An F1 Risorgimento — How a Broken Ferrari Tradition Nearly Brought Italy Formula 1 Glory
Formula 1’s history is inextricably linked with Italy, and of course much of that connection stems from the ever-present Ferrari team.
The Scuderia is F1’s oldest and statistically most successful outfit, having created some of the most recognizable cars in the sport’s history, all adorned with the famous Rosso Corsa and branded with the symbol of Il Cavallino Rampante — the prancing horse.
Not only is the imagery and machinery of the marque iconic, it has also carried some of F1’s most famous and talented drivers to glory over its long history, which has served to make the name Ferrari synonymous with F1.
When it comes to successful drivers though, Italy’s contributions have been comparatively scarce. While there are exciting Italian prospects in the F1 pipeline like the young Andrea Kimi Antonelli — whose graduation to Formula 2 was recently announced, the somewhat staggering fact is that the most recent Italian world champion was Alberto Ascari back in the days when F1 drivers could occasionally be seen puffing on pipes mid-race.
Ascari also belonged to an even rarer class — an Italian driver who was not just successful in F1, but successful in F1 in a Ferrari, as the team has traditionally avoided employing Italian drivers. That rare occurrence is just what happened in the mid-1980s though, as tradition was abandoned and a partnership was forged between an Italian hotshoe and the Scuderia which very nearly bore fruit the likes of which had not been seen since Ascari’s second championship triumph in 1953…
The driver in question was Michele Alboreto. He had entered Formula 1 in 1981 under the tutelage of Ken Tyrrell, and quickly developed into an exciting talent. He won his first race at the final round of the 1982 season, despite the Tyrrell that year proving to be of only middling competitiveness.
The following year he won again on the streets of Detroit, running an audacious zero-stop strategy using a mixed tyre set on his naturally aspirated Tyrrell. Proving himself once again in a car which had no right winning a race in a field which was becoming increasingly turbo dominated, Alboreto’s performances had been enough to attract the attention of the infamous Commendatore — Enzo Ferrari.
Ferrari at the time was a team in an odd position. In both 1982 and ’83 they had fielded cars which were generally regarded as the finest in the field.
Both fast and relatively reliable in an era where turbo cars could scarcely finish a race, they should have secured titles for the Scuderia relatively comfortably. Yet while they had won the constructors titles both years, the drivers’ crowns had eluded them.
In 1982 this was the result of tragedy, with star driver Gilles Villeneuve being killed early in the year, and their other challenger Didier Pironi suffering a career-ending accident later in the season.
In 1983 the French duo of Rene Arnoux and Patrick Tambay were drafted in, and while both won races and were in the top 4 in the championship, neither were able to secure the title in spite of most pundits reckoning they had the best car.
Arnoux and Tambay were not poor drivers, but they perhaps lacked that true X factor of a champion. It was for this reason that Ferrari sought out Alboreto. Naturally as an Italian, and having seen the competitiveness of Ferrari’s machinery the previous years, he practically bit their hand off.
It was somewhat unfortunate for Alboreto that he first joined Ferrari in 1984, as two things changed that season which upended Ferrari’s position at the very forefront of the F1 field.
First were new rules, the most crucial of which was the ban on refuelling. This meant that it was now important for a team’s engines to be not only powerful and reliable, but also fuel efficient due to additional regulations limiting fuel tank size.
The second change was McLaren’s introduction of their TAG-Porsche engined MP4/2, which proved to be both the class of the field aerodynamically, and also far outstripped all other competitors in fuel efficiency thanks to its cutting edge Bosch Motronic engine management computer. With this car, and an all-star driver lineup of Niki Lauda and Alain Prost, McLaren easily swept all before them in 1984.
Nonetheless, Alboreto still managed to assert himself. At the first round of the season he qualified second, and leapt into the lead at the start, which he held until mechanical trouble dropped him down the order and out of the race.
At round 3 he had a further triumph, and his most convincing display yet in Formula 1, securing pole position and dominating the race on the narrow Zolder circuit to win by some 42 seconds.
It was clear even at this early stage of his career with the Scuderia that Alboreto had established himself as their bright new hope, and their new team leader in place of his teammate Arnoux, who proved largely unable to match him.
Results for the rest of the season proved harder to come by however as McLaren really asserted their advantage, and though Alboreto outqualified Arnoux 12–4, the Frenchman was able to close the gap in the standings as reliability and the odd error took their toll.
A strong finish to the season for Alboreto with top 4s in all of the last 3 races, including two second places nonetheless ensured a solid overall season result of P4 in the championship with 1 win and 3 additional podiums, behind only the two McLarens and the relentlessly consistent Lotus of fellow Italian Elio de Angelis.
1985 proved to be better still, and was the year that drove me to write this article. Ferrari introduced an all-new 156/85 car for the season, looking visibly sleeker than the previous season’s car, which was a development of Ferrari’s dependable 126C series that had been in use since 1981.
Alboreto immediately proved its competitiveness by taking his second pole position at the first race of the season in Brazil. This was underlined by a strong showing in the race, where only a missed gearchange allowed the chasing Alain Prost past into a lead he would not relinquish, with Michele coming home P2.
Another second place in Round 2 at a soaking wet Estoril circuit then gave Alboreto the lead of the world championship for the first time.
Retirement in San Marino while running strongly followed, which meant the loss of the lead in the title race to Lotus’ de Angelis, but this was made up for to some extent in Monaco, by what stands out as genuinely one of the greatest drives I have ever seen — though one which sadly did not get the full reward it merited.
Alboreto had been incensed after qualifying, as young Brazilian hotshoe Ayrton Senna controversially went back out on the circuit after setting a time good enough for provisional pole and savagely blocked Alboreto when he was attempting to better his time.
In spite of not being able to improve his time due to this, Alboreto lined up third on the grid behind Senna and Nigel Mansell in the improving Williams-Honda.
What followed was near enough beyond belief. Even in 1985, with its much smaller cars and longer braking distances than we have today, Monaco was still notorious as a circuit where overtaking was close to impossible.
Alboreto apparently didn’t get the memo though. First, he got Mansell for P2 around the outside of Sainte Devote, his car squirming as he applied the brakes as late as he dared.
Then came Senna, whose engine spluttered and faltered allowing Michele easily past into the lead. He’d set about building up the gap when his first setback came. Riccardo Patrese and Nelson Piquet had a massive crash on the pit straight, and while both were thankfully uninjured, the incident scattered debris and oil on the circuit in the area of track leading up to the first corner.
It wasn’t long before this treacherous zone claimed victims. Niki Lauda slid to a halt in his McLaren and stalled the engine, retiring on the spot.
Alboreto, leading imperiously, was also caught out. He skidded on the oil into the runoff area at turn 1 but was deftly able to keep the engine running and rejoin. He had however lost first place to Alain Prost by quite some margin.
Spurred on by this setback, Alboreto quickly set about closing the gap to Prost in a concerted charge. It wasn’t long before he was on the McLaren’s gearbox and once more he made a move into Sainte Devote, again around the outside — apparently undaunted by the treacherous condition of the circuit in that area owing to the oil from the Patrese-Piquet accident which was still present. The lead was his again.
Once more he set about building a gap from Prost, yet in a scarcely believable turn of events he again dropped down the order. This time it was a puncture caused, of course, by debris from the same incident between Patrese and Piquet.
Alboreto was able to get back to the pits to change tyres, and emerged in a relatively distant fourth position behind Prost, the Lotus of de Angelis, and Andrea de Cesaris’ Ligier.
In a display of true fighting spirit, Alboreto charged once more, soon passing both de Cesaris and de Angelis with the kind of effortless move which he had made a habit of during this event.
Alas, the gap to Prost was too large, and Alboreto came home a fine, but still somewhat disappointing second after a drive which I have no hesitation in saying ranks up with the finest performances I have ever seen — certainly around the streets of Monte Carlo.
While Alboreto’s season had impressed many up this point, he was still without a win. This soon changed at the next round in Canada.
Lotus locked out the front row with de Angelis on pole, but Ferrari monopolised row two; Alboreto ahead of teammate Stefan Johansson who had been drafted in just two rounds into the year to replace a mysteriously sacked Arnoux.
At the start it was business as usual with the top 3 on the grid holding positions. Senna soon faltered with a car issue though, and when de Angelis too started to experience problems, he was unable to live with Alboreto’s pace.
Though he defended well for a while, Alboreto was soon through into a lead he would not relinquish. Johansson too put in a charge, and at one point actually looked the quicker of the two Ferraris, but Michele soon asserted himself and the two scarlet cars flew in formation all the way to the chequered flag, taking a comfortable 1–2 finish which saw Alboreto reclaim the championship lead.
It was a lead he would hold on to for the majority of the season. At round 9 in Germany, he won again, and he also put together a string of results which saw him on the podium every single time he finished a race.
This run of podiums lasted from the start of the year until the 11th race of 16 in the Netherlands, where he finished 4th. Despite this consistency, it was also at Round 11 that he lost the championship lead for the first time, to Alain Prost, who had put together his own sustained string of results to wrest the lead away from Michele.
Coming out of the Dutch GP the fight was still very much on though, with the gap between Prost and Alboreto standing at a mere 3 points with 5 rounds to go.
Then, Ferrari happened…
At round 12, on home soil for both driver and team in Monza, Alboreto had his third retirement of the season (after his DNF at San Marino and a further non-finish at Paul Ricard) just five laps from the end.
Prost was victorious, allowing him to open the gap to Alboreto to 12 points in a single race. Then came Belgium — a race which had been delayed from its original date on the 1985 calendar due to issues with the track surface.
So late was this delay decided, that the first qualifying session for the race on its initial date in June had already been run. In that session Alboreto had been quickest, yet now in September he could manage only P4 on the grid.
The race proved disastrous. It started in the wet, but it was clear early on that the circuit would dry up very quickly. Cars darted to the pits for dry tyres, including Alboreto, but his pit stop was shambolic with the Ferrari mechanics dropping the car off its jacks mid tyre change and having to lift it back up by hand.
Things soon got worse however as Alboreto retired with clutch failure almost immediately after leaving the pits, with Johansson soon joining him in the list of retirees after spinning and stalling on lap 7 meaning neither Ferrari had even made it to lap 10.
Prost meanwhile was a steady third, and extended the championship gap to Alboreto to 16 points with just three races to go.
Round 14 in Europe saw Alboreto qualify a lowly 15th, some 3 and a half seconds off Ayrton Senna’s pole position time. A good start and early charge saw him rise as high as sixth despite the difficulty of overtaking on the narrow Brands Hatch circuit, but yet again he did not make it far into the race.
This time his retirement came on lap 13 in the form of a dramatic and fiery turbo failure. A distraught Alboreto drove his burning car all the way back to the pits and parked in his Ferrari garage, which many saw as a gesture indicating his dismay at having had his title challenge spoiled by circumstances outside his control.
Prost finished 4th, extending his gap to Alboreto to 20 points with just two races to go. With a maximum of 9 points on offer for a win in the points system of the day, Prost was therefore champion as his lead proved unassailable.
This article is not claiming that Prost was somehow unworthy in his victory, as he put together a fantastically mature, fast and consistent campaign.
Rather, it seeks to point out that the title battle in 1985 was far closer than it may have seemed from simply looking at the final points standings. Indeed, Alboreto retired with reliability issues in both of the final two races too, meaning he had failed to finish in all of the last five races, with every single one of his 8 total DNFs being caused by technical problems.
Prost meanwhile capped off his campaign with a further podium in South Africa which made the gap between P1 and P2 in the championship look outright dominant, in spite of Alboreto’s concerted challenge that had seen him leading the standings for the majority of the season.
Alboreto’s performance is also made more impressive by the fact that, with the exceptions of 2010 and 2012, 1985 was perhaps the last season to have 4 or more truly competitive teams — with McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus and Williams all having machinery that could have won the title with the right luck. To put in such a strong performance in a field that competitive is worthy of praise.
Sadly though, this would prove to be the high-water mark for Alboreto, not just at Ferrari, but for his entire F1 career.
In 1986 the Scuderia produced an ungainly looking machine that was a distant fourth, or even fifth fastest behind the Williams, McLaren, Lotus and Benetton outfits.
Alboreto himself also seemed to have taken a knock after the disappointment of 1985. While he comfortably beat teammate Johansson in the qualifying battle, in races Johansson often had the edge, despite Alboreto having had the measure of him the previous year.
Notably, Michele was nonetheless retained by the Prancing Horse for 1987, while Johansson was dropped in favour of young charger Gerhard Berger, who had covered himself in glory in 1986 with the new Benetton squad. This willingness to overlook his shaky performance in 1986 is perhaps indicative of some of the loyalty and trust that Alboreto had built up at the Scuderia through his performance in 1985.
Unfortunately for Alboreto, in 1987 Berger would prove clearly the quicker of the two Ferraris, winning two races and looking the fastest driver by the end of the season. Alboreto was again retained for 1988, but was largely relegated to clear number 2 duties in what would prove his final year at Ferrari.
His final podium for the team which he so nearly won for was, perhaps fittingly, at the legendary 1988 Italian Grand Prix. There, the team took a memorable 1–2 finish which disrupted McLaren-Honda’s otherwise unbroken run of victories that season, and proved particularly emotional due to it taking place just after the death of the legendary Enzo Ferrari — the man who had overlooked his reluctance to hire fellow Italians to give Alboreto a chance.
Alboreto’s F1 career sadly fizzled out gradually rather than ending in glory. He scored his final podium in F1 for Tyrrell in 1989 before contract issues led to him being dropped in favour of the fiery young Jean Alesi.
1992 proved to be a last hurrah, scoring decent points in the Footwork-Arrows to finish an admirable 10th in the championship, before his F1 career came to an unceremonious end after a 1994 season in which he scored a single point for the Faenza-based Minardi team.
Following this, Alboreto would have a career in a number of other disciplines, including Indycar and DTM, and even winning Le Mans in 1997. After this success, he became a productive member of Audi’s sportscar programme where, in 2001, he was tragically killed at the age of just 44 while testing one of their R8 sportscars.
Rather than dwelling on tragedy, I prefer to remember Alboreto for his brilliant driving in 1985, which so nearly saw him rise to the rarefied level of Alberto Ascari as an Italian who, in partnership with the most famous Italian team of all, was able to reach the summit of F1 achievement.
Sadly, it was not to be, but the image of a blue and yellow helmet behind the wheel of a bright red F1 car is not one that will soon leave my mind, and the story of his 1985 campaign deserves a place in the annals of Ferrari and Formula 1 history as the season where one of Italy’s sons very nearly brought the title back to Maranello.
Perhaps we won’t have to wait too much longer to see that finally happen again…
