Elio de Angelis

Former F1 driver
Name = Elio de Angelis
Nationality = flagicon|Italy Italian
Years = F1|1979 – F1|1986
Team(s) = Shadow, Lotus, Brabham
Races = 109 (108 starts)
Championships = 0
Wins = 2
Podiums = 9
Points = 122
Poles = 3
Fastest laps = 0
First race = 1979 Argentine Grand Prix
First win = 1982 Austrian Grand Prix
Last win = 1985 San Marino Grand Prix
Last race = 1986 Monaco Grand Prix
BF1 Years = 1978
BF1 Races = 1
BF1 Championships = 0
BF1 Wins = 0
BF1 Podiums = 1
BF1 Points = 12
BF1 Poles = 0
BF1 Fastest laps = 0

Elio de Angelis (26 March 1958 – 15 May 1986) was a racing driver who participated in Formula One between F1|1979 and F1|1986, racing for the Shadow, Lotus and Brabham teams. He was killed during testing at the Paul Ricard circuit at Le Castellet in 1986. Elio de Angelis was a competitive and highly popular presence during the Formula One circus of the 1980s, and is sometimes referred to as Formula One's "last gentleman player". [ [http://www.f1technical.net/news/2965 20 years since Elio de Angelis died - F1technical.net ] ]

Career

De Angelis was born in Rome. His father Giulio was a notable inshore and offshore motorboat racer.Fact|date=July 2007

After a brief spell with karts, he went on to win the Italian Formula Three Championship in 1977. In 1978 he raced in the British Formula One Series.

His debut F1 season was in 1979 with Shadow. He finished 7th in his maiden Grand Prix in Argentina and closed 15th in the chmpionship with 3 points. In 1980 he switched to Lotus and - at the age of 21 - nearly became the youngest Grand Prix winner of all time when he finished a tantalising second at the 1980 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos. His first victory came in the 1982 Austrian Grand Prix at the Osterreichring, only 0.05 seconds ahead of Keke Rosberg. The win was the last hailed from Colin Chapman's famous act of throwing his cloth cap into the air. Chapman passed away in December that year and Peter Warr became the new Lotus team manager.

In 1983 Lotus switched from Cosworth to Renault turbo engines but it was a disappointing season. De Angelis' best result was a fifth place in the 1983 Italian Grand Prix. In 1984 De Angelis had a much better season, scoring a total of 34 points and finishing third in the standings (his best result was a second place at the USA East Grand Prix).

De Angelis' second win came in the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix. He finished 5th in the championship with 33 points but left Lotus at the end of the season when it became clear the team's efforts were being focused on his prodigiously-talented new team-mate Ayrton Senna. De Angelis' drive for 1986 was with Brabham as a replacement for twice World Champion Nelson Piquet.

The 1986 Brabham-BMW, the BT55, was a radically-designed car, with a very low cross section. However, it was not effective and could not arrest Brabham's swift decline. It quickly became clear that 1986 would not be the year the team recaptured its glory days of the early 1980s. Nevertheless, de Angelis pushed his hardest to help develop the car. During tests at the Paul Ricard circuit in France, the rear wing of the BT55 came off at high speed, making the car lose downforce on the rear wheels, cartwheel over a barrier and catch fire. The impact did not kill de Angelis but, tragically, he could not get out of the car unassisted. The situation was exacerbated by the lack of marshals on the French circuit, or indeed anyone who could have assisted. A 30 minute delay ensued before an emergency helicopter arrived. De Angelis died 29 hours later in the hospital in Marseille to which he had been taken, from injuries caused by the smoke inhaled during the accident. His only other injuries were a broken collar bone and light burns on his back. The tragic circumstances of his death weighed heavily on the sport's conscience, and radical changes were introduced by then President Jean-Marie Balestre in the months following his accident that ultimately saw the beginning of the end for the turbo powered era of Formula One racing.

De Angelis' place in the Brabham team was taken by Derek Warwick - allegedly because Warwick was the only unemployed F1 driver who did not contact Ecclestone immediately afterwards asking about the drive.

De Angelis was the last driver to die in an F1 car until Roland Ratzenberger at Imola eight years later.

As well as his considerable skill as a driver, de Angelis was also concert-standard pianist who famously once kept the drivers entertained for an entire evening in the midst of the drivers' strike during the weekend of the 1982 South African Grand Prix. A video of him entertaining an audience during the 1985 German Grand prix can be seen at http://youtube.com/watch?v=gkUQC028wOo

Formula One World Championship results

() (Races in bold indicate pole position)

References