Michele Alboreto

A smooth and stylish driver without some of the more histrionic traits of his fellow countrymen, Alboreto's rise to the top was swift. Backed by Paolo Pavanello, he was runner-up in the 1979 Italian F3 championship and became the 1980 European F3 champion after a season-long battle with Thierry Boutsen. This led to a drive for the Minardi F2 team in 1981, which yielded an end-of-season win at Misano. With the financial backing of Count Zanon Michele had already leap-frogged this career stepping-stone by gaining a place in the Tyrrell team after an impressive Grand Prix debut at Imola which saw the curly-haired Italian smartly placed under a three-year contract.

The next two seasons were illuminated by wins at Las Vegas and Detroit but the naturally aspirated Tyrrells were increasingly uncompetitive against the turbo onslaught and it was no great surprise when Alboreto took up the offer of a Ferrari drive for 1984. After a promising start and a victory at Zolder in the Belgian GP, the season disintegrated amid a plague of engine failures, but a strong finish to the year boded well for 1985, which was to be the high-water mark of his career. For much of the season he held off the challenge of Alain Prost's McLaren, but the team lost momentum and Michele saw his title chance blighted by mechanical failure. Although three more years were spent at Maranello, somehow things were never the same. The arrival of Gerhard Berger in 1987 pushed the Italian to the margins and he opted out of the political turmoil that was Ferrari to return to Tyrrell for 1989.

It was to be a brief reunion, with a splendid third in Mexico in the new Tyrrell 018 the highlight, before Michele split with the team after a sponsorship clash. Thereafter his career began a swift decline in a succession of uncompetitive cars which included the disastrously overweight Porsche-engined Footwork. An Indian summer in 1992 with some revitalised performances in the Footwork-Mugen restored his credibility, but the nadir of his Formula 1 career came with a move to the Lola Scuderia Italia team. The wretched Lola-Ferrari could well have brought Alboreto's tenure in Grand Prix racing to an end, but he found himself a berth with the restructured Minardi team in 1994. A single point at Monaco was garnered from a year which saw the team struggling to meet the technical changes demanded in the wake of the Senna tragedy. Increasingly disenchanted with his lot, especially after a fine levied in the wake of the German Grand Prix first-lap crash, Alboreto finally bowed out of F1 at season's end.

With the enticing prospect of racing the Schübel-entered Alfa Romeo T155 in the high-profile DTM and ITC championships for 1995, Michele was looking forward to some competitive racing at last. Sadly, he rarely figured among the leading runners, finishing an anonymous year with just 22nd place in the DTM to show for his efforts.

Meanwhile selective appearances with the Dick Simon Scandia Ferrari 333SP sports car, which included a second place at Sebring in 1996, paved the way for Alboreto to race in the newly formed IRL single-seater oval series. Michele was one of a handful of 'name' drivers contesting the 1996 championship, and he scored three top-six finishes in his five starts, though a chance of victory in the Indianapolis 500 ended with a gearbox failure. When sponsor Agip withdrew their support at the start of the 1997 season, Alboreto was left without a regular drive, but his luck was about to turn at last. Rejoining Joest Racing for a second outing in their Porsche WSC95 prototype, Michele claimed an unexpected victory in the Le Mans 24-hour race partnered by Stefan Johansson and Tom Kristensen. Subsequently, he took a Joest Porsche LM1 to second place at Road Atlanta in 1998, and was part of Joest's squad handling the 1999 Audi R8R challenger. His two races yielded a third place in the Sebring 12 Hours (with Johansson and Capello) and a fourth place at Le Mans (with Aïello and Capello).

Alboreto remained a valuable member of the Audi squad in 2000 and he shared the third-placed car at Le Mans with Renaldo Capello and Christian Abt. However his passion for speed was ultimately to cost him his life. Whilst testing an in preparation for the 2001 Le Mans 24 hour race, the Italian was killed instantly when he crashed his Audi at Lausitzring. Michele was 44 years old.