Michele Alboreto
 Michele Alboreto
 Formula One went to the 2001 GP in Barcelona in mourn:
 on Wednesday, April 25, former F1 ace Michele Alboreto lost his life in a horrific accident on therecently-built Eurospeedway in Lausitz, near Dresden, Germany, during the last of a three-day testing session for the coming Le Mans 24-hour.
Alboreto's Audi R8 was going down a straight section of the circuit, when the car suddenly spun off the track, hit a fence and somersaulted several times before finally coming to a halt. Though a likely mechanical failure, the precise cause of the accident was not promptly identified. Audi oficials, baffled by Alboreto's accident, initially referred to it as an "incomprehensible tragedy." On April 30, the news finally came: some extrenal sharp object perfurated his left-rear tyre, causing it to burst.
Ferrari immediately expressed their great sorrow, following the arrival of the sad news in Italy. On April 29, Jordan's Italian driver, Jarno Trulli, dedicated the fourth place he conquered in the Spanish GP to Alboreto's memory.
Michele Alboreto
Alboreto, born on December 23, 1956, in Milan, had often been described as a gentleman. To describe him as a racing driver, a fact speaks for itself: some 20 years after his F1 debut, we could still watch Alboreto actively competing in the upper echelons of motorsport--undoubtedly an impressive feat. He was a born racing driver, one whose passion for the sport raced in his own veins.
Alboreto drove a Tyrrell in his first F1 race, the 1981 San Marino GP. Just the previous year, Alboreto had conquered the European F3 Title (a category where he made his debut in 1978).
On his second F1 Season, 1982, he conquered his first victory, still driving for the Tyrrell Team.
Alboreto lined up on the F1 starting grid for 194 times (finishing in the points 47 times), twice starting from pole. All in all, he achieved a total of five best laps and five Grand Prix victories: US-Las Vegas, US-Detroit, Belgium, Canada and Germany.
The last three of these wins, he conquered during his five years at Ferrari (1984-1988), where he replaced Frenchman Patrick Tambay, to drive alongside Frenchmen René Arnoux in 1984-85, Swedish Stefan Johansson in 1985-86 (whom Alboreto would partner again in sports car racing), and current BMW Racing Director, Austrian Gerard Berger, in 1987-88.
Alboreto conquered 186,50 championship points in all, with an average of 0.96 points/gps. His F1 curriculum included, in addition: 9 second places, 9 third places, 10 fourth places, 8 fifth places, 6 sixth places, and 10 seventh places (just outside the points, of course).
His best F1 Season was in 1985 when, at the wheel of a Ferrari, Alboreto came close to making history and become the first Italian to win the drivers' championship in more than 30 years, then. He finished the Season second to Alain Prost in the overall points tally, with 53 championship points.
In 1989, Briton Nigel Mansell inherited Alboreto's seat at Ferrari. Between 1989 and 1994, Alboreto drove for a number of F1 teams: Tyrrell (which he rejoined soon after leaving Ferrari), Lola, Arrows, Footwork and Minardi. His last F1 race was in Australia, in 1994, after which he moved on to race sports cars.
In 1997, Alboreto sealed the Le Mans 24 Hours title for the TWR Porsche team, partnered by Swedish Stefan Johansson (Alboreto's former team-mate at Ferrari, 1985-1986), and Danish Tom Kristensen. Last year (2000), Alboreto conquered second place for the Audi team, both in this famous Le Mans race and in the 12 Hours of Sebring, in Florida, US (here sharing the drive with Italian Rinaldo Capello and Scot Allan McNish, who is presently testing for the coming F1 Toyota Team, with a race seat promised for 2002). Michele Alboreto's most recent success came with victory in this year's (2001) Sebring Grand Prix Race, where he teamed up with Italian Rinaldo Capello and Frenchman Laurent Aiello. The horrific accident that took his life on Wednesday, April 25, in a German track, occurred as Alboreto was getting ready to charge once more for the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hours title. Audi is so far at a loss regarding what sort of mechanical failure made Alboreto's Audi R8 suddenly spin and overturn many times in the middle of a straight.
Alboreto was called to join the Scuderia, because his driving skills appeared outstanding enough to exempt the breach that his Italian presence in a Ferrari cockpit would represent. (In those days, no Italian driver was to race the red cars--a longer story, told in short: basically to prevent a double-tragedy, should a fatal accident ever reoccur involving simultaneously an Italian car and driver, the pain of which would sink just too deeply the passionate Italian heart. Car-racing was far less safer, at that time.)
As the late Enzo Ferrari accounted for Alboreto's presence in one of their F1 cars against his (Enzo Ferrari's) own rules, he uncannily compared Alboreto's personal conduct and driving skills to those of German Wolfgang von Trips, who had lost his life in a horrific racing accident in 1961, in Monza [Check on Wolfgang von Trips].
Another detail in Alboreto's career emerges also quite uncannily now, in hindsight, that is: Alboreto, played a significant role in the aftermath of Ayrton Senna's death during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, in Imola. It is eerie to realize now that Alboreto, too, was to lose his life behind the wheel of a racing car, and just five days before the 7th anniversary of a racing tragedy that he not only accompanied in Imola, but also bore witness of, when he was subsequently summoned to take the stand during the long trial that ensued in Italy. [ See entry on this dark weekend in F1 history ]
Or perhaps these are just all heart-breaking coincidences...
The Eurospeedway in Lausitz, where Alboreto lost his life, is located near Dresden (Germany), some 145 kilometres south of Berlin. When it was innaugurated in August 2000, the track was presented as a state-of-the-art facility and the safest circuit in the world.
Although the accident that claimed the Italian driver's life had nothing to do with the track, it's just one of these sad ironies of life that Michele Alboreto's career had to come to a tragic closing precisely on what is supposedly the safest circuit in the world.
Just a week after Michele Alboreto lost his life on the Lausitzring track, this safe German track was paradoxically the scene of another tragic fatality: on Thursday May 3rd, 2001, a marshal was killed after being hit by a car, during a private test session for a German sportscar race. [ Check on this second fatality at Lausitz ]
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