Michele Alboreto

Michele Alboreto is the last Italian to have won a Grand Prix with Ferrari, and he did it in 1985. Born in 1956, he made his debut in 1981 with Tyrrell and won two races with that team: Las Vegas in 1982 and Detroit in 1983, the last win for the Cosworth DFV, the engine that had dominated Formula 1 for more than fifteen years.

Enzo Ferrari signed him for 1984, and in his third race with the team he won in Belgium from pole. His big year was 1985: he won in Canada and Germany, scored eight podiums and led the championship at one point, but finished second, on 53 points, behind Alain Prost. He was never that close again.

He stayed at Ferrari until 1988, with podiums but no more wins, and after that his career went down from one car to the next: Tyrrell again, Larrousse, Arrows, Footwork, Lola and finally Minardi, with whom he said goodbye in 1994. In all, five wins, twenty-three podiums and two poles.

After Formula 1 he won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1997. He died in 2001 while testing an Audi endurance car at the Lausitz circuit in Germany.