Lamberto
Leoni

Lamberto Leoni was born on 24 May 1953 in Argenta, Italy. He began in Italian Formula 3 and moved up to the European Formula 2 Championship in 1976. In his first race for Scuderia del Passatore, at Estoril, he finished third. He later won at Misano with Scuderia Trivellato.

In Formula One he was entered in five Grands Prix but started only one. In 1977 he failed to qualify for the Italian Grand Prix with Surtees. He drove for Ensign in 1978 and started the Argentine Grand Prix, retiring after 28 laps with an engine failure. In Brazil he qualified, but a transmission failure on the formation lap kept him from starting. He then failed to qualify in South Africa and the United States, after which he left the team and was replaced by Jacky Ickx.

Leoni went back to Formula 2 and then Formula 3000, and in 1987 set up his own team, First Racing. In 1989 he tried to enter Formula One with Gabriele Tarquini as driver, but abandoned the project. In the early 1990s he took up powerboat racing, won several races and narrowly missed the 1993 world championship.

Source: Wikipedia, “Lamberto Leoni”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.