Michele Alboreto

Did You Know?

• Alboreto's helmet was blue with a yellow stripe with white edges, a tribute to Swedish driver Ronnie Peterson.
• Alboreto and Ronnie Peterson first met in 1972 and were friends until Peterson's death in 1978.
• Alboreto scored Minardi's only Formula Two victory, at Misano in 1981.

Career

Alboreto began racing in 1976 in Formula Monza with a car he and friends built, called the CMR, which proved uncompetitive. In 1978 he moved to Formula Italia with a March and started winning races. In 1980 he won the European Formula Three crown and placed third in the Italian championship, taking five wins across both series, and also appeared in the British Championship. Concurrently, Lancia selected Alboreto for its World Championship for Makes squad, sharing a Group 5 Lancia Beta Montecarlo with Walter Röhrl or Eddie Cheever in four 1980 rounds, achieving three second-place finishes and a fourth.

In 1981 he ran a partial schedule alongside Formula Two and Formula One, including his first 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he finished eighth overall and second in class as the highest-finishing Lancia. He then won the Six Hours of Watkins Glen with Riccardo Patrese, ending the year 52nd in the Drivers' Championship as the top-ranked Lancia driver.

Death

In late April 2001, Alboreto travelled with a small group of Audi engineers to the EuroSpeedway Lausitz near Dresden, Germany, to test an Audi R8 for the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. He drove mainly on the facility's public racing area, using the tri-oval for faster laps and the Grand Prix circuit for slower laps, with some testing also occurring on the adjacent proving ground, which featured an elongated oval track with two long straights.

Around 5:30 p.m. local time on 25 April 2001, Alboreto accelerated the R8 along one of those straights. At approximately 300 kph, the left rear tyre failed, launching the car into the air. It somersaulted over the Armco barrier and landed inverted, causing Alboreto's head to strike the ground and killing him instantly. Audi initially gave no reason for the crash, noting the R8 had completed thousands of test kilometres without problems.

Five days later, an investigation attributed the tyre failure to a gradual loss of air pressure caused by a loose screw inside the tyre. No mechanical problem or driver error was found, and the failure was deemed the sole cause. The finding prompted Audi to accelerate the implementation of a sensor-based TPMS in their racecars. Alboreto's death caused great anguish among his family and friends, who had long wished for him to stop racing due to its dangers.

His cousin Marisa told Italian news agency ANSA, "You can't imagine what we're going through as a family. We're really distraught." Giancarlo Fisichella dedicated his podium at the 2005 Italian Grand Prix to Alboreto, recalling racing together in touring cars and calling him a great person. On 28 August 2021, the final corner at Monza Circuit, the Curva Parabolica, was officially renamed Curva Alboreto during the 2021 Italian Grand Prix weekend to mark the 20th anniversary of his death.