Luis Pérez-Sala, F1 driver

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Luis Pérez-Sala Valls-Taberner (born 15 May 1959 in Barcelona) is a Spanish former racing driver who competed in Formula One, Formula 3, Formula 3000 and Touring Cars. He was also the team principal of HRT Formula 1 Team during the 2012 F1 season.

Pérez-Sala contested the 1985 Italian Formula 3 Championship and moved to Formula 3000 to rather more convincing effect, winning races at Birmingham and Enna in 1986. He was runner-up to Stefano Modena in the 1987 F3000 championship. He became famous for his arguments with Alfonso de Vinuesa, caused by political views.

The Minardi Formula One team signed Pérez-Sala for the 1988 season. He made his debut for them on 3 April 1988, at the season's opening race in Brazil, where he qualified 20th but failed to finish the race when his rear wing collapsed. Over the next five rounds, he continually outpaced team-mate and fellow Spaniard Adrián Campos, who was replaced by Pierluigi Martini from round six of the Championship in Detroit.

Martini and Pérez-Sala were team-mates in both 1988 and 1989, with Martini outqualifying, outracing and outscoring Pérez-Sala. Pérez-Sala's only point came from a sixth place in the 1989 British Grand Prix. Along with the two points Martini scored for finishing fifth, the pair scored enough points to keep Minardi out of pre-qualifying for the rest of the season. At the end of the 1989 season, after failing to qualify for the season ending Australian Grand Prix (while Martini qualified a brilliant 3rd behind only the McLaren-Honda's of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost), he left Formula One having started 26 of the 32 Grands Prix that he entered. After his retirement from Formula One, Pérez-Sala became a regular in the Spanish touring car championship.

In July 2011, he was recruited as a consultant for the Hispania F1 team, which was founded by former Minardi team-mate Campos. On 15 December 2011, it was announced that he would become team principal of HRT, replacing Colin Kolles.

His nephew, Daniel Juncadella, is also a racing driver, best known for winning the 2011 Macau Grand Prix Formula Three race, and has also competed in the Formula 3 Euro Series.

source: Wikipedia