Lael Damasceno

Canadian Formula One racing driver currently contracted to drive for Red Bull Racing in 2005. Damasceno has been stuck in the mid field for the past seven years with the occasional win or podium.

Early Life
Born in Toronto, Ontario Canada, to parents of Italian, Brazilian, and Portuguese descent. Lael began karting at the age of 6 for two years and stopped until the age of 15 when he took interest in motor sports again. He won the title first time out. Afterwards he received a test driver role in F3000, from there a race seat in a midfield team for a re-run series where he teamed up with Jakub Otruba.

Career of Lael Damasceno
1990; He makes his début in 1990 for Onyx Euroburn after an invite from his friend and teammate Jakub Otruba. He Started for 2 races, and took an impressive 11th place at Spa.

1991; He was immediately picked up by Leyton House for 1991 after the impressive début. But the promise of a great season went nowhere as Lael was destroyed by the arrival of the more experienced Bryan Westbrook. Lael finished last in the championship, and was the only driver not to score.

1992; For the sake of continuity, March F1 (former Leyton House)decided to keep the Canadian. The team enjoyed a nice swansong with both drivers being competitive. This prompted several lower midfield teams to be interested in the Canadian.

1993; Minardi sign Damasceno, and the change of teams does him good. He took pole position on his début for the Faenza squad, and by mid-season he finally took his maiden win! He finished the championship in 14th scoring all of Minardi's points. The team finished 9th in the constructors championship.

1994; After an impressive 1993, Ferrari signed the Canadian. The beginning of the season didn't look like it was the right decision by the team. Damasceno was settling in but was very off the pace. To add salt to injury, his former team were performing very well. Then things started to look up. Lael finished the season runner up in the title chase with best average qualifying. He's taken 5 podiums with 4 wins, two poles, and a fast lap.

1995 The season started with a win. But it was the only win for Damasceno, and the only win for Ferrari. Benetton and Williams were more than a match for Ferrari. And so, the Prancing Horse lost out on constructors by a huge margin. Damasceno would drop to 4th from runner up in the championship in '94. In an interview, Lael stated that even though he was disappointed with the 1995 season, he was happy to have been consistent enough. Some of the impressive achievements of '95 include, best qualifier in the field, second most amount of podiums, and of course a feature race win.

96-97 These two seasons were terrible for the Canadian. Damasceno slipped further down the field and was outclassed by the senior driver at Ferrari. At the end of 97, Ferrari had enough with the Canadian's lack of motivation and duly sacked him.

Jordan GP '98-'99 Damasceno was picked up by Jordan for 1998 alongside the infamous Russian driver Alexander. But the pressure to race along side such a strong driver got to the Canadian's head and he delivered sub par performances for his two seasons at the Silverstone based team. He was sacked at the end of 1999 for only scoring 2 points compared to his team mate.

Sauber Petronas For the year 2000 the Canadian driver is now very much considered past due on his retirement. During the end of the 1999 season, Damasceno was spotted lurking around the Minardi team. No negotiations were started. Before the final round, Lael was approached by Prost for a drive. Damasceno put Prost on hold to see if he could improve his situation with Jordan. Having failed to renew with Jordan, Lael waited a couple of weeks and one of the Sauber drivers who had already signed for 2000 suddenly retired from F1 racing. Damasceno made the illogical choice and went with Sauber, a team that finished 9th during the 1999 season compared to Prost's 4th.

Damasceno finished the season 11th with 32 points, and 2 podium finishes. The Canadian finished all but one race in 2000, and scored the majority of points for his team. He also out qualified his teammate every race but one. This season served well for keeping Lael in F1.

Lael has extended his contract with Sauber for 2001.

2001

Red Bull sells their share in the Sauber team to Credit Suisse. Peter Sauber extends Lael's contract for the 2001 season after an impressive 2000 which brought the team from 9th up into 7th in constructors.

Success continued in 2001 and the team moved up to 6th in the championship. Lael Damasceno's season was marked with unreliability and driver errors. Highlights of the season were a pole position in the opening round, and a win in Valencia. Damasceno finished the championship in 14th, only 4 points adrift of Gary Hellas who made it into the top ten.

2002

After a disappointing 2001, Damasceno bounced back in the championship finishing 12th. Once more the Canadian proved his worth by scoring team's majority of points. Highlight of the season was a second place in Spain. Sauber end the season in 7Th, one place down from the previous season due to both cars being unreliable. Damasceno retired 6 times.

2003

A fourth season for Damasceno at Hinwil, Switzerland promises to be much of the same. The car started the season solidly in the midfield, but was only faster than Minardi and Jordan by season's end. Damasceno has been able to score some points, but the Canadian is growing impatient with lack of progress. His final standing is 15th. The complaint for much of the season was of the inability to match Toyota and Jaguar for pace.

2004

The season has been a turn around from the previous embarrassment faced by Sauber. Damasceno has scored more points than the team scored all of last season, and the highlight was a win in Monaco, and team mate Gary scored 2 podiums. As the season drew to a close, long time Sauber sponsor Red Bull has announced its departure from the team as the drinks company purchased Jaguar. Shortly after the announcement, it has been confirmed that Damasceno will be racing with the new squad in 2005.

Damasceno was quoted saying that he was surprised to see Scuderia Ferrari choose the current Jaguar lineup for 2005 given that he currently sits ahead of both with two rounds to go. He went on to say, I guess Maranello doesn't welcome back old drivers.

RED BULL RACING 2005 Signed by the former Jaguar team as their lead driver into the new season. The decision is a shock given that Sauber has finally listened to the Canadian's request to utilise Michelin rubber, and the announcement of Credit Suisse selling their shares to BMW-Motorsport who plan to re-brand the team in 2006.

Personal Life
Away from the track, Lael is a musician. He plays 5 instruments, and he can sing too. Occasionally he entertains the paddock with his songs.