page_title: Michele Alboreto
section_title: 1984–1988: Ferrari
hierarchical_section_title: Michele Alboreto / Career / Formula One / 1984–1988: Ferrari
context_page_description: Michele Alboreto was an Italian racing driver. He was runner up to Alain Prost in the 1985 Formula One World Championship, as well as winning the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans and 2001 12 Hours of Sebring sports car races. Alboreto competed in Formula One from 1981 until 1994, racing for a number of teams, including five seasons for Ferrari.
  His career in motorsport began in 1976, racing a car he and a number of his friends had built in the Formula Monza series. The car, however, achieved very little success and two years later Alboreto moved up to Formula Three. Wins in the Italian Formula Three championship and a European Formula Three Championship crown in 1980 paved the way for his entrance into Formula One with the Tyrrell team.
  Two wins, the first in the final round of the 1982 season in Las Vegas, and the second a year later in Detroit, earned him a place with the Ferrari team. Alboreto took three wins for the Italian team and challenged Alain Prost for the 1985 Championship, eventually losing out by 20 points.
context_section_description: In his debut season for Ferrari, Alboreto took victory in the third round at Zolder becoming the first Italian driver to win an F1 Grand Prix for Ferrari since Ludovico Scarfiotti won the 1966 Italian Grand Prix. He finished on the podium a further three times: at the Österreichring where he finished third; Ferrari's home circuit of Monza where he finished second; and at the Nürburgring, where he also finished in second place despite running out of fuel going into the final turn (the close following Brabham-BMW of reigning World Champion Nelson Piquet also ran out of fuel at the final turn allowing Alboreto to keep his 2nd place). Alboreto finished the 1984 season in fourth with 30.5 points, the half point coming from his sixth place at the Monaco Grand Prix which was cut to under half its original race distance due to heavy rain, resulting in half points being awarded.
  1985 would prove to be Alboreto's most successful year in Formula One. He took two wins: the first at the Canadian Grand Prix, and the second at the German Grand Prix. Alboreto led the points table until Round 11 at Zandvoort, but finished the season in second place with 53 points, 20 points behind World Champion Alain Prost. Formula One journalist Nigel Roebuck commented that "Alboreto was Prost's only real challenger for the World Championship". Ultimately it was Ferrari's unreliability which cost Alboreto his chance at the World Championship as he failed to finish the final five races of the season all due to mechanical failure, though he was classified 13th in Italy despite his engine blowing on lap 45 of 51. At the 1985 European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, after stopping to replace a flat-spotted tyre on lap 11, his Ferrari blew its turbo halfway through lap 13. Alboreto, frustrated that Ferrari's late season reliability had cost him the World Championship, drove the car back to the pits with the rear of the car on fire. He drove the on-fire car into the pits and straight to his Ferrari pit. Many observers saw this as Alboreto's way of showing that the Ferrari's unreliability had cost him the World Championship, which Prost won by finishing 4th in the race.
  In 1986 Ferrari's new car, the F1/86 designed by Harvey Postlethwaite, proved to be slower and less reliable than its predecessor as Alboreto retired from nine races, of which seven were mechanical failures. Alboreto only scored one podium, at the Austrian Grand Prix – even then both Williams cars of Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet had retired and Alboreto finished a full lap behind race winner Alain Prost. The Italian finished the season ninth in the Drivers' Championship with fourteen points. While the Ferrari V6 turbo was rated as one of the more powerful engines on the grid, both Alboreto and his teammate Stefan Johansson were hampered by the F1/86 which refused to handle on tracks which had a bumpy surface. Johansson finished 5th in the championship with 23 points despite being the #2 driver in the team, causing many to question why the team chose to re-sign Alboreto and let Johansson go.
  Austrian Gerhard Berger joined Ferrari in 1987 which signalled the end of Alboreto's time as leader of the Ferrari team. Berger soon established himself as the team's number one driver thanks to his wins in Japan and Australia at the end of the season, while Alboreto could only manage a handful of podiums at Imola, Monaco and a second place at the final round in Australia to make it a Ferrari one-two. The Italian finished the year in seventh overall with 17 points, 13 points behind his teammate.
  The 1988 season would be Alboreto's final year with Ferrari. With the McLarens of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost dominating the season, the Ferrari team only managed a single win during the year at the Italian Grand Prix which Berger won from Alboreto in second place. Ferrari refused to offer the Italian a new contract and so Alboreto looked elsewhere for a drive. This announcement came at the French Grand Prix in July and pit lane rumours had Michele re-joining Tyrrell for 1989 (in France, where Alboreto finished 3rd 
caption: Alboreto at the 1985 German Grand Prix. The Italian took the race win, eleven seconds ahead of the World Champion-to-be Alain Prost.
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