Michele Alboreto

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Michele Alboreto
Formula One Career
Nationality	Italian
Active years	1981 - 1994
Team(s)	Tyrrell, Ferrari, Larrousse, Arrows, Scuderia Italia, Minardi
Grands Prix	215
Championships	0
Wins	5
Podium finishes	22
Pole positions	2
Fastest laps	5
First Grand Prix	1981 San Marino Grand Prix
First win	1982 Las Vegas Grand Prix
Last win	1985 German Grand Prix
Last Grand Prix	1994 Australian Grand Prix

Michele Alboreto (December 23, 1956 - April 25, 2001) was a Formula One driver who participated during seasons 1981 to 1994 in Tyrrell, Ferrari, Larrousse, Arrows, BMS Scuderia Italia and Minardi.

[edit] Biography

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, on board a Tyrrell. While with that team, he gained the distinction of giving the famous Cosworth DFV its last F1 victory (of 155), at the Detroit GP in 1983.

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 renounced to Williams' proposal and remained in the team, but the following years his car was largely outclassed by McLaren and the very Williams, and he scored no victories. In 1989 Alboreto returned to Tyrrell, for which he gained a further podium, entering however in the descending phase of his career. After racing for minor teams, he left Formula One at the end of the 1994 season.

After leaving Formula One he competed in the 1996 Indianapolis 500 and won the 1997 24 hours of Le Mans with Stefan Johansson and Tom Kristensen in a TWR-run Porsche.

He was killed testing an Audi R8 sports car when he suffered a high-speed tire failure at the Lausitzring in eastern Germany.

[edit] Complete Formula One Results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Team	WDC	Points
1981	Tyrrell	USAW	BRA	ARG	SMR Ret	BEL 12	MON Ret	ESP DNQ	FRA 16	GBR Ret	DEU DNQ	AUT Ret	DUT 9	ITA Ret	CAN 11	LAS 13		Tyrrell	-	0
1982	Tyrrell	RSA 7	BRA 4	USAW 4	SMR 3	BEL Ret	MON 10	USAE Ret	CAN Ret	DUT 7	GBR NC	FRA 6	DEU 4	AUT Ret	SWI 7	ITA 5	LAS 1	Tyrrell	8th	25
1983	Tyrrell	BRA Ret	USAW 9	FRA 8	SMR Ret	MON Ret	BEL 14	USAE 1	CAN 8	GBR 13	DEU Ret	AUT Ret	DUT 6	ITA Ret	EUR Ret	RSA Ret		Tyrrell	12th	10
1984	Ferrari	BRA Ret	RSA 11	BEL 1	SMR Ret	FRA Ret	MON 6	CAN Ret	USAE Ret	USA Ret	GBR 5	DEU Ret	AUT 3	DUT Ret	ITA 2	EUR 2	POR 4	Ferrari	4th	30.5
1985	Ferrari	BRA 2	POR 2	SMR Ret	MON 2	CAN 1	USA 3	FRA Ret	GBR 2	DEU 1	AUT 3	DUT 4	ITA 13	BEL Ret	EUR Ret	RSA Ret	AUS Ret	Ferrari	2nd	53
1986	Ferrari	BRA Ret	ESP Ret	SMR 10	MON Ret	BEL 4	CAN 8	USA 4	FRA 8	GBR Ret	DEU Ret	HUN Ret	AUT 2	ITA Ret	POR 5	MEX Ret	AUS Ret	Ferrari	9th	14
1987	Ferrari	BRA 8	SMR 3	BEL Ret	MON 3	USA Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	DEU Ret	HUN Ret	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	ESP 15	MEX Ret	JPN 4	AUS 2	Ferrari	7th	17
1988	Ferrari	BRA 5	SMR 18	MON 3	MEX 4	CAN Ret	USA Ret	FRA 3	GBR 17	DEU 4	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 2	POR 5	ESP Ret	JPN 11	AUS Ret	Ferrari	5th	24
1989	Tyrrell	BRA 10	SMR DNQ	MON 5	MEX 3	USA Ret	CAN Ret	FRA	GBR	DEU Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR 11	ESP DNPQ	JPN DNQ	AUS DNPQ	Larrousse	11th	6
1990	Footwork	USA 10	BRA Ret	SMR DNQ	MON DNQ	CAN Ret	MEX 17	FRA 10	GBR Ret	DEU Ret	HUN 12	BEL 13	ITA 12	POR 9	ESP 10	JPN Ret	AUS DNQ	Footwork	-	0
1991	Footwork	USA Ret	BRA DNQ	SMR DNQ	MON Ret	CAN Ret	MEX Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	DEU DNQ	HUN DNQ	BEL DNPQ	ITA DNQ	POR 15	ESP Ret	JPN DNQ	AUS 13	Footwork	-	0
1992	Footwork	RSA 10	MEX 13	BRA 6	ESP 5	SMR 5	MON 7	CAN 7	FRA 7	GBR 7	DEU 9	HUN 7	BEL Ret	ITA 7	POR 6	JPN 15	AUS Ret	Footwork	10th	6
1993	Scuderia Italia	RSA Ret	BRA 11	EUR 11	SMR DNQ	ESP DNQ	MON Ret	CAN DNQ	FRA DNQ	GBR DNQ	DEU 16	HUN Ret	BEL 14	ITA Ret	POR Ret	JPN	AUS	Scuderia Italia	-	0
1994	Minardi	BRA Ret	PFC Ret	SMR Ret	MON 6	ESP Ret	CAN 11	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	DEU Ret	HUN 7	BEL 9	ITA Ret	POR 13	EUR 14	JPN Ret	AUS Ret	Minardi	24th	1

[edit] External links

• Unofficial site
• Michele Alboreto in focus (Archives of war)

Preceded by Alain Prost

European Formula Three Championship Champion 1980

Succeeded by Mauro Baldi