Michele Alboreto

Interesting facts

In 1984 he became the first Italian driver to race for Ferrari since Arturo Merzario in 1973, breaking Enzo Ferrari's unwritten rule against hiring Italian drivers. His career peak came in 1985: he won in Canada and Germany, but Ferrari's unreliability meant he failed to finish the final five races, losing the title by 20 points - at Brands Hatch, after a turbo failure and fire, he drove the burning car back to the pits to show the team its own problem. Frank Williams promised him a seat for 1988, then signed Thierry Boutsen instead, effectively ending his time at a top team. At Tyrrell in 1989 he boycotted Thursday practice at Monaco in protest after being given the older car while his teammate got the new one - later that season, after refusing to drop his Marlboro sponsorship for Camel, Ken Tyrrell replaced him with Jean Alesi. In 1997 he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside Stefan Johansson and Tom Kristensen, beating the factory McLaren F1 GTR into second by a lap. On 25 April 2001, while testing an Audi R8 at the Lausitzring, a loose screw caused his rear tyre to gradually deflate at around 300 km/h; the car flipped over the barrier and he was killed instantly - in 2021 Monza's final corner was renamed Curva Alboreto in his memory. Michele Alboreto raced in Formula 1 from 1981 to 1994, across 14 seasons as an Italian driver. He scored a total of 186.5 championship points over his career.