MICHELE ALBORETO

'Michele Alboreto' (December 23, 1956 - April 25, 2001) was an Italian racing driver who participated in Formula One from to in Tyrrell, Ferrari, Larrousse, Arrows, Footwork, BMS Scuderia Italia and Minardi.

Contents

Tyrrell driver

Scuderia Ferrari

Later Formula 1

24 hours of Le Mans champion

Death

Complete Formula One Results

References

External links

Tyrrell driver

Born in Milan, Alboreto studied design, and started racing in 1976 in a car designed by himself; it was called CMR and was raced in Formula Monza without success. He moved to Formula 3 in 1978 and in 1979 finished third in the Italian F3 series. He moved to the European Championship in 1980 while doing endurance races for Lancia. In 1981 he won the Euroracing title, which resulted in a move to the Minardi Formula 2 team, while maintaining his connections with Lancia and partnering with Riccardo Patrese to win the Watkins Glen Six Hours. He scored Minardi's only Formula 2 victory, at Misano, and made his Formula One debut in the 1981 San Marino GP, aboard a Tyrrell.
Alboreto was victorious at the 1982 Las Vegas Grand Prix with a speed of 81.165 m.p.h. around a 2.5 mile, 20-turn circuit.''Alboreto Wins Detroit Grand Prix'', Washington Post, June 6, 1983, Page C9.
While with that team, he gained the distinction of giving the famous Cosworth DFV its last F1 victory (of 155), at the 1983 United States Grand Prix East. Alboreto took the lead nine laps from the finish when race leader Nelson Piquet suffered a flat left rear tire on his turbocharged Brabham. ''It was fantastic for me but I felt sorry for them,'' Alboreto said. He was running three seconds
behind Piquet in his Tyrrell.''Alboreto Wins Detroit Grand Prix'', Washington Post, June 6, 1983, Page C9.

Scuderia Ferrari

In 1984-1988 he raced for Ferrari, the first Italian racer to drive for the team for a long time. In 1984 he finished 4th in the World Championship with a victory in Belgium, but in 1985 he challenged for the whole year against McLaren's Alain Prost for the title: however, in the second part of the season troubles with Ferrari's turbochargers thwarted his ambitions, and Alboreto finished only second with two victories, including that at Nurburgring which is still remembered as one of Ferrari's greatest successes. He turned down an offer from Williams and remained with Ferrari. However, in the years which followed his car was largely outclassed by McLaren and Williams, and he scored no victories.

Later Formula 1

In 1989 Alboreto returned to Tyrrell, for which he gained a further podium, and when things were looking a bit more better for Tyrrell, the team closed a sponsorship deal with Camel cigarettes in mid-1989. Since Alboreto was a Marlboro driver, he decided to honor the deal with the latter brand and leave Tyrrell, only to find out that Marlboro would not keep backing him up and, worse, would not place him in another team as he had expected. He did find a seat in the French Larrousse team, also sponsored by Camel, for the 2nd half of the 1989 season where he first experienced the woes of the pre-qualifying sessions.
In the 1990 season, an uninspired Alboreto drove for Arrows and for the first time, he ended the season scoring no points, but at least he left the pre-qualifying. There were some expectations for the 1991 season, since Footwork (new name for Arrows) would be powered by the new Porsche engines. However, the engine was a disaster and the Footwork car was also a bad one, meaning another "zero-point" season and the return to the pre-qualifying sessions in mid-1991. For the 1992 season, Footwork was powered by the Mugen-Honda engine and he returned to the points, making good races but still far from the pace of the top teams.
In 1993, Alboreto joined another "disaster". He left Footwork to join BMS Scuderia Italia that would equip a Lola chassis with Ferrari engine. The performance of that combination matched the dreadful results of the Footwork-Porsche car and Alboreto again missed the points that season and on occasions he would not qualify for the starting grid. He still would race for Minardi in 1994, when neither the car nor the driver looked competitive and Alboreto ended his F1 career in a melancholic way scoring a single point in that season.

24 hours of Le Mans champion

After leaving Formula One he competed in the 1996 Indianapolis 500 and won the 1997 24 hours of Le Mans with former Ferrari team-mate Stefan Johansson and Tom Kristensen in a TWR-run Porsche. He won the 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida in March 2001.''Alboreto Is Killed Testing Audi R8'', New York Times, Page D7

Death

He was killed testing an Audi R8 sports car when he suffered a high-speed tire failure at the Lausitzring in eastern Germany, in April 2001. Alboreto's car spun out of control and overturned on a straight section of the circuit. Police investigated the accident which came during preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which was held in June.''Alboreto Is Killed Testing Audi R8'', New York Times, April 26, 2001, Page D7.

Complete Formula One Results

() (Races in 'bold' indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Pts
1981	Team Tyrrell	Tyrrell 010	Cosworth V8	USW	BRA	ARG	SMR Ret	BEL 12	MON Ret	ESP DNQ	FRA 16	GBR Ret	GER DNQ	AUT Ret						-	0
		Tyrrell 011													NED 9	ITA Ret	CAN 11	LVS 13
1982	Team Tyrrell	Tyrrell 011	Cosworth V8	RSA 7	BRA 4	USW 4	SMR 3	BEL Ret	MON 10	USE Ret	CAN Ret	NED 7	GBR NC	FRA 6	GER 4	AUT Ret	SUI 7	ITA 5	''LVS'' 1	8th	25
1983	Benetton Tyrrell Team	Tyrrell 011	Cosworth V8	BRA Ret	USW 9	FRA 8	SMR Ret	MON Ret	BEL 14	USE 1	CAN 8	GBR 13	GER Ret	AUT Ret						12th	10
		Tyrrell 012													NED 6	ITA Ret	EUR Ret	RSA Ret
1984	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 126C4	Ferrari V6	BRA Ret	RSA 11	'BEL' 1	SMR Ret	FRA Ret	MON 6	CAN Ret	USE Ret	USA Ret	GBR 5	GER Ret	AUT 3	NED Ret	ITA 2	''EUR'' 2	POR 4	4th	30.5
1985	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 156/85	Ferrari V6	'BRA' 2	POR 2	''SMR'' Ret	''MON'' 2	CAN 1	USA 3	FRA Ret	GBR 2	GER 1	AUT 3	NED 4	ITA 13	BEL Ret	EUR Ret	RSA Ret	AUS Ret	'2nd'	'53'
1986	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari F1/86	Ferrari V6	BRA Ret	ESP Ret	SMR 10	MON Ret	BEL 4	CAN 8	USA 4	FRA 8	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	AUT 2	ITA Ret	POR 5	MEX Ret	AUS Ret	9th	14
1987	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari F1/87	Ferrari V6	BRA 8	SMR 3	BEL Ret	MON 3	USA Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	ESP 15	MEX Ret	JPN 4	AUS 2	7th	17
1988	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari F1/87/88C	Ferrari V6	BRA 5	SMR 18	MON 3	MEX 4	CAN Ret	USA Ret	FRA 3	GBR 17	GER 4	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	''ITA'' 2	POR 5	ESP Ret	JPN 11	AUS Ret	5th	24
1989	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 017B	Cosworth V8	BRA 10																11th	6
		Tyrrell 018			SMR DNQ	MON 5	MEX 3	USA Ret	CAN Ret	FRA	GBR
	Equipe Larrousse	Lola LC89	Lamborghini V12									GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR 11	ESP DNPQ	JPN DNQ	AUS DNPQ
1990	Footwork Arrows Racing	Arrows A11B	Cosworth V8	USA 10	BRA Ret	SMR DNQ	MON DNQ	CAN Ret	MEX 17	FRA 10	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 12	BEL 13	ITA 12	POR 9	ESP 10	JPN Ret	AUS DNQ	-	0
1991	Footwork Grand Prix International	Footwork A11C	Porsche V12	USA Ret	BRA DNQ	SMR DNQ														-	0
		Footwork FA12					MON Ret	CAN Ret	MEX Ret
			Cosworth V8							FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER DNQ	HUN DNQ	BEL DNPQ	ITA DNQ	POR 15	ESP Ret	JPN DNQ	AUS 13
1992	Footwork Grand Prix International	Footwork FA13	Mugen-Honda V10	RSA 10	MEX 13	BRA 6	ESP 5	SMR 5	MON 7	CAN 7	FRA 7	GBR 7	GER 9	HUN 7	BEL Ret	ITA 7	POR 6	JPN 15	AUS Ret	10th	6
1993	Lola BMS Scuderia Italia	Lola T93/30	Ferrari V12	RSA Ret	BRA 11	EUR 11	SMR DNQ	ESP DNQ	MON Ret	CAN DNQ	FRA DNQ	GBR DNQ	GER 16	HUN Ret	BEL 14	ITA Ret	POR Ret	JPN	AUS	-	0
1994	Minardi Scuderia Italia	Minardi M193B	Ford V8	BRA Ret	PAC Ret	SMR Ret	MON 6	ESP Ret												24th	1
		Minardi M194							CAN 11	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 7	BEL 9	ITA Ret	POR 13	EUR 14	JPN Ret	AUS Ret

References

External links

★ Unofficial site

★ Michele Alboreto in focus (Archives of war)