Michele Alboreto
Michele Alboreto
The late Michele Alboreto was one of the most popular and universally well-liked of all modern-era Formula 1 drivers. Born in Milan, Italy, on December 23, 1956, Michele studied technical design and started racing in 1976 with a Formula Monza car named the CMR which he had built together with a few similar enthusiastic friends. It was not very successful but by 1978 he had begun to show promise and was winning minor club-level races in more conventional machinery. Using an elderly March chassis he aspired to Formula 3 racing and in 1979 finished second in the Italian Formula 3 Championship.
He then entered the European Formula 3 Championship in 1980 and was given a Lancia endurance team drive in major FIA events. He drove for the well-backed Euroracing Formula 3 team, winning rounds at the Osterreichring in Austria, La Chatre in France, Monza on his home soil and at Kassel-Calden in German. He emerged as European Champion, which earned him a place in the Minardi Formula 2 team for 1981. He also retained his place in the Lancia works endurance racing team, sharing victory in the Watkins Glen 6-Hours with Riccardo Patrese.
He scored Minardi's only Formula 2 win at Misano-Adriatico - and made his Formula 1 Grand Prix racing debut with the Tyrrell team at the 1981 San Marino GP at Imola. Ken Tyrrell was impressed by the likable young Italian's style and skill, and retained his services for 1982, when he won the Las Vegas GP, finished seventh in the FIA Drivers' World Championship, and also won three major races for Lancia, in the Silverstone Six Hours, Nurburgring 1,000Kms and at Mugello.
Michele Alboreto then won the 1983 Detroit Grand Prix for Tyrrell and joined Ferrari for the 1984 Formula One season. He thus became Ferrari's first Italian driver for over 10 years – and he achieved success – winning the Belgian GP and finishing fourth in the World Championship table. In 1985 Michele won the Canadian and German GPs but his World Championship challenge was resisted by Alain Prost of McLaren.
Michele Alboreto drove three more seasons for Ferrari, but was unable to win again. In 1989 he drove for Tyrrell and the new Larrousse team, before joining former Can-Am Champion Jackie Oliver's Arrows organization for 1990. That operation had been renamed Footwork after its Japanese sponsor's company, and the nicely made Footwork-Arrows cars used Cosworth-Ford engines pending development of a planned new V12-cylinder power unit from Porsche. When that program faltered during 1992 poor Alboreto had an unhappy year, and for 1993 he drove Lola-Ferraris for Scuderia Italia. Scuderia Italia merged with Minardi in 1994, which was to be Alboreto's last year in Formula 1. He began instead an active endurance racing career with sports cars, and in 1997 won the 24 Hours of Le Mans co-driving a TWR-Porsche with his former Ferrari team-mate Stefan Johansson and Tom Kristensen. Tragically, on April 25, 2001, Michele Alboreto was killed following a high-speed tire failure during an Audi sports car test session at the German Lausitzring circuit.
On Saturday, September 11, 2021, during the Italian Grand Prix weekend, Monza's legendary Parabolica was renamed the 'Curva Alboreto’ in presence of Alboreto's widow Nadia and Alboreto’s family members, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, Monza circuit President Giuseppe Redaelli and Automobile Club d'Italia President Sticchi Damiani among others.
