
Michele Alboreto (merged)
#1
Posted 25 April 2001 - 19:42
#3
Posted 25 April 2001 - 20:12
#4
Posted 25 April 2001 - 20:20
I recall the promising early F1-career with Tyrrell and then the solid 2nd spot with Ferrari in the 1985 championship. An Italian with the Scuderia again after a long time. A composed man that made an unitalian, controlled impression. He must have been a sociable person as well, who could tell stories on e.g. the Brambilla-brothers for hours.
#5
Posted 25 April 2001 - 20:46
A real gentleman and a very very good Grand Prix driver.
#6
Posted 25 April 2001 - 20:48
I cannot believe this!

Remember: Ceasars Palace 1982
#7
Posted 25 April 2001 - 20:51

#8
Posted 25 April 2001 - 21:08
#9
Posted 25 April 2001 - 21:52
Originally posted by Barry Boor
This is desperately sad news.
A real gentleman and a very very good Grand Prix driver.
Barry,
Thanks for choosing the words for me. I fully agree with your statement.
Felix
#10
Posted 25 April 2001 - 22:14
#11
Posted 25 April 2001 - 23:05
leading onto the main straightaway at the original Detroit GP
circuit. It was the first one. Mr. Henry had been sharing a lot of information and correcting a lot of misinformation I had about GP racing when I hear the sound of "unhappy tires". I turn around and snap a shot of Michele stopping his Tyrrell about two inches from the armco unharmed. He had just come out of the tunnel at an incredible speed, overcooked it and gathered it back in the
the quickest possible manner mechanically and the quickest possible physical manner. Mr. Henry and I just smiled at each other. Our eyes said to each other, "bet you can't do that!"
What a shame, my prayers go to his family and to his loved ones.
#12
Posted 25 April 2001 - 23:32
"...it's not kissing the wall that scares me, it's making love to it that bothers me..."
Absolutely one of the best quotes from a driver! I think it's in the 1988-89 Autocourse.
#13
Posted 25 April 2001 - 23:51
A legacy that includes wrong decisions and staying around a bit too long perhaps... but what might he have done in a Williams?
#14
Posted 26 April 2001 - 00:20
The Italian racing driver Michele Alboreto (44) is dead. It is with deep regret and sadness that AUDI AG must announce the death of their works driver at 5:30 p.m. today while test driving the Audi R8 racing sportscar on the Lausitzring in Saxony, Germany.
The racing sportscar with Michele Alboreto at the wheel was on a straight section of the Lausitz circuit when, for as yet unknown reasons, the vehicle went off the track and rolled.
Head of Audi Sport, Dr Wolfgang Ullrich spoke about the accident in his first statement as an "incomprehensible tragedy". In preparation for the 2001 season, the vehicle involved in the accident had already completed thousands of test miles on numerous circuits without any problems.
Dr Ullrich: "We will do everything in our power to find the reason for this accident. But right now our thoughts and condolences are with Michele´s wife Nadia, his two daughters, and his whole family."
The former Formula 1 driver Michele Alboreto became world vice champion in 1985 with Ferrari. His last great success came several weeks ago with a victory at the Sebring 12 Hour race in the USA.
This came from Paul Ryan, PR man for the Adelaide Millenium race etc. He has also on-sent a biography, clearly underinformed and from Audi:
Michele Alboreto
Date of birth: 23 December 1956
Place of birth: Milan (I)
Place of residence: Monte Carlo (MC)
Status: Married to Nadia,
two daughters
Previous Le Mans races: 8 (Winner in 1997)
Started career in: 1976 (Audi driver since 1999)
1977 3rd place Formula Monza
1978 5th place Formula Italia
1979 2nd place Italian Formula 3 Championship, Long-Distance World
Championship
1980 Formula 3 European Champion, Long-Distance World Championship
1981 Formula 2 European Championship, Long-Distance World Championship,
Formula 1 World Championship
1982 6th Formula 1 World Championship, Long-distance World Championship
1983 12th Formula 1 World Championship
1984 4th Formula 1 World Championship
1985 2nd Formula 1 World Championship
1986 8th Formula 1 World Championship
1987 7th Formula 1 World Championship
1988 5th Formula 1 World Championship
1989 11th Formula 1 World Championship
1990 Formula 1 World Championship
1991 Formula 1 World Championship
1992 10th Formula 1 World Championship
1993 Formula 1 World Championship
1994 Formula 1 World Championship
1995 German Touring Car Championship, Sports car racing, USA
1996 Indy Racing League, Sports car racing, USA
1997 Winner of Le Mans 24 Hour race
1998 2nd in Petit Le Mans
1999 3rd in Sebring 12 Hour race (Audi R8R), 4th in Le Mans 24 Hour race
(Audi R8R)
2000 Winner of “Petit Le Mans", 2nd in Sebring 12 Hour race (Audi R8), 3rd in
Le Mans 24 Hour Race (Audi R8)
2001 Winner 12 Hours of Sebring
#15
Posted 26 April 2001 - 00:56

#16
Posted 26 April 2001 - 01:21

He was genuine italian racer...
#17
Posted 26 April 2001 - 01:39
Originally posted by josh.lintz
I always wanted to mention a great Alboreto quote, but maybe it's unappropriate right now: said at the 1988 Detroit Grand Prix practice
"...it's not kissing the wall that scares me, it's making love to it that bothers me..."
Absolutely one of the best quotes from a driver! I think it's in the 1988-89 Autocourse.
On the contrary, I find your quote very appropriate tonight

Off the top of my head, I simply cannot remember him ever having a serious shunt, except during practice at Monaco in 1987 and that was entirely Christian Danner's fault. It always seemed to me he had an almost Bruce McLaren-esque quality in the sense that I would have felt very safe as a passenger in a racing car with him. He never gave me the impression of one who would "buy the farm" so to speak.
Sadly, how wrong I was...

#18
Posted 26 April 2001 - 01:43
Eerie that you should say that...
#19
Posted 26 April 2001 - 03:25
I found him a very interesting person, deeper than some top racing drivers. And he should really have won the world championship in 1985 had Ferrari not decided, as was their wont in those days, to begin experimenting with a new suspension system mid-year - and then would not abandon it when it obviously wasn't working for them.
Someone else with more time to go back and look at that year might be able to refresh our memories.
Monaco in particular, with Michele confidently skimming the barriers, sticks in my mind.
I planned to go to "The Race of a Thousand Years" at Adelaide last New Years Eve, specifically to speak to Alboreto in a less pressured atmosphere than F1.
At the tme I was so busy I thought, "Perhaps next year" and I didn't go.
Now there is not only no ALMS sports car race in Adelaide to go to, but no Michele Alboreto either.
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#20
Posted 26 April 2001 - 05:11
Farewell MA.
#21
Posted 26 April 2001 - 09:17
Michele was absolutely still and cold.
His green eyes were up to Copse, so concentrated that they seem to be artificial, made of glass.
I would keep this moment for ever in mind ; it shows how great drivers are made of.
#22
Posted 26 April 2001 - 09:47
#23
Posted 27 April 2001 - 00:05

#24
Posted 27 April 2001 - 00:25
#25
Posted 27 April 2001 - 11:35
marshals.
#26
Posted 27 April 2001 - 18:11
This from our own Atlas News.
Alboreto Mourned at Funeral in Milan
Friday April 27th, 2001
Top Formula One drivers of yesteryear paid their final respects Friday to former Ferrari driver Michele Alboreto, who was killed in a testing crash on Wednesday.
Frenchman Rene Arnoux, Italy's Riccardo Patrese and Belgium's Thierry Boutsen were among some 400 mourners at a private funeral service for Alboreto held in a suburb of Milan where he owned a house. Reigning world champion Michael Schumacher and former Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger sent wreathes to the funeral.
Alboreto's coffin was carried to the church topped by a portrait photograph and a bunch of yellow flowers. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, who Wednesday had lauded Alboreto's "irrepressible passion" for motor racing, was also among the mourners.
Alboreto, 44, died Wednesday at the recently-built Lausitzring circuit in Germany on the last of a three-day testing session for the Le Mans 24-hour race. He was at the wheel on a straight section when his car, an Audi R8, left the track, hit a fence and flipped over.
Weather conditions were ideal and Audi says it is baffled by what it described as an "incomprehensible tragedy."
Alboreto had five Grand Prix successes in the 1980s and was a member of the Porsche team which won the 1997 Le Mans and the Audi team which came third there last year.
He competed in 194 Formula One races from 1981 to 1994 and achieved three of his victories for Ferrari -- at Belgium in 1984 and in Canada and Germany the following year. He moved to sportscar racing after bowing out of Formula One, joined Audi in 1999 and twice took part in the Le Mans classic for the German manufacturer. He also entered races in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS).
His final victory came last March in a 12-hour race in Sebring, Florida, in which he teamed up with fellow Italian Rinaldo Capello and Frenchman Laurent Aiello.
#27
Posted 28 April 2001 - 00:38
Fate should have given him another year or two with Audi, then a happy retirement, and a long life afterwards to reflect on his racing memories.
I remember in the early '90s, when he was bringing up the back of the F1 field in the Lola-Ferrari, the announcers referred to him as "the nicest guy in Formula One."
One of the things racing teaches us is that despite adversity, disappointment, defeat, and even death, we continue.
Ciao, Michele.
Dave
#28
Posted 29 April 2001 - 20:18
Sunday April 29th, 2001
A tyre burst might have caused the fatal crash of ex-Formula One driver Michele Alboreto while testing on a circuit in Germany, investigators said on Sunday. The 44-year-old Italian was killed on Wednesday after losing control of his Audi R8 during a testing session for the Le Mans 24-hour race on the Lausitzring track, some 145 kilometres south of Berlin.
"It has been established that the rear-left tyre burst," said State prosecutor Petra Hertwig, who is in charge of the investigation. "But it remains to be confirmed that it (the tyre burst) was the cause of the accident."
http://www.atlasf1.c...p/id/4266/.html
#29
Posted 10 May 2001 - 12:17
However, I´m still devastated by his death, yet I felt this was on the cards, that an ex-F1 driver would perish as deaths start creeping up on us again but Michele was not the one I ever wanted to or indeed thought would be the one.
This is partly as I remember him as a very safe driver. However, I only remember him in his twilight years of F1 so it can´t be a complete retrespective.
Despite this, however I quickly warmed to this genial fellow & would go as far as saying that Albo was my first favourite driver, as, a supporter of underdogs everywhere, I was taken by Michele´s superb wrestling of the Footwork to score world championship points it barely deserved & his unluckliness in constantly finishing 7th repeatedly that year. (1992)
1993 was a unmitigated disaster in the Lola but he didn´t complain & in 1994, actually saw one of his best drives as he steered the Minardi home in 6th place at the Monaco GP.
Before all that & what I regrettably missed was a calvacade of memories, a stunning lower formulae apprenticeship, his F1 debut & priming with Tyrrell, becoming the last man to win in one of Ken´s cars.
His move to Ferrari, culminating in his wonderful 1985 (what a curse this year has had on that season - Winter, Wollek, Earnhardt & Albo) season, taking a strong 2nd in the title race & managing to avoid all the political backbiting which could have befallen an Italian at Ferrari, the last to race for Enzo Ferrari, whilst he was still alive.
And of course, that wonderful tribute at Italy 1988, when he came just behind Gerhard Berger in a 1-2 finish
Although myself & others of my generation remember him as a talented backmarker with a proud history or as a superb sportscar racer (winning Le Mans & only earlier this year, Sebring), it´s as a person I´ll remember him most.
A truly wonderful man, a true gentlemen who didn´t deserve to suffer the fate he did, especially as he was racing for fun.
Unusually, for me, for a death, it was the family I thought for first, rather than the indivuadial, as like the rest of us, they have lost a wonderful family man whose goodness in life will be much missed.
Let´s appreciate the surviving drivers whilst we stil can.
RIP Michele:cry:
#30
Posted 17 November 2002 - 13:06
Also, two interesting short stories, one about Chris Irwin, other about mysterious F1 driver driving a 911 flat out somewhere near Brands Hatch on a public road...
#31
Posted 17 April 2006 - 16:28
1981 - F2 - Vallelunga (Minardi)

Copyright Unknown
1981 - F1 - Dijon (Tyrrel 010 Ford)

Copyright Schlegelmisch
1981 - F1 - (Tyrrell 011 Ford)

Copyright Unknown
1982 - F1 - Detroit (Tyrrell 011 Ford)

Copyright Mark Windecker
1982 - Prototype - 1000 km Monza (Lancia LC1)

Copyright Rupert Lowes
1982 - Prototype - 1000 km Silverstone (Lancia LC1)

Copyright Rupert Lowes
1982 - Prototype - 1000 km Nurburgring (Lancia LC1)

Copyright Rupert Lowes
1982 - Prototype - 1000 km Spa (Lancia LC1)

Copyright Rupert Lowes
1983 - F1 - (Tyrrell 011 Ford)

Copyright Unknown
1983 - F1 - Osterreichring (Tyrrell 012 Ford)

Copyright Unknown
1984 - F1 - Zolder (Ferrari 126C4)

Copyright Sutton
1985 - F1 - Monaco (Ferrari 156/85)

Copyright Sutton
1986 - F1 - Detroit (Ferrari F186)

Copyright Mark Windecker
1987 - F1 - Detroit (Ferrari F87)

Copyright Mark Windecker
1988 - F1 - Detroit (Ferrari F87/88.)

Copyright Mark Windecker
1989 - F1 - (Tyrrell 018 Ford)

Copyright Unknown
1989 - F1 - (Larrousse LC89 Lamborghini V12)

Copyright Unknown
1990 - F1 - Imola (Footwork Ford)

Copyright Unknown
1991 - F1 - Phoenix (Footwork Porsche V12)

Copyright Unknown
1992 - F1 - (Footwork MugenHonda)

Copyright Unknown
1993 - F1 - Kyalami (Lola T93-30 Ferrari)

Copyright Unknown
1994 - F1 - (Minardi)

Copyright Unknown
1996 - IRL - LasVegas (Reynard 951 Ford)

Copyright Unknown
1996 - IRL - 500 miles Indianapolis (Reynard 951 Ford)

Copyright IRL
1996 - IRL - 500 miles Indianapolis (Reynard 951 Ford)

Copyright IRL
Ciao Michele, we loved you




#32
Posted 17 April 2006 - 16:37

#33
Posted 17 April 2006 - 16:50
I still try to convince the A.C.M. majors to name the old "ancienne gare", next "Loews", and finally "Fairmont" corner : "Michele Alboreto corner", till now, with absolutely no success.
It makes them laugh !!!



#34
Posted 17 April 2006 - 19:14
Originally posted by Théodore33
Michele lived in MonteCarlo.
I still try to convince the A.C.M. majors to name the old "ancienne gare", next "Loews", and finally "Fairmont" corner : "Michele Alboreto corner", till now, with absolutely no success.
It makes them laugh !!!![]()
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Keep fighting the good fight. Michele was a great driver and drove for Ferrari when Ferrari could very much be hit or miss. I saw him win Canada in '85, my 1st live GP, saw him retire at Canada in 89 and the quit uncle Ken and saw him struggle with the Footwork Porsche in practice.
One of my favorites.
#35
Posted 17 April 2006 - 19:26
It still feels completely unfathomable to me that he's no longer with us...

I took the above pic at Caesar's Palace, 1981.
#36
Posted 17 April 2006 - 19:31
Originally posted by Stephen W
He was ceratinly a most un-Italian Italian! I met him at Thruxton when he was driving for Minardi. I was taking some photos of his car in the Paddock when the mechanics came over to start getting the car ready for the next practice. Michele stopped them from getting in my way until I had finished. We then had a chat and I got his autograph. A truly nice man who continues to be sorely missed.
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Michele was the first Grand Prix driver I ever met, and my story is similiar to yours, Stephen. He remains, despite stiff opposition, the most charming, helpful, kind & friendly person associated with motor racing that I have ever met, and that is not just being said because he's no longer with us.
I still mourn his death, 5 years on.

#37
Posted 17 April 2006 - 20:17
Perhaps he could have been the hero Italy craved post Ascari had he been born a generation earlier.
Forza Michele.
#38
Posted 17 April 2006 - 20:28
Hmmm... my pal KA would have something to say about that, I can guarantee.Originally posted by Vicuna
Too nice for modern F1?
As a person I found Michele absolutely delightful (and, of course, I never encountered him on the track). Unfortunately, it's a fact that Michele did almost kill Kenneth - but I doubt that it's something he'd ever have been proud of.
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#40
Posted 18 April 2006 - 21:00
Originally posted by Twin Window
Hmmm... my pal KA would have something to say about that, I can guarantee.
As a person I found Michele absolutely delightful (and, of course, I never encountered him on the track). Unfortunately, it's a fact that Michele did almost kill Kenneth - but I doubt that it's something he'd ever have been proud of.
Hey that was F2!!
You're right - that was naughty.
#41
Posted 18 April 2006 - 21:15
Twinnie, can you please explain what happened then? What was it about?Originally posted by Twin Window
Hmmm... my pal KA would have something to say about that, I can guarantee.
As a person I found Michele absolutely delightful (and, of course, I never encountered him on the track). Unfortunately, it's a fact that Michele did almost kill Kenneth - but I doubt that it's something he'd ever have been proud of.
I was a big fan of Michele, even though I never met him in person.
#43
Posted 20 April 2006 - 07:25



Albo was a very sympathic and great driver - RIP
Two more pics :
Michele on a guest drive on board the Minardi Motori Moderni
Originally posted by gdecarli
Here is Michele Alboreto on Minardi (Fiorano, November 26th 1985) :
He made 7 laps, but I don't have any time.
(from Autosprint 49/1985, page 20)
Ciao,
Guido
1985 at Imola during the San Marino grand prix

copyright unknown
So long Michele
#45
Posted 21 April 2006 - 21:20
He was very responsive to his noisy fans. It seemed funny that many people still recognized him and cheered him up at this low point of his carreer. But he was above all a charming man and spent time after the race talking to spectators in the boxes. I added a picture of his car in those boxes.


#46
Posted 21 April 2006 - 22:20
#47
Posted 22 April 2006 - 02:13
Forza Michele, per sempre il #1!!!!!!!!

#48
Posted 22 April 2006 - 08:08
Originally posted by Théodore33
1981 - F1 - (Tyrrell 011 Ford)
Copyright Unknown
Does anyone know where this picture was taken? I tried to make a little investigation with the following results:
- The Tyrrells were mainly blue from the start of the 1981 season
- One white Tyrrell appeared in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim driven by Cheever
- The car in the picture is fairly close to the barrier
#49
Posted 22 April 2006 - 08:18
Originally posted by Geza Sury
Does anyone know where this picture was taken? I tried to make a little investigation with the following results:So is this the Österreichring perhaps? The other options are: Hockenheim, Zandvoort, Monza and Montreal. Any ideas?
- The Tyrrells were mainly blue from the start of the 1981 season
- One white Tyrrell appeared in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim driven by Cheever
- The car in the picture is fairly close to the barrier
Alboreto used a white 011 #4 at Zandvoort and Monza. I would say that this photo is from Zandvoort...
Rob
#50
Posted 22 April 2006 - 20:28
Originally posted by Rob Ryder
Alboreto used a white 011 #4 at Zandvoort and Monza. I would say that this photo is from Zandvoort...
Rob
I doubt it is Zandvoort. But looking closely to it, I find it a funny pic. Trick photo? It looks out of proportion as is the shine on his helmet not correct in a way...