There are many Italian Grand Prix drivers whose careers have failed to live up to early expectations. No Italian driver has won the drivers championship since Alberto Ascari in 1953 which is a bit surprising considering the passion Italians show for motor sport and fast cars in general.
Many thought it was inevitable Michele Alboreto would become World Champion on the strength of his performances in the under-powered and under-funded Tyrrell in 1982/3. He got a win early in his Ferrari career in the otherwise Mclaren dominated season of 1984 and in the first half of 1985 looked like he was a serious contender for the World Championship. Somewhere along the line though his season and career started to unexpectedly head south and despite several more seasons at Ferrari he never showed the form that had got him there in the first place. His Formula One career petered out making up the numbers in the bottom half of the grid. Tragically Alboreto was to be killed driving an Audi Sports prototype in 2000.
Ricardo Patrese showed stacks of promise early in his career driving for another perennial underachiever, the Arrows team. He almost won the 1978 South African Grand Prix and at Long Beach in 1981 he managed to grab pole position. A move to Brabham in 1982 brought a mixed bag of performances including two victories that some might say he lucked into. They were at Monaco in 1982 where rain late in the race caused complete havoc sending several competitors into the armco. The other was his last race for the Brabham team at the 1983 South African GP, a victory he inherited from Nelson Piquet who was more interested in just securing enough points to take his second world title. He should have won on merit at the San Marino Grand Prix that year but for some reason decided to park his car in the barriers at Acque Minerale, an act that I'm sure pleased Patrick Tambay no end as he took the victory.
Patrese spent the next couple of years in uncompetitive Alfa Romeos before switching back to a Brabham team in slow decline. At the end of the eighties he joined Williams and at Imola in 1990 he finally got the win he threw away at the Italian circuit 7 years earlier. In 1991 he was very competitive, even leading Williams number one driver Nigel Mansell in the early season standings and grabbing two victories. The Williams FW14B was the dominant car of 1992 and Nigel Mansell put it to good effect with nine wins that year while Patrese managed just one. A lacklustre season with Benneton in 1993 wound up his Formula One career. At that time Ricardo had started more races than any other driver.
Jarno Trulli led the 1997 Austrian GP in his first season of Formula One while standing in for an injured Olivier Panis in the Prost team. In the fourteen seasons since then he has amassed a few quite good qualifying results and plenty of underwhelming race performances. The sole exception being the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix which he won, his first and last (unless he somehow produces a miracle in the Lotus) victory.
Andrea de Cesaris was unfortunately more famous for his rate of accidents than he was for his race results. To be fair to him though he spent most of his career in machinery that at best was rated mid-field. There were flashes of brilliance early in his career; pole position and leading at Long Beach in 1982 and leading at Spa in the Belgian Grand Prix the year after, both times in an Alfa Romeo are stand out moments. He could have also have won at the chaotic 1982 Monaco Grand Prix if he had not run out of fuel near the end of the race. Unfortunately de Cesaris wasn't able to live up to his early promise and spent the best part of the next decade in a variety of different teams. During these years good results were few and far between. In 1991 he joined the Jordan team in their inaugural Formula One season and had a brief return to form, most notably at Spa-Francorchamps once again where he ran second to Ayrton Senna before retiring with mechanical trouble. The following few seasons once again saw Andrea sliding again towards the back of the grid before his Formula One career petered out at the end of 1994.
There are probably several more drivers I could add to this list, I think these four drivers though excelled in having underachieving Grand Prix careers.
Many thought it was inevitable Michele Alboreto would become World Champion on the strength of his performances in the under-powered and under-funded Tyrrell in 1982/3. He got a win early in his Ferrari career in the otherwise Mclaren dominated season of 1984 and in the first half of 1985 looked like he was a serious contender for the World Championship. Somewhere along the line though his season and career started to unexpectedly head south and despite several more seasons at Ferrari he never showed the form that had got him there in the first place. His Formula One career petered out making up the numbers in the bottom half of the grid. Tragically Alboreto was to be killed driving an Audi Sports prototype in 2000.
Ricardo Patrese showed stacks of promise early in his career driving for another perennial underachiever, the Arrows team. He almost won the 1978 South African Grand Prix and at Long Beach in 1981 he managed to grab pole position. A move to Brabham in 1982 brought a mixed bag of performances including two victories that some might say he lucked into. They were at Monaco in 1982 where rain late in the race caused complete havoc sending several competitors into the armco. The other was his last race for the Brabham team at the 1983 South African GP, a victory he inherited from Nelson Piquet who was more interested in just securing enough points to take his second world title. He should have won on merit at the San Marino Grand Prix that year but for some reason decided to park his car in the barriers at Acque Minerale, an act that I'm sure pleased Patrick Tambay no end as he took the victory.
Patrese spent the next couple of years in uncompetitive Alfa Romeos before switching back to a Brabham team in slow decline. At the end of the eighties he joined Williams and at Imola in 1990 he finally got the win he threw away at the Italian circuit 7 years earlier. In 1991 he was very competitive, even leading Williams number one driver Nigel Mansell in the early season standings and grabbing two victories. The Williams FW14B was the dominant car of 1992 and Nigel Mansell put it to good effect with nine wins that year while Patrese managed just one. A lacklustre season with Benneton in 1993 wound up his Formula One career. At that time Ricardo had started more races than any other driver.
Jarno Trulli led the 1997 Austrian GP in his first season of Formula One while standing in for an injured Olivier Panis in the Prost team. In the fourteen seasons since then he has amassed a few quite good qualifying results and plenty of underwhelming race performances. The sole exception being the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix which he won, his first and last (unless he somehow produces a miracle in the Lotus) victory.
Andrea de Cesaris was unfortunately more famous for his rate of accidents than he was for his race results. To be fair to him though he spent most of his career in machinery that at best was rated mid-field. There were flashes of brilliance early in his career; pole position and leading at Long Beach in 1982 and leading at Spa in the Belgian Grand Prix the year after, both times in an Alfa Romeo are stand out moments. He could have also have won at the chaotic 1982 Monaco Grand Prix if he had not run out of fuel near the end of the race. Unfortunately de Cesaris wasn't able to live up to his early promise and spent the best part of the next decade in a variety of different teams. During these years good results were few and far between. In 1991 he joined the Jordan team in their inaugural Formula One season and had a brief return to form, most notably at Spa-Francorchamps once again where he ran second to Ayrton Senna before retiring with mechanical trouble. The following few seasons once again saw Andrea sliding again towards the back of the grid before his Formula One career petered out at the end of 1994.
There are probably several more drivers I could add to this list, I think these four drivers though excelled in having underachieving Grand Prix careers.
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