Felipe Nasr in profile
Thursday 7 January 2016 13:15, UK
Felipe Nasr made an immediate impact on his F1 debut by recording the best finish by a Brazilian in their first race in F1 history with a fifth place finish in Austrlia.
Having spent 2014 as test driver at Williams, Nasr now has a full season of F1 racing under his belt with Sauber and will look to build on a solid rookie campaign as he stays with the Swiss team.
He will again partner Marcus Ericsson who he comprehensively outperformed last year scoring 27 points to the Swedes nine and the Brazilian will be confident of doing the same again in 2016 having also been the quicker driver when the pair battled in GP2.
Nasr's motorsport career began at the turn of the century when he took up karting and won three Brazilian titles between 2000 and 2007.
He made his single-seater debut in the final round of the 2008 Formula BMW Americas championship at Interlagos and finished on the podium.
2009 saw a move to Europe to further his career and he dominated the Formula BMW Europe season. The Silverstone round was the only weekend Nasr finished outside of the top two all season.
Graduation to Formula 3 duly followed and a learning year with Raikkonen Motorsport in the British championship saw Nasr go up against a field that included Jean-Eric Vergne and James Calado. The Brazilian finished fifth in the standings, with a maiden win coming at Rockingham.
The British F3 field was equally as impressive in 2011 as Nasr moved to Carlin where he teamed up with Kevin Magnussen. Williams F1 driver Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull reserve driver Antonio Felix da Costa also contested selected rounds. Nasr enjoyed a dominant season as he beat Magnussen by 81 points to take the drivers' title. The Brazilian concluded the year with second-place at the prestigious Macau GP.
Three years in GP2 would follow with podiums aplenty in the first two seasons, but it wasn't until Spain 2014 that Nasr would finally claim his first victory. He would go on to take a further three victories on his way to a career best third in the standings.
Nasr also got his first F1 experience in 2014 with five Practice One outings for Williams alongside his GP2 campaign.
Fifth on his debut in Australia proved to be the highlight of Nasr's campaign with Sauber as the underfunded Swiss squad struggled for competitiveness. That that result came on the back of a difficult weekend for the team when neither driver knew if they would actually be driving the cars as Giedo van der Garde went to court to claim he had a contract, spoke volumes for Nasr's ability.
In 2016 Nasr will be confident of being the lead Sauber driver and thanks to his backing will surely be eyeing a move further up the grid in the coming seasons.
