Elio de Angelis

Italian racing driver

Lotus winner by the narrowest margin

Elio de Angelis spent six seasons at Lotus, won in Austria by five hundredths of a second and at Imola in 1985, and finished third in 1984.

Elio de Angelis was born in Rome, Italy, on March 26, 1958. After a short time in karts he won the Italian Formula Three championship in 1977, then raced in Formula Two in 1978 and won the Monaco Formula Three race. He made his Formula 1 debut with Shadow at the 1979 Argentine Grand Prix, finishing seventh.

Colin Chapman hired him for Lotus in 1980 alongside Mario Andretti, and in his second race for the team, the 1980 Brazilian Grand Prix, he finished second, at that time the youngest driver ever to stand on a Grand Prix podium. His first win came at the 1982 Austrian Grand Prix, where he held off Keke Rosberg by 0.05 seconds, the last Lotus win celebrated by Chapman before his death that December.

Lotus moved to Renault turbo power in 1983, a difficult first year. In 1984 he was consistently quick, scoring three podiums, among them second place in Detroit, and finishing third in the championship without a win. Ayrton Senna joined the team for 1985, and de Angelis won the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix after Alain Prost was disqualified for an underweight car, finishing fifth in the standings.

For 1986 he moved to Brabham. His last race was the 1986 Monaco Grand Prix, and days later, while testing at Paul Ricard, his car lost its rear wing at high speed and crashed. He died the following day in hospital. Our record shows 108 starts, 2 wins, 3 pole positions and 9 podiums across eight seasons, with Shadow, Lotus and Brabham.

0 world titles, 2 wins, 3 pole positions, 108 starts.

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