Michele Alboreto’s Fatal Crash @ Lausitzring 2001 (Aftermath)

Michele Alboreto was indicated as one of the favorites for the 2001 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The season started with an impressive win in the 12 Hours of Sebring, sharing the Audi R8 with Dindo Capello and Laurent Aiello. That same day at Sebring was killed Bob Wollek, one of the best sportscar drivers of his or any other generation, in an absurd accident while cycling nearly the track. Unlike the usual, Alboreto at Sebring had been the slowest of the team. He was not in shape, lacking the necessary training and decided to kept on testing the Audi R8 in sight of Le Mans, being well respected and trusted by Reinhold Jöst. Unfortunately, on Wednesday, 25 April 2001, Michele Alboreto lost his life when he crashed while testing his Audi at the EuroSpeedway of Lausitzring, 65 kilometers north of Dresden, Germany. The () long-distance track at the Lausitzring is the () test-oval plus the () infield handling road circuit. The routine of the Audi team that day was to do two high-speed laps on the oval and the infield circuit, then into the pits for control and back on track. After changing tyres, Alboreto picked up a rear left tyre slow puncture. But in the slow section he did not feel it. Then onto the oval the pressure was already too low and at high speed the tyre failed. While running at about 340 km/h (211 mi/h) near the end of the main straight of the German track, suddenly his Audi R8 went airborne for several meters and was launched into a series of somersaults, over the retaining barrier. So hard was the impact that the roll-bar was broken, and the driver was crushed to death, being killed at the scene. The car was not extensively damaged, landing on its wheels in the other side of the guard-rail. Stéphane Ortelli, who was at the Lausitzring that same day, testing the Bentley EXP Speed 8 for Le Mans, was the last colleague to meet Michele Alboreto at the track before his fatal crash. ”Several times we had raced together and sometimes we shared the same car, but I first met Alboreto when I was a nine-year old boy, in the European Formula 3 race at Paul Ricard in 1979, I approached him and asked for an autograph...“ Ortelli remembered. Reinhold Jöst was shocked upon hearing what happened: “Michele was like a brother to me“, he said. After Alboreto’s fatal crash, Audi developed their tyre pressure monitoring system, which had been on all their race cars ever since. During his 14-year Formula 1 career Michele Alboreto made 194 starts, 80 of them with the Scuderia Ferrari. He achieved 5 wins, 23 podium finishes, 5 fastest laps and 2 pole positions, with a total of 186.5 championship points. Michele Alboreto was 44-year-old. He was survived by his wife Nadia and their daughters Alice and Noemi. On the afternoon of Friday, 27 April 2001, a service on Alboreto memory was officiated in Milan by Don Sergio Mantovani, founder of the famous “Ara”, a wing-shaped monument erected at Modena in memory of all deceased racing drivers. The Audi Sport Team Jöst hired Christian Pescatori, former 1993 Italian Formula 3 Champion and winner of the FIA SRWC in 2000 with David Terrien in a Ferrari 333SP, to replace Michele Alboreto in sight of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2001. Partnered with Dindo Capello and Laurent Aiello, Christian Pescatori finished 2nd in the 24-hour race behind the winners, team mates Emanuele Pirro-Frank Biela-Tom Kristensen. Michele Alboreto who had been recently named as the Vice-President of the CSAI-Commissione Sportiva Automobilistica Italiana, the Italian national sporting authority, had planned the creation of a new Formula to promote the careers of young Italian racing drivers. After his death, the racing school organized by the CSAI at Vallelunga was titled “Scuola di Pilotaggio Federale CSAI Michele Alboreto“ in his memory. The long straight at Lausitzring EuroSpeedway was named “Alboreto Gerade“ after him. A Harley-Davidson enthusiast, after his most recent outright success at Sebring in 2001 Michele Alboreto rushed to the “Daytona bike-week”, riding his own motorcycle which he had taken from Italy. Another curiosity: a famous Italian actor, Massimo Boldi, is Michele’s cousin. Michele Alboreto.