Riccardo Paletti

Riccardo began racing at 19 in Italian SuperFord, but soon graduated to Formula 3 and then, after just 15 F3 races, made the big jump into Formula 2 – albeit briefly – at the end of 1979. Back for more at the end of 1980, Paletti drove sensibly within his limits and, with the benefit of winter testing, he joined the Onyx team full-time for 1981. The year started well with his March taking a second place at Silverstone and a third at Thruxton, but then his season tailed off disappointingly.

With the help of generous sponsorship, Paletti found himself a seat in the tiny Osella team for 1982, but the young Italian faced a steep learning curve. Sadly he never had the chance to progress, for in Montreal his Osella accelerated away from its place at the tail of the grid and hurtled into the back of the stalled Ferrari of Pironi at over 100 mph with devastating consequences. In a gruesome accident, Paletti suffered massive internal injuries and he died in hospital shortly afterwards.