Corrado Fabi

Having started his racing career at the age of 12, raced a Formula 3 car before he was 18, and become a convincing European Formula 2 champion by the age of 21, Corrado Fabi was clearly a young man in a hurry - but where was he headed? Towards a brief Formula 1 career and racing oblivion, as it turned out, for today who remembers Teo's younger brother who promised so much a decade ago?

So swift was his rise to prominence (1979 - half a season in Italian F3; 1980 - third in the European F3 championship; 1981 - third in the European Formula 2 championship; 1982 - European Formula 2 champion) that it seemed certain he was a World Champion in the making.

Then it was into Grands Prix, and a cold shower of reality, with the back-of-the-grid Osella team in 1983. Struggling to qualify must have been a culture shock for the easy-going Corrado, and after three races in a competitive car standing in for Teo at Brabham in 1984 no more was seen of the younger Fabi in Formula 1. Surely a great talent had been allowed to slip away.