There is no one who had quite the impact on the career of Helio Castroneves as Gil de Ferran did. The two Brazilians first met in the mid-1990s. Castroneves joined Paul Stewart Racing for British Formula 3 in 1995 just as de Ferran left the squad’s Formula 3000 operation for his rookie CART season, and they became team-mates in 2000 for a struggling Team Penske, which had failed to produce a win or pole in either of the previous two seasons in CART.
At the time, de Ferran was already an accomplished race winner, while Castroneves was still seeking his maiden victory at that level, having joined the team from Hogan Racing after the death of de Ferran's intended team-mate Greg Moore at Fontana.
