Andrea de Cesaris

This native of Rome achieved his first major success in 1977 when he became karting world champion. A year later, he entered monoposto racing as part of the British BP Formula 3 Championship and found himself in the cockpit of an Alfa Romeo Formula 1 car just two years later. He stayed in the top class for 14 seasons and 208 Grands Prix, earning a reputation as a sometimes too impetuous daredevil.

However, he showed a mature driving performance in 1994 when he took over the place of the Austrian Karl Wendlinger, who had been seriously injured in Monaco, in the Sauber-Mercedes C 13 and subsequently finished a Grand Prix in the points: the French Grand Prix held in Magny-Cours in sixth place.

In 2014, 20 years after the end of his Formula 1 career, de Cesaris was killed in a motorbike accident near his hometown.