Four Pioneers and the Asado Grill

Uruguay's Formula 1 story belongs to four drivers of the 1950s, and its food is built around beef, the backyard grill and an immigrant pantry.

Uruguay has never hosted a World Championship race, and its part in the sport belongs entirely to the 1950s. Eitel Cantoni made 3 starts in 1952, Alberto Uria made 2 in 1955 and 1956, and Óscar González started once in 1956. Asdrúbal Fontes Bayardo was entered in the 1959 French Grand Prix. According to our records, no Uruguayan driver has appeared in the championship since, and no Uruguayan team has ever entered.

All four drove Maserati cars. Cantoni raced in Britain, Germany and Italy, while Uria and González made their starts at the Argentine Grand Prix, and in 1956 the two Uruguayans shared the car that finished sixth there, a fine example of national resources being pooled.

Uruguayan cooking is largely a cuisine of immigrants. Newcomers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, most of them from Italy and Spain, brought pasta, stews, paella and pastries, and Portuguese, German and Scottish settlers added touches of their own. Native plants and animals play little part, with one great exception: yerba mate, the drink the whole country shares. Beef is the foundation of the diet, with chicken, lamb and pork close behind, and boiling and roasting remain the favored methods.

The asado is the heart of the table. Many homes keep a grill of brick and iron on the patio, and the barbecue is often the whole meal. Pasta with Caruso sauce, a Uruguayan creation, sits easily beside it, and sweets lean on dulce de leche and quince paste. For a race weekend, light a grill, make a bowl of chimichurri, and fry tortas fritas if it happens to rain, which local wisdom holds is when they taste best.

A taste of Uruguay

• Chivito, Loaded steak, ham and egg sandwich
• Asado de tira con chimichurri, Grilled beef short ribs with herb sauce
• Choripán, Grilled sausage in crusty bread
• Tortas fritas, Fried dough rounds dusted with sugar
• Capeletis a la Caruso, Filled pasta in ham and mushroom cream
• Torta pascualina, Chard and whole egg pie
• Mate, Yerba mate herbal infusion
• Medio y medio, Sweet sparkling wine and dry white wine
• Postre chajá, Sponge cake with peaches, cream and meringue

Circuits

Drivers

• Eitel Cantoni
• Óscar González
• Alberto Uria
• Asdrúbal Fontes Bayardo