Andrea
De Cesaris

Andrea de Cesaris was born in Rome on 31 May 1959. He won several karting championships before moving up to British Formula Three, where he finished second to Chico Serra in 1979. Formula Two followed, with Ron Dennis's Project 4 team.

He made his Formula One debut with Alfa Romeo at the end of 1980, in the final races of the season in Canada and the United States. In 1981 he drove for McLaren and finished only six of his 14 races; he crashed often that season. He rejoined Alfa Romeo in 1982, took pole position at Long Beach and led the race for a time before crashing later on. He also reached the podium at Monaco. In 1983 he was second at Hockenheim and again in the season finale at Kyalami, and ended the world championship in eighth place. At Spa he led for much of the race before a poor pit stop and an engine failure ended his chances.

He drove for Ligier in 1984 and 1985, finishing fourth at Monaco in 1985. After a heavy accident at the Austrian Grand Prix, he was replaced by Philippe Streiff following the race at Zandvoort. In 1986 he scored no points with Minardi. In 1987 he took third place at Spa for Brabham, and in 1988 fourth at Detroit for Rial. He drove for Dallara in 1989 and finished third in Canada, which proved to be his last podium.

In 1991 he drove for Jordan, which was contesting its first Formula One season. He finished fourth in Canada and Mexico, sixth in France and fifth in Germany. At Spa he was running second when his engine failed. He finished ninth in the championship, as he did in 1992 with Tyrrell, where fourth place in Japan was his best result. He scored no points for Tyrrell in 1993. In 1994 he began the year without a drive, returned to Jordan for the San Marino Grand Prix and finished fourth at Monaco. He then took the place of the injured Karl Wendlinger at Sauber. His final race was the 1994 European Grand Prix, where he retired.

De Cesaris started 207 races, with five podiums and one pole position, but never won a Grand Prix. He held the record for the most races without a win until Nico Hülkenberg overtook him in 2024. In 2005 and 2006 he raced in the Grand Prix Masters series for former Formula One drivers, finishing fourth in the first race at Kyalami. He died in a motorcycle accident in Rome on 5 October 2014.

Source: Wikipedia, “Andrea de Cesaris”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.