Lehdistötiedotteet - Fabrício Cruz retires!

Fabrício Cruz retires!

After 15 seasons of racing in single seater, Fabrício Cruz has ended his racing career. In this article, we will take a look at his career and its ups and downs.

Fabrício's career started with a casual approach where he concentrated on learning and improving a wide range of skills with the main goal of gradually improving his pace. It was an approach that gave him good results in his first seasons given his young age, his first podium came at Monza during the first season of the F3 Mediterranean Series and then a season later his first win also at Monza. Given this good start it was time to move forward and so he joined the F2 Africa Series where he did his best season so far with 8 podiums and a 3rd place finish at the end of the season.

After this came the most difficult period of his career where the initial approach showed its limitations, a season in F2 Africa where he finished 9th and then 2 seasons in F2 Europe with an 11th and 12th place this one being the low point of his career after failing to conquer a single podium.

Then came a growth phase fueled by a different skills development method, starting with a 6th place in F2 Europe, then 3rd in F2 Asia with 2 wins in Yas Marina and Okayama in heavy rain which would later prove to be one of his specialties. Next up was a good 2nd place in F2 Europe after winning a season long battle against Marcos Afonso and Jonas Gudas.

On the 10th season came the first title of his career which was the Indy Junior USA with 5 wins and 8 poles, another of Fabrício's specialities, it was a hard season where he battled during the whole season against Nairod Essartal, Kala Vees and Luigi Capeta but he ended up on top thanks in great part to his good performances in the conventional road courses and a consistent run in the other races.

The 11th season was the first one at world level and pretty successful too with a 3rd place finish in the F2 World series and 3 race wins in the process, 1 in Silverstone and a double win at Spa Francorchamps which would prove to be a favorite track for him in Formula 2. This season saw Fabrício once again battling against Jonas Gudas and this time Fabrício couldn't quite get the upper hand in a large part due to a nightmare 2nd half of the season.

Then came the F2 World title where he won 6 races, again 1 at Silverstone, again a double win at Spa Francorchamps, a double win in Paul Ricard and a single win in Durban. This season saw an incredible battle between Fabrício and Angela Merkel until the latter retired a few weeks before the end of the season and therefore decided the championship, nevertheless it was a brilliant battle while it lasted.

The next stage of Fabrício's career was his 3 F1 seasons with Windsor Alliance Racing, obviously given that WAR didn't have a car capable of regularly fighting for wins and points, the goals had to be switched to helping the team in the best way possible.

The first season was all about learning about F1, the best results were a 15th place in the Spanish Grand Prix and a 16th place in the US GP. The second season brought better results with an 11th place in the US GP after a very well fought race where Fabrício took advantage of a good strategy call to put himself into contention for points, unfortunately the dream of points ended 6 laps before the end of the race when he was passed by another driver.

The third season of F1 was the most successful, right on the 3rd race of the season at Shanghai Fabrício finally got his well-deserved point thanks in part to a well-planned strategy but also to the changeable weather that afflicted the region that day! The rest of the season was harder but there were some bright spots like the 14th place in Hungary and the 15th place in the final race of the season.

Now Fabrício Cruz will now dedicate himself to tutoring his younger brother's career and maybe someday return when MRC implements races for retired drivers!

Here's Fabrício's main achievements:
- Formula 2 World title and a 3rd place finish
- Indy Junior USA title
- 3 Formula 1 seasons with a point conquered
- 3 Continental Formula 2 top 3 finishes
- 3 Nations Cup participations with 18th as the best result, 8 podium finishes
- 3 Trophy of the Champions participations with 17th as the best result
- 13 Custom Series wins
- 3 WAR Fan Championship titles
- 4 Luso-Brasileiro Championship titles (Portuguese-Brazilian competition)
- Top portuguese ranked driver during more than 4 seasons

on 2015-11-10 21:24:34 by bornelas