberto to drive in road races. He was invited to do a full campaign in 1986, however they had problems with the car and did not have any good results. When he was unable to find a full-time Indycar drive, he decided to try to get into F3000 driving with Ralt. During that season, he won the Gran Premio del Mediterraneo, together with some consistent finishing saw him finished 3rd overall, before receiving the call to join up with AGS.
Moreno almost joined the Brabham Formula One team in . On the suggestion of his friend, Brabham lead driver and defending World Champion Nelson Piquet, Brabham team owner Bernie Ecclestone almost signed the young Brazilian to drive the team's #2 car. However, this opportunity for Moreno came to nothing when Brabham's Italian based sponsor Parmalat insisted on having an Italian driver as Piquet's teammate. This led to the unique situation where Ecclestone signed brothers Teo and Corrado Fabi to share the drive in the car. Teo was the main driver, but as he was already contracted to race in the United States based CART/PPG World Series for Forsythe Racing, Corrado, who had driven for Osella in , substituted for him in 3 races where the respective F1 and CART schedules clashed.
Moreno's performance at AGS did not get him a seat in F1. He went to Bromley Motorsport in F3000. The team, owned by Ron Salt, had Gary Anderson as its Technical Director, with whom Roberto had worked with at Galles. With help from Reynard Motorsport, they began the season with virtually no money. Revenge was sweet, when Moreno took a sponsorless Reynard-Cosworth 88D to the title by winning three early-season races, at Pau, Silverstone and Monza in a row. A fourth win came in the Birmingham Superprix.
Also in 1988, Moreno made an appearance at Snetterton in the Celebrity Car in the inaugural Honda CR-X Challenge.
F1 substitute (1989–1995)
Not even winning the FIA International Formula 3000 Championship in 1988 in an unsponsored Reynard 88D made the impression needed for a big team to recruit Moreno. Instead, he signed a testing contract with Ferrari, who helped him land a racing drive with the ambitious Coloni outfit. The car was never competitive and Moreno only made the grid four times out of 16 attempts.
Initially, 1990 seemed to be even less promising, with Moreno signing for the nosediving EuroBrun outfit, qualifying for just two out of the first fourteen races of the season. However, shortly after being informed the team would not be competing in the last two rounds of the season, he was contacted by Benetton to drive their second car, with Alessandro Nannini having almost lost a hand in a helicopter crash following the Spanish Grand Prix. After qualifying eighth, he then shadowed his teammate, Piquet, coming home an excellent second on his Benetton debut in the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, although this result was helped by most other top cars dropping out, with Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna famously colliding at the first corner while their teammates Nigel Mansell (Ferrari) and Gerhard Berger (McLaren) would both retire. After then again qualifying 8th in the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide before going on to finish 7th (Piquet again won), Moreno got a full contract with Benetton for 1991 season.