Scuderia Chiarelli has confirmed that Brazilian Pedro Cardoso will race the team’s Hyundai Elantra N in this year’s TCR South America series.
Cardoso, 23, has spent the past four seasons competing in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro series, where last season he finished 26th overall with a best result of seventh at Velo Città.
He was 22nd in 2021, 23rd in 2020 and 28th in 2019, although he missed the last four events that year.
Cardoso was the 2015 South American Formula 4 champion, before he switched to Brazilian Formula 3 in 2016 – he scored two podiums before he withdrew from the series after being disqualified at Cascavel.
In 2017, he continued his single-seater career in the EuroFormula Open category, but was second last of the full season entrants in 19th overall.
The end of his single-seater aspirations proved to be the start of his tin-top career.
Chiarelli will field just one car for the first three events, which take place in Argentina before the series moves on to Brazilian and Uruguayan soil.
“I am very happy to enter TCR,” said Cardoso. “I think it is the category of the future, both in Brazil and in the world.
“My goal is to get to international motorsport in the near future, so this is the right path.
“I feel like I picked a great team, both with Chiarelli and Hyundai. In the year that I was South American Formula 4 champion, I was able to race on some of the tracks where we are going to drive this year, so I think everything is aligned.”
Ahead of the team’s third season in TCR, Carlos Chiarelli, Team Director, is expecting for Cardoso to be in the overall championship fight.
“We have great expectations this season with the arrival of Pedro to the team,” said Chiarelli. “I felt him motivated to have a good championship and be the protagonist in the fight for the title.
“Pedro has already raced on some of the tracks and that is an important advantage. Also, Hyundai’s approach to the team is another crucial factor for 2023 – we will have factory engineers accompanying us in some races.
“We opted to keep just one car until the start of TCR Brazil, so that we can put all our attention on development and head into the year-end contest strong.
“I am very excited with the arrival of Pedro and with the approach of the motorsport division of Hyundai. He came at a good time for us.”