Adrian Campos is a former Formula 1 driver from Spain and the founder of Campos Racing team which competes in various racing series. Campos was active in racing until 1997, recording 17 starts in the Formula 1 World Championship with Minardi in 1987 and 1988, and then winning the Spanish Touring Car Championship in 1994.
He founded Adrian Campos Motorsport in 1998, later renaming the team to Campos Racing.
Adrian Campos started his career in Spain
Interesting start of racing career
Adrian Campos Suner was born in June 1960 in Alcira, the town in Valencia province in the Eastern Spain. As a kid he was fascinated with cars and, interestingly, he was a champion of Spain in radio-controlled car racing before he switched to real racing in 1981.
He spent three years competing in the various events at the national level before he has entered the international stage in 1984. Campos debuted in European Formula 3 driving for Volkswagen. In his rookie season, Adrian won the race at Monza while in 1985 he was 3rd overall in the German Formula 3 Championship. Unfortunately, switch to Formula 3000 in 1986 proved to be a complete failure. Campos managed to finish only two out of eight races and scored just one point.
Adrian Campos surprisingly stepped into the world of Formula 1 racing
In parallel with the duties in Formula 3000, Tyrrell offered him a contract to become their Formula 1 test driver. Those test Adrian used to pick up some experience what was very important as he signed with Minardi team to drive full-time in 1987 Formula 1 season. His rookie season was disastrous after the Spaniard managed to finish only one out of 15 races. That was the race at his home in Spain when he finished at 14th place.
Adrian Campos, Minardi, Formula 1
Retirement from Formula 1 and switch to touring cars
Most of Campos’ retirements were due to failures of the car than to his mistakes. He stayed with Minardi in 1988 but after the stream of failures continued, he decided to retire from Formula 1 and turn attention to touring cars and prototype cars racing and had more success. Adrian won the Spanish Touring Cars Championship title in 1994 before he retired from driving in 1997 after competing in 24 Hours of Le Mans, driving a Ferrari 333SP.
Adrian Campos driving Ferrari 333SP
Foundation of Campos Racing team
The Spaniard remained in motorsports after his retirement from driving. In 1997, he founded his own team Adrian Campos Motorsport which was renamed to Campos Racing in 2005. In the same time, he started to work as a driver’s manager and at one point he took care about Fernando Alonso’s career.
Adrian Campos entered many competition with his team
The first challenge for the new team was Open Fortuna by Nissan series. Campos made an excellent decision to choose talented racer Marc Gene and soon he won the title in 1998. In the following year, Fernando Alonso won the title for Campos Racing in the same competition and again it was proved that Adrian has a feeling to recognize talented drivers.
Adrian Campos knows how to spot the talents
With a new name, Campos Racing entered the newly formed GP2 Series. Adrian Campos continued to promote talented Spanish racers and among them was his son Adrian junior, too. In 2007, he started to promote non-Spanish racers in his GP2 team but also in the Formula 3 team. Names like Vitaly Petrov, Nicolas Prost, Giorgio Pantano, Lucas di Grassi or Carmen Jorda all were the member of Campos Racing in one moment of their careers.
Adrian Campos with Fernando Alonso
Unsuccessful try to form F1 team
Adrian Campos’ ambitions were growing and the next plan was to run Formula 1 team. In 2009 he applied entry for 2010 season and it was accepted. Campos Racing was one of four new teams in Formula 1 that year. Unfortunately, financial troubles caused that Campos was forced to leave the duty of team principal. New owners renamed the team to Hispania Racing while Adrian Campos remained as an executive vice-president before he left the project which didn’s last for a long time.
Video - Adrian Campos spins at Jerez
Many well-known drivers worked with Campos
Despite an unsuccessful attempt to run the team in Formula 1, Campos didn’s lost passion and enthusiasm. His teams continued to compete in the various championship while Adrian Campos keep on finding hot prospects with Adam Carroll, Adrien Tambay, Arthur Pic, Hugo Valente, Alex Palou and Rio Haryanto being some of them.
Rio Haryanto and Adrian Campos
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