Former F1 driver and Campos team founder Adrian Campos dies aged 60

Formula 1

Former F1 driver and Campos team founder Adrian Campos dies aged 60

Campos helped launch the careers of drivers including Fernando Alonso

Sam Hall

Thursday 28 January 2021 09:54 Updated: 10:02

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Former Formula 1 driver and founder of the Campos Racing team, Adrian Campos, has died. He was 60.

In a statement on Thursday morning, Campos Racing confirmed its founder and chairman had passed away.

"It is with great sadness that Campos Racing regrets to inform that Adrian Campos Suñer, founder and Chairman of the team, has sadly passed away today as a consequence of a sudden coronary disease," read the statement.

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"The whole Campos family and racing team feel his terrible loss, but also the immense privilege to have worked alongside a man as courageous and innovative as Adrian. Motorsport was the way of life of Adrian: his determination and human quality will forever be the model and reference for each and every one of us.

"His legacy in the motorsport community is enormous, and both his family and his team will always protect it."

As a driver, Campos entered 21 grands prix, making 17 starts for Minardi across the 1987 and '88 seasons.

After winning the 1994 Spanish Touring Car Championship, Campos turned his attention to team management.

He formed Campos Motorsport in 1997 and, in '98, entered the new Euro Open by Nissan championship where the team was an instant success, picking up the title at the first attempt with Marc Gene.

The most famous driver to have come through the Campos ranks is Fernando Alonso and, when Gene stepped up to F1 in '99, the Spaniard took the place of the reigning champion.

Alonso did not disappoint, delivering Campos a second championship title.

Campos Racing has competed in every season of Formula 2 and, aside from a five-year absence between 2009-2013, was a regular on the grid when the championship was known as GP2.

Notable alumni from this series alone include Lando Norris, Lucas di Grassi and Vitaly Petrov.

The team's brief absence from the junior series came as Campos attempted to establish the team in F1.

Having passed control of the GP2 outfit to Alejandro Agag, the man who would go on to create Formula E, Campos secured an F1 entry for 2010.

However, financial problems meant the journey ended before it began, and majority shareholder José Ramón Carabante bought out the team and renamed it to Hispania.

Through its efforts in F2 and F3, the team has continued to produce successful drivers, with Jack Aitken the most recent example to have competed in F1.