Andrea De Cesaris 31 May 1959 – 05 October 2014
Photo by Graham Gauld
Andrea was a quiet spoken, shy and slightly introverted driver who, when he stepped into a racing car, became a true tiger. That he crashed a lot was the reputation he gained from his early enthusiasm, but he was to develop into a very good if not great racing driver.
It was Australian former Grand Prix driver Tim Schenken who first noted his talent after he had won the Italian karting championship when he was seventeen. Schenken brought him into his new Tiga Formula 3 team driving a Ralt in 1978. The following season Tiga switched to a March and de Cesaris won six races in the British series and finished second.
Andrea had his first Grand Prix at the end of the 1980 season with the Marlboro Alfa Romeo team in Canada but retired with a blown engine then in the U.S. Grand Prix East at Watkins Glen he clashed with Derek Daly and was out. This was the start of a number of miscalculations such as in his first race for McLaren in 1981 when, in the Long Beach Grand Prix he crashed into Alain Prost’s Renault, marking his card and ending his one and only season with McLaren.
I got to know him in the 1980s when I was assisting Fiat/Lancia in their rally and racing programme. Andrea was signed up by Lancia and first raced their Dallara-built Lancia-Beta Monte Carlo turbo in the Watkins Glen 6 hours finishing second with Henri Pescarolo to the sister car of Riccardo Patrese and Michele Alboretto. He was then out of sports car racing until 1985 when he was brought back into the factory Lancia team this time with the LC2 85 for the 1000 kms at Brands Hatch finishing third behind two Porsche 962Cs but ahead of Lancia’s number one crew of Riccardo Patrese and Alessandro Nannini.
I remember a touching moment when he was driving with Lancia when there was a press conference with all the drivers who were giving their comments on the cars and racing. A door at the back of the room opened and a middle aged woman came in. Andrea immediately jumped up, ran and embraced his mother. Even the hardened journalists were moved. That is how I would like to remember him as a quiet and friendly man who could transform himself into an animal on the circuit.–Graham Gauld
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Alfa 1600 Sprint and Spider Instruction Book. Public no. 838-12/1963 (1500) R. Original, excellent to mint condition; spine is not broken, appears as new. Slight fraying on edge of Electrical diagram where it protrudes from the edge of the book. 80 pages, printed for US market cars. SS instruction book sold for $400; looking for best offer over $300. Click photo to see larger image. 1600 Giulia TI instruction book also available, good condition.
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