Alfa Romeo considering a return to F1!

+1

He used to stop by our shop pretty regularly to visit with Tim Schenken/Howden Ganley when we were running Andrea De C in F3.

*Really*, really cool dude.

Was with Tim watching practice at Mirabeau when he 'bruised' the wall..... Climbed out, yawned, and Tim yelled 'hey Ronnie!' - over he came, & sat in the stands with us till the end of practice.... Many around were impressed!

Cheers,
Ian

 

It happened in the past, and it worked very well.

 

GREAT story, you made my day. Many thanks for posting.

 

BTW what sort of guy was Andrea? He was fast but crash prone in F1, he was highly regarded by Gerard Ducarouge.

 

That is super cool.

Fchat F1 section - come for the trash talk; stay for the stories.

 

He was quick. I'd say a very "natural" talent.

But, as you say, very definitely crash prone! IIRC, we used 3 tubs in the first half a dozen races in F3!......

First accident was his first test at Goodwood. We were the only ones there, so we heard the "screech" & then silence...... Jumped in the car and he's upside down in the dirt when we get there!

Rebuild #1 began...... [Didn't need a new tub that time; those came a little later! ]

Cheers,
Ian

 

De Cesaris must have been good, to survive 13 years+ in F1.

According to the records, he drove for Alfa Romeo, McLaren, Ligier, Minardi, Brabham, Rial, Dallara, Jordan, Tyrell and Sauber. Not bad to be that wanted, I would say.

Most of his career was bankrolled by Marlboro though. That may explain.

Guy Ligier, who sacked him after a monumental accident in Austria said of him: "I can no longer afford to employ this man. He has quadrupled our repair costs!" I find that funny.

But De Cesaris must have been good enough to be recruited by Eddie Jordan to start his new team. The old fox was a talent spotter too. Remember that he launched Micheal Schumacher's career in F1.

That may not please everybody if I say that, but I put him in the same category as Gilles Villeneuve; racers who go quick because they overdrive and end up having lots of incident. Spectacular, but not a recipe for lasting succes.

 

To a degree the launch of Michael Schumacher's career at Jordan was the coup de main for Andrea--he out qualified his teammate in his first GP start by more than 1/2 second. This was also Michael's first time at Spa.
I don't agree with you regarding Gilles. Biggest difference was that Gilles won races and often annihilated the opposition. He had the widespread respect of his peers, Andrea did not.

 

Let's say that Villeneuve's path was different; he landed a drive in a top team at Ferrari. So his speed brought a few victories, but also many lost opportunities.
That's the difference with De Cesaris who often drove in second rate and under-financed teams, although he had a spell at McLaren.
The similarity, to me a least, was that they were both fast but very erratic.
I found at the time that Villeneuve was often "overdriving" and letting his heart overcome his brain.

 

Villeneuve could drive circles around De Cesaris, who was a decent pay driver. I do agree they both drove with passion and could make underwhelming cars do miraculous things but they were clearly on two different levels (fuel tank one of them ) . Talent got Gilles the Ferrari drive, had the old man thought Andrea was special, he would have been there also.

BTW Andrea's favourite team in F1 was Alfa.

 

The 1983 Canadian GP driving the 'Equipe' Elf/Renault RE40.

 

Slight correction - We were at Lowes, not Mirabeau. The barrier jumped in front of him at the entrance to the tunnel.

While "reminiscing", maybe time to note that doing the F3 race in Monaco kinda sucked!

When we first drove the truck into Monaco the cops saw "Marlboro", & assumed we were with Mclaren - Directed us to the F1 paddock - We're driving along the waterfront, past the boats and the girls thereon; figured this was gonna be a *good* weekend......

Then, they realized we were F3 & not F1 & redirected us to the F3 paddock; the (gravel, not level!) parking lot of the tennis club. A long way from the pits.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Great story Ian....this is what the f.1 section is all about

 

I really can't agree with you william.....Gilles fame for crashing wasn't fair.
I also had that idea at first, but when (some 10 years ago when my daughter was born and would no sleep the first couple of months i spent night after nigth with her, reviweing every race since mid 70s) i realised he crashed just as much as the other top drivers, including Prost, Piquet and Jones. Gilles got that fame from his 77 fuji accident and early 78, but most of his crashes were not his fault at all. Monaco 78, crash inside the tunel, it was a deflating tire who provoked it, Zeltweg 79, another deflating tire, Argentina 80, suspension failure, Imola 80, tire blow-up.
Take this off the picture and you are left with no more crashes then the others....I can remenber many from Piquet and also Jones, even from Prosrom the lead like his crash at Monaco 82 from the lead or in 83 (zeltweg?) when trying to pass Piquet.
Plus, Gilles drove very difficull cars (while the Brabhams, Williams and Renaults had good chassis and aerodinamics, he usualy drove boxes on wheels, to drive them as fast as he did, he was taking a lot more risks than anyone else.

 

I'd exclude Ayrton from that list.

Cheers,
Ian

 

OK, just half a circle on ayrton!!

 

I can still remenber Spa 83 when they had 2 starts and twice andrea put the Alfa in the lead.....to bad the legendary Alfa reliability struck again...i guess the f.1 cars were just as good as the road cars!!!

 

Ayrton and Gilles never competed against each other so we can merely speculate. It would have been sensational to be sure, a pity that it never happened. Two of the very greatest--RIP Gilles and Ayrton.

 

True, one of the greates duels ever missed.....can you guys imagine the crazy 80s with Gilles, Senna, prost, Piquet, keke and Nigel driving those 1000 hp monsters !!

 

Agree with that.

I never said that De Cesaris and Villeneuve were on the same level, but that both drove erratically, IMO, and sometimes over their limits.

Had he been using his brain, Villeneuve may have been WDC, but he was only racing for the day at each GP and never thinking ahead. Gathering points most of the time is what gets you the WDC. It's not only heroic drives that makes someone a champion, but consistency.

Villeneuve was the typical rough diamond that never gets polished.

 

Thing is William, Gilles was not after the championship, he was after race wins!! He couldn't care less about the points....as Jody once said, Gilles was a very smart guy, but in my opinion he wanted the wrong things out of racing!!!
I remenber in Brazil 82, after Gilles had spun out of the lead while trying to defend himself from Piquet when it was opbvious his tires were long gone, someone asked him why he hadn't stoped for fresh tires...he replied, ohh, it´s much better to go off while leading a race then to go and change tires just to finish 7th!!!

 

Gilles Villeneuve is remembered as an F1 legend!

Andrea De Cesaris is remembered as Andrea De Crasheris!

 

I agree with that, and you confirm my opinion of Villeneuve: for him it was all about racing flat out , and not about thinking.

Having said that, he respected team orders.

I am wondering how he would fit in F1 today, which is all about tactics and preserving the tyres, the fuel etc ...

 

Gilles not thinking? His performance at Spain in 1981 belies that assertion. F1 drivers today receive a constant stream of instructions from the pits and an army of engineers/tacticians. They don't think for themselves, they just follow instructions.