03/02/2005
NEWS STORY
Former Toyota F1 driver, Cristiano da Matta, has returned to Champ Cars, having secured a drive with the PKV Racing team.
The Brazilian arrived in F1 in 2003, on the back of successful career in CART, having won the 2002 title.
Although he promised much he delivered little, though much of this can be put down to the shortcomings of the machinery at his disposal.
For much of the time he was outshone by his older teammate, Olivier Panis, and it was clear in mid 2004 that the Brazilian would not be retained for 2005.
When Jarno Trulli became available in late 2004, Toyota wasted no time in bringing in the Italian, whose services had already been secured for 2005, along with Ralf Schumacher. By that time however, da Matta had already been 'dropped' in favour of test driver Ricardo Zonta, and even though the team was adamant that da Matta was still on board, the Brazilian moved silently into the background.
In a press release issued on Wednesday, da Matta said: "It was an easy decision to come back to America after racing over in Europe for the past two years in Formula One.
"When I was here in 2002, I was 100 percent happy. I never wanted to race anything else, but Champ Cars at that time was uncertain about its future.
"Obviously having a chance to drive an F1 car, I thought that this is my opportunity and I cannot miss it. It never because I thought it was better over there or if it was better to race or more fun or whatever."
The Champ Car season kicks off on April 10 in Long Beach.