Michele Alboreto

Alboreto during his Ferrari tenure

**Michele Alboreto** (born 23 December 1956) is an Italian racing driver who currently competing in Formula One, driving for Andrea Moda.

He would compete in the junior formulae in Italy and follow the traditional path through British Formula Three and Formula Two, before starting in Formula One in the 1981 season. He would make his debut in the sport at the 1981 San Marino Grand Prix.

## Career

### Before Formula One

Michele Alboreto started his career in 1976 racing in Formula Monza with a car he and his friends built, known as the "CMR". The car itself proved to be uncompetitive and in 1978 Alboreto, now in a more competitive March, moved over to Formula Italia where he began to take race wins. Two years later Alboreto moved up to Formula Three, racing in a *Euroracing*-entered March-Toyota in both the European and Italian series. In his début Formula Three season, Alboreto finished 6th and 2nd respectively in the two championships, scoring three wins in the Italian series.

In 1980 he took the European crown and finished third in the Italian championship, taking five wins between the two series. An appearance in the British Championship was also made that year.

Alboreto's European title earned him a move into Formula Two, a feeder series for Formula One, with the Minardi team. He scored Minardi's only F2 victory, at Misano, during the 1981 season where he finished eighth in the championship.

#### Tyrrell (1981-1983)

At the age of 24, Alboreto made his Formula One debut at the 1981 San Marino Grand Prix for the Cosworth-powered Tyrrell Racing team, replacing Ricardo Zunino after the Argentine failed to impress team boss Ken Tyrrell. Unfortunately for the Italian, a collision with fellow countryman Beppe Gabbiani put him out of the race after completing 31 of the 60 laps. Alboreto failed to score a single point during his debut year, his highest position being ninth at the Dutch Grand Prix.

In comparison to the previous season, Alboreto had a more successful 1982 campaign. The Italian took the first podium of his Grand Prix career at Imola and, at the final round in Las Vegas, Alboreto took his first Grand Prix win. He is the last winner of the Caesars Palace Grand Prix as the following year, the track was axed from the calendar. Alboreto scored a total of 25 points during his second season of F1, finishing as the top Italian in eighth place overall.

Despite a win at the 1983 Detroit Grand Prix, registered as the last victory for a naturally aspirated car until the end of the turbo-era in 1989, after Nelson Piquet's leading Brabham suffered a rear tyre deflation in the closing stages, Alboreto failed to finish in the points consistently and, with only one further points finish at Zandvoort, the Italian finished the season with ten points and down in twelfth position. However, it was announced that the Italian would partner René Arnoux at Ferrari. Replacing Patrick Tambay, he became the first Italian driver to race for the marque in over a decade.

#### Ferrari (1984-1987)

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.

> "In the end he had to settle for runner-up, because the Ferrari wasn't as good a car as the McLaren – and also, truth be told, because neither was Michele as good as Alain. No disgrace in that."
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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 20 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 regular podium finishes, while Alboreto could only manage 9 points and a season best 4th place at the 1987 Italian Grand Prix. The Italian finished the year in ninth overall with 9 points, 32 points behind his teammate. At the beginning of the 1993 season, Alboreto's 80 Grand Prix starts for the *Scuderia* remains the most in the team's history.

#### Minardi (1988)

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#### Return to Tyrrell, Ligier (1989–1990)

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#### Coloni (1991)

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#### Modena (1992)

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#### Andrea Moda (1993–present)

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## Helmet

Alboreto's helmet is blue with a yellow stripe with white edges covering the centre of the helmet. The colours are a tribute to Swedish driver Ronnie Peterson, whose helmet design also used them to reflect the Swedish flag. Alboreto and Peterson first met in 1972 and were friends until the Swedish driver's death in 1978.

## Formula One Statistical Overview

### Formula One Record

Notes

* \* – Season still in progress.

### Complete Formula One results

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

Notes

* † – Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.
* ‡ – Race was stopped with less than 75% of laps completed, half points awarded.
* \* – Season still in progress.