Paul Tracy's brief history of Formula 1

Paul Tracy - born on this day 55 years ago - enjoyed a successful career in CART and IndyCar from 1991 to 2011, but the Canadian also once put his foot in Formula 1's door, albeit very briefly.

Back in 1994, Tracy tested with the Benetton Formula 1 team at Estoril. He set a faster time than both of the team's regular driver, JJ Lehto and Jos Verstappen,  had managed at that year's Portuguese Grand Prix.

In fact, he was only 0.7s off of the pole time for that race which had been set by Ferrari's Gerhard Berger.

For whatever reason, Tracy's Formula 1 aspirations went no further. But in 2013, Autosport magazine named  him one of the 50 greatest drivers never to have raced in F1.

Paul Tracy during practice in Toronto, 2010

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