Michele Alboreto Dies Testing for Audi
25.4.01

Ex - Ferrari Formula One driver Michele Alboreto has been killed testing the Audi R8 sportscar at the Lausitzring in Germany.

Alboreto, 44, won five Grand Prix races in the 1980s and was a member of the Porsche team which won the 1997 Le Mans 24-hour race and the Audi team which finished third there last year.

Alboreto started racing in 1976, made his Formula 3 debut in 1978 and won the European title in 1980. He was given his Formula One chance by Tyrrell in 1981 and won his first Grand Prix in Las Vegas the following year.

He switched to Ferrari and won the Belgian Grand Prix in 1984 and the Canadian and German Grands Prix in 1985 when he finished second in the drivers' championship behind Alain Prost. That was the zenith of his Formula One career.

He returned to Tyrrell in 1989 and drove for a succession of teams - Lola, Arrows, Footwork and Minardi - before bowing out of F1 in 1994 and moving to sportscar racing.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo paid tribute to the driver's "irrepressible passion" for motor racing. "Alboreto was a great and important driver in Ferrari's history," Montezemolo said in a statement. "He was intelligent and always aware of the technical issues in developing cars. His death pains me deeply."

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