Andrea de Adamich

Born: 3rd October 1941, Trieste, Italy.

Andrea de Adamich burst onto the motorsport scene in 1965 when he took the Italian Formula 3 title, and followed it up by winning the Division 2 title in the European Touring Car Championship the following year with a works Alfa Romeo 1600 GTA. This brought an invitation from Ferrari to race a works car in the non-championship 1967 Spanish Grand Prix, where de Adamich took ninth place after a puncture forced a pit stop. The following year Ferrari kept him on, but his World Championship debut at Kyalami ended with a big accident after hitting a patch of oil, and his Ferrari Formula One tenure ended when he crashed in practice for the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch and was sidelined for the season with neck injuries. He returned to Ferrari that winter to win the South American Formula 2 Temporada series, but his big chance had really gone.

In 1969 de Adamich raced in Formula A and Formula 5000 for Surtees, before attracting sponsorship from Alfa Romeo to race with their engines in Formula 1. In 1970 he raced a works McLaren with the Italian powerplant but was not competitive, with a best finish of eighth at Monza, before taking his backing to the STP March team the following year where results only got worse, his best finish from seven races being an 11th place at Watkins Glen. At the same time as his F1 exploits he also raced for Alfa in sports cars, winning the Brands Hatch 1000km (with Henri Pescarolo) and the Watkins Glen 6 Hours (with Ronnie Peterson) in the T33, and also competing in various events including hillclimbs, touring cars and Can-Am.

De Adamich returned to Surtees for 1972, this time with the de rigueur Ford Cosworth V8 in the back, and he scored a career-best fourth in the Spanish GP at Jarama. No other points finishes ere forthcoming, however, and the three points left him 16th in the championship. The following year he contested the opening round of the championship at Kyalami with Surtees taking eighth place, but thereafter took his Ceramica Pagnossin backing to Brabham. He matched his best result of 1972 as he took fourth at Zolder, but at Silverstone his bad luck with injuries would strike again. At the end of the opening lap a certain newcomer named Jody Scheckter spun his McLaren and shot back across the pack taking out most of the rear of the field. De Adamich’s Brabham was at the centre of the carnage, and the popular Italian suffered leg and ankle injuries which ended his Formula 1 career.

The following year de Adamich ended his racing career for good, but has returned to the Grand Prix scene as a journalist and television commentator – including covering the Downforce Grand Prix 2 World Championship for Italian TV.