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The F1 test driver turned wild jaguar lifesaver

After getting very closely but ultimately failing to reach the highest level of single-seater motorsport, Mario Haberfeld returned to his home nation and made his other great passion his life's work - saving endangered wild jaguars

Charles Bradley Dec 28, 2018, 12:29 PM

Not many racing drivers who have tested Formula 1 cars for McLaren, Jordan and Stewart have appeared in a documentary narrated by legendary broadcaster Sir David Attenborough. But Brazil's Mario Haberfeld was never an ordinary racer.

Delightful company out of the cockpit, but hard-as-nails inside it - and prone to his fair share of huge shunts - I've known Haberfeld since his British Formula Ford days of 1995. While he's still the amiable character he was then, his life is very different these days, but that steely determination remains.

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Author Charles Bradley

Charles Bradley is Motorsport.com’s Global Editor in Chief. After spending five years in the aerospace industry in his native North Wales, while working weekends as a freelance writer at racetracks around the UK, Charles joined the staff of Motoring News in the heart of London. He transferred to the nascent Autosport.com team in 2000 before transitioning to the magazine, becoming its Editor between 2011 and 2014. Charles then upped sticks to work in America, as Motorsport.com’s Editor in Chief, where he created the multi-national and multi-lingual editorial team that quickly became the world’s most-read motorsport website. He was instrumental in delivering three of the biggest Global F1 Fan Surveys in sports history and is also a multiple award-winning scriptwriter. Charles is an overseas member of the Guild of Motoring Writers. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife Helen – and a cat that’s named after Serbia’s top football club.