THE BACK STRAIGHT
BIG NUMBER
225
WorldMags.net
MILESTONE
The WTCC enters its second
decade, with Rob Huff holding
the record for starts over
the first 10 years. He’s only
missed one of the 226 races.
Sebastien Ogier (right) is
going for his fifth WRC win on
the trot (including the last
two rounds of 2014) in Mexico.
What price another title?
MARKLAND/GETTY
WHAT’S ON TRACK
RALLY MEXICO
Mexico hosts
round three
of the WRC
World Rally Championship
Rd 3/13
Guanajuato, Mexico
March 5-8
wrc.com
McKLEIN.DE
WORLD TOURING
CARS
Rd 1/12
Rio Hondo, Argentina
March 8
fiawtcc.com
MY FAVOURITE DRIVER
NASCAR’s high
rollers hit Vegas
NASCAR SPRINT CUP
Rd 3/36
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
March 8
nascar.com
Michele Alboreto
107
Alboreto: top racer
and a proper gent
IN SINGLING OUT A FAVOURITE
driver, I’ll choose someone I never met.
Indeed, I attended just two race
meetings in which he competed, and
they were, objectively, totally forgettable
outings in midfield Footworks.
Michele Alboreto was among the first
drivers I followed. The chief reason my
loyalties were pledged to the yellowand-blue-helmeted driver had nothing to
do with any recognition of his mixture of
gentlemanly good grace out of the car
and top-line ability behind the wheel.
No, in my formative years I had bitten
the same hook responsible for snaring
countless others into the sport: I had
fallen for Ferrari. Alboreto was the man
doing the business in the red car, and I
LAT
Dazzling drive
to second at
Monaco ’85
rooted for him and team-mate Rene Arnoux.
I’m afraid I can’t recollect the sensations
of being a transfixed six-year-old during
Alboreto’s first season at Maranello in 19 84,
and so have few memories of the Milanese’s
prime. His spell at Ferrari lasted five years,
and the final three wins of his career were
achieved in the first two seasons when
his star was in the ascendancy.
By the arrival of the swoopy Gustav
Brunner-designed F1/87, Ferrari was
only intermittently competitive. My levels
of Alboreto appreciation were not so
blinkered as to deny acknowledging that
new arrival Gerhard Berger had asserted
an edge. Early loyalties held, though, and
when Alboreto made his way to Tyrrell for
the ’89 season, my interest in charting his
progress on the pages of Ceefax (Google
it, kids) or AUTOSPORT outweighed
following the number 27 car’s new
occupant Nigel Mansell.
Pretty soon I’d have to wait for Ceefax
to scroll to a second page, displaying the
lower half of the grid’s qualifying times,
such was the rate that Alboreto’s fortunes
plummeted. Here was someone who loved
driving and saw no reason to stop just
because the limelight had shifted. It was
during a period that I feared he might soon
LAT
Initially seduced by the scarlet allure of Ferrari,
a young PETER MILLS discovered a driver held
in high regard for both his talent and character
disappear off
“His death hit
the grid for
good, rather
me with a mix
than the
of injustice and
intermittent
events where
despondency”
he non-qualified
tardy Footworks, that I splashed out on
several season-review videos.
There followed a reassuring pleasure
that I hadn’t deluded myself over his
abilities. Alboreto’s flair in dazzling drives
at Monaco in ’85 and the Nurburging
later that season was first-rate.
I’ll leave the psychology behind why
WorldMags.net
people resonate with the deaths of
famous people they didn’t know to
someone better qualified, but Alboreto’s
fatal testing accident aboard his Audi
R8 in April 2001 struck me with a
mixture of shock, injustice and
despondency.
The obituaries that followed echoed
the same sentiment. Even those that
made reference to culpability in a
serious F2 accident with Kenny
Acheson conveyed an overriding
message that the sport had lost
someone genuine and possessing
a character worth aspiring to.
MARCH 5 2015 AUTOSPORT.COM 107