Arrows (1999–2000) at the
2000 Belgian Grand Prix In , De la Rosa was a test driver for
Jordan. The next year, he joined
Arrows and scored one world championship point by finishing sixth in his debut race, the . He regularly outpaced his more experienced teammate
Toranosuke Takagi. In 2000, he remained at Arrows alongside Dutchman
Jos Verstappen. He scored two points, finishing sixth in the German Grand Prix and the European Grand Prix. Verstappen commented mid-season that he and De la Rosa 'work well together and we have a good partnership'. During the 2000 season, the Arrows team took part in a 13-part TV series named 'Racing Arrows' which followed the team and drivers throughout the year. It was shown on the British TV channel
ITV in 2001. at the
2001 Canadian Grand Prix Jaguar (2001–2002) De la Rosa raced for two years with
Jaguar Racing alongside
Eddie Irvine, scoring three points in 2001 and none in 2002. At the end of the 2002 season, Jaguar paid off his contract which was set to expire at the conclusion of 2003, replacing him with
Antônio Pizzonia.
McLaren (2003–2009) , as a third driver De la Rosa became a
test driver for
McLaren but raced at the
2005 Bahrain Grand Prix when
Juan Pablo Montoya injured his shoulder. He finished fifth and set a lap record which he still holds . On 11 July 2006, it was announced that De la Rosa would take over the second McLaren race seat with immediate effect following
Juan Pablo Montoya's departure to
NASCAR. It was initially unclear whether he would remain in the seat until the end of the season, but some successful results led to him being retained. At the
2006 Hungarian Grand Prix, De la Rosa scored his first and only Formula One podium, finishing in second place behind
Jenson Button. After a long period of speculation as to who would be
Fernando Alonso's teammate in ,
Lewis Hamilton secured the seat. De la Rosa would carry on as the team's test driver. For the season, De la Rosa combined his testing duties with providing race commentary for Spanish broadcaster
Telecinco. After his absence in 2006, he returned to the microphone in 2007. Reports in 2007 consistently linked De la Rosa to a return to F1 racing with the new
Prodrive team, which was set to make its debut in the season. Speculation suggested that Prodrive would run with support from the McLaren team, and that De la Rosa, along with fellow tester
Gary Paffett, would race for them in their maiden season. However, the team failed to make the grid for the new season, and De la Rosa instead remained as a test driver for McLaren. at the
Circuit de Catalunya in 2008 De la Rosa was also involved in the
espionage controversy surrounding his team and rivals Ferrari. With evidence provided by him and teammate
Fernando Alonso, the
FIA excluded the team from the 2007 Constructors' Championship, and issued a record fine of $100 million. He was understood to have sent e-mails to Mike Coughlan and Fernando Alonso regarding the Ferrari cars' setup. Before the
Australian Grand Prix of 2008, De la Rosa was elected as the new chairman of the
Grand Prix Drivers' Association after a unanimous vote. De la Rosa was the preferred candidate for GPDA directors
Mark Webber and
Fernando Alonso. He replaced the retired
Ralf Schumacher in the role. He remained at McLaren in 2009, and as of January 2010 was the fifth most experienced test driver in history, in terms of test days. He stated that he wished to step down from the role of GPDA chairman, following the completion of his deal to drive for
Sauber in 2010, and was duly replaced in the role by
Nick Heidfeld at the
Australian Grand Prix.
Sauber (2010–2011) at the
2010 Malaysian Grand Prix In 2010, De la Rosa drove for the newly resurrected Sauber team. His teammate at
Sauber was Japanese driver
Kamui Kobayashi who impressed at
Toyota during the last two races of the
2009 Formula One season. De la Rosa finished seven of the thirteen races he started in the season, and picked up six points from a single points-scoring finish, a seventh-place finish at the . These points would be the last of his Formula One career. De la Rosa qualified in the top-ten on two occasions, at
Silverstone and in Hungary, as both he and teammate Kobayashi struggled with reliability problems for the majority of the season. De la Rosa was dropped from his race seat by Sauber in favour of Nick Heidfeld after the Italian Grand Prix. De la Rosa replaced Heidfeld as test driver for
Pirelli, in anticipation for their return to
Formula One for the season. After
Sergio Pérez's accident in Monaco, De la Rosa replaced him for
Sauber at the , after Pérez decided, after the first free practice session on Friday, to sit out the rest of the weekend. De la Rosa managed to stay out of trouble throughout the first part of the race, affected by heavy rain, running as high as ninth before a red flag suspended the race. He eventually finished 12th after having some contact soon after the restart, which required a new wing.
McLaren (2011) On 9 March 2011,
McLaren announced that De la Rosa had returned to the team as their test and reserve driver.
HRT (2012) at the
2012 Malaysian Grand Prix. On 21 November 2011, it was announced that De la Rosa had signed for
HRT F1 on a two-year contract. His teammate was Indian driver
Narain Karthikeyan. Both drivers failed to qualify for the
first race of the season in Australia, as De la Rosa was only able to complete seven timed laps during the race weekend. At the
next race weekend in Malaysia, he was able to qualify and finish 22nd in the race after receiving a drive through penalty after the race was restarted, and he was later promoted to 21st place due to Karthikeyan's 20-second penalty for an incident with
Sebastian Vettel. De la Rosa qualified ahead of Karthikeyan once again in
China, and finished 21st, one lap down from the race winner. In
Bahrain, he finished 20th after qualifying 22nd, although after the race he admitted that the team still needed "to gain some speed per lap" to fight their rivals consistently. Following on from this, De la Rosa finished
his home race for the first time since
1999 in 19th place, the last of all classified drivers. However, he was unable to complete the
Monaco Grand Prix due to a collision with
Pastor Maldonado at the beginning of the race. De la Rosa had a contract to compete in the 2013 season with HRT and was due to become team principal for 2014. The team folded at the end of the 2012 season, meaning de la Rosa was unable to take either position.
Ferrari (2013–2014) On 16 January,
Ferrari announced that De la Rosa had been signed in a developmental role for the team, aiding with its simulator resources. On 24 January Ferrari announced that De la Rosa would share testing duties of their 2013 challenger, the
F138, with
Felipe Massa at the first test of the season, beginning on 5 February in
Jerez. == Other ventures ==