Pedro Matos Chaves, former Portuguese F1 driver and other modalities, was chatting live on ELEVEN SPORTS Facebook with João Carlos Costa, Nuno Pinto, Sérgio Vieira and Miguel Roriz. For 90 minutes, he recalled several remarkable moments of his sports career and addressed several topics related to motorsports.
Pedro Matos Chaves is one of the best known Portuguese drivers of all time. He was English champion of F3000 in Madgwick Motorsport and arrived in F1 in 1991 by the Coloni F1 Team, never having qualified for any of the 13 races in which he participated. In the USA he participated in Indy Lights for 3 years.
He tried the rallies having won 2 titles with a Toyota Corolla WRC, won the Spanish GT championship in a Saleen S7, with Miguel Ramos. He also raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the FIA GT Championship. He ended his career as a driver in the Portuguese Rally Championship, for Renault.
About not having yet started the F1 World Championship, Pedro Matos Chaves said that “I see, like all of us, with a certain anxiety, because we like the sport. We wish it had already started. We would already be doing the Monaco GP. We already had an idea of the competitiveness of cars. We have nothing. Everything is zero. It’s boring. We are waiting, waiting… ”
For the ex-Portuguese driver, “driving an F1 continues to be a blast. Which (Toyota) Corolla, which what. I was that when I rode the rallies I didn’t remember F1. When I started driving the Coloni F1 3 years ago, I was thinking. It was one of the weakest cars in F1… but it’s a lot of power. A big kart. I did 4 laps and on the 4th lap I couldn’t hold my neck. And I couldn’t even breathe. “
Regarding the adventure in the North American races, Pedro Matos Chaves concludes: “I loved all the races I did in North America. I liked their way, the show. I learned to live with the “pace car”. But I remember a race in Vancouver, which I won to Greg Moore, son of the Canadian city. I won with a touch. There was the fishing war between Portugal and Canada and a local newspaper wrote that Portugal was not only unsympathetic in territorial waters, but also in races ”
The full interview can be seen here.
