Featured protagonists: Elio de Angelis
Translated by this website
ROME – The phone call from Colin Chapman reached him on Tuesday evening, when he was already packing his suitcase for Imola. “Elio,” the owner of Lotus told him, “We won’t be racing next Sunday. But don’t worry, we’re not in trouble. We’ll definitely be there in Zolder, in mid-May, and with the new car.”
When the news of the sensational absence spread, Elio De Angelis reacted with apparent ease.
“Patience! It will mean that I will go to the Olympic stadium to cheer for my Roma team that plays against Perugia.” It was a phrase that served to mask his disappointment, to say that he, as a simple spectator, would not go to Imola.
For the second time in his brief but brilliant career as a Formula 1 driver, De Angelis was forced to miss a race. The previous absence dated back to May two years ago, when with the modest Shadow he failed to qualify for the Monte Carlo Grand Prix. A deep bitterness even then, but the situation was completely different. Now, however, that he has started the season aiming for the world title, ironically, he finds himself without a car.
So, while testings for the San Marino Grand Prix had started in Imola, Elio preferred to go spend the weekend in Sardinia. Over there, in the splendid family villa, between the sun and the sea, he thought he could better bear the idea of not racing.
“I didn’t even want to follow the race on TV,” he says. “Then on Sunday, at one o’clock, I flew back to Rome and from Ciampino, where I landed, I took part in my own personal Grand Prix to get home in time and turn on the TV a few moments before the start. I think it was worth it, because it was an exceptional race. I really enjoyed it, even though I often thought that for me it would have been the ideal race to get some satisfaction. In fact, with the rain, even the old Lotus 81 would have allowed me to fight with the best. I must say that I was thrilled by Villeneuve for how he took the lead and Patrese, who did everything his Arrows allowed him. Pironi, on the other hand, fought very well, but I think he could have made life difficult for Piquet for at least another three or four laps. About the others, I liked Tambay, and I was pleasantly surprised by Salazar and Alboreto, who, in testing, did better than their respective team leaders. However, it’s better to race than talk about other people’s exploits.”
Word spread in the Imola garage that De Angelis could change team. Rumors that were almost taken for granted after Lotus’ withdrawal.
“I’m very happy at Lotus – Elio continues – and I don’t see why I should leave Chapman in the lurch. My boss’ desire to race and win is still intact. I think we wouldn’t have gone to Imola even without Thieme’s misadventure. Not participating in the Grand Prix was a polemical response to the Formula 1 world that wanted the ‘88’ to be disqualified at all costs. For this reason, I’m calm. In fact, Colin, even if he didn’t want to reveal the name, revealed to me that he has already started contacts with a new sponsor, who should take over from Essex.”
Waiting for the Lotus 87
If Chapman’s desire to win, in Elio’s opinion, is intact, De Angelis also reacted in the best way to the difficult moment his team is going through.
“Before leaving for Long Beach I said I was a candidate for the title. Then everything you know happened and now I must live day by day. That doesn’t mean I’m giving up. On the contrary. In the meantime, we’ve understood the mistakes we made with the ‘81’ and then as soon as possible I’ll have the ‘87’ available, which retains the monocoque of the ‘88’ with traditional aerodynamics. I think it should be a car very similar to the current Brabham.”
Precisely in these days Elio De Angelis, despite having just turned 23, is proving that he is not the spoiled boy that many had wanted to portray when he arrived at a very young age in Formula 1. His skills, as a driver and as a man, are revealing themselves to everyone, to the insiders in particular, beyond his natural shyness.
Unlike some other young champions, success is changing him for the better. His habits, his friendships, his everyday life have not changed, but he has matured and is no longer closed in on himself like he once was. He is a different Elio from the one we knew when he won an exciting edition of the Formula 3 Monte Carlo Grand Prix.
It was 1978 – just three years ago and it seems like a lifetime – Elio was competing in the European Formula 2 championship without managing to emerge with the Ralt powered by a Ferrari engine that was no longer competitive. In May Elio decided to repeat the “move” successfully accomplished the year before by a young Frenchman of Italian origin who was going strong, a certain Didier Pironi. So, Elio took a step back, so to speak, got back into a Formula 3 (after all he was the Italian champion of the category) and “wrecked” Monte Carlo. It was the success that at the end of the season would open the golden doors of Formula 1 for him. After that victory Elio was in seventh heaven, close to exaltation. Today he seems to be not three but ten years older, in terms of his sense of proportion. He “talks about himself” simply, spontaneously, almost having fun.
What a shame not to be able to study
“Unfortunately, racing took me away from university. My life doesn’t allow me to study. I enrolled in architecture, then I switched to law and now I’m ‘off course’ in economics and commerce. I’m sorry. My Roman days are those of a boy my age. I also have my good hobby: I play the piano and compose music, a cross between blues and country music. I always try to improve and for this reason I keep up to date with everything that comes out. My favorite authors are the American Stevie Wonder and the Super-Tramp band. My big dream would be to be able to record an album one day. But I would like it to sell not because I’m a Formula 1 driver but because there’s good music.”
A Patriarchal Family
De Angelis’ is a very patriarchal family, where the four siblings (Elio is the eldest, then there are Roberto, Andrea and Fabiana) are very close to each other and tenderly attached to their parents.
“When the whole family follows me to the races, I’m happy. They keep me company, encourage me, advise me. With my brothers, in the karting era, we always raced together. Back then, it was great. Now, for obvious reasons, they can’t always come with me and it’s a shame because they are very useful to me. I trust them blindly. As drivers they were promising: Roberto had a lot of grit and Andrea was a Reutemann type. I’m convinced they would have done well. But I’m glad they stopped, because I love them so much and racing is too dangerous.”
In his life, even though he is very popular among girls, especially Roman ones, there are only three women: his mother, his sister and Cristina.
“My mother, like my father, is a big fan. Dad lives my experience intensely. He is almost always with me. He is an extroverted, volcanic man. He would always like to see me in the front row and, sometimes, he does not realize that the problems are bigger than they may appear on the outside. However, his life experience is always very useful. Mom rarely goes to the races, but she knows everything and not a day goes by that I do not introduce myself to myriads of her friends as a prodigy.
Fabiana is also competent and would like to come with me, but school commitments prevent her from doing so. Cristina, my girlfriend for seven years, practically since we were children, on the other hand, almost hates racing. Plus, she doesn’t like flying and so you rarely see her in the pits. For me, she is an important woman, a ‘certainty’ in my existence. I am not capable of saying anything else about her. But the time we have been together shows what she means to me.”
After motor racing, De Angelis’ sporting passions are football (he is an incurable Roma fan), swimming and tennis (he is a friend of Panatta).
“To keep fit, rather than jogging, which I find very boring, I prefer to play tennis or soccer. But just recently I discovered a new pastime, which is halfway between dancing and sport: roller skating. It was Cristina who convinced me. If I want to run, I go to Pincio in Villa Borghese, otherwise to Piper, a nightclub that was once a mecca for young people, where a rink has been set up where you can skate to the beat of music. I must say that in Italy, in this sense, we are very behind. In Brazil and the United States, I have seen wonderful places where young people and not only them, can let loose on skates.”
“I have speed in my blood”
Now Elio De Angelis is preparing with maximum concentration for next Sunday’s race in Belgium and to those who ask him when he will take Rebaque’s place at Brabham, he answers curtly.
“Many rumors have been spread. Meanwhile, as I already said, Lotus will certainly finish the season. For next year, if Chapman were to leave, I would like to have some concrete offers. In Formula 1, there is too much talk. And then I became fond of Lotus. It’s a team capable of making me win the title. If I had to change, I would only go to a team that could offer me the same chances.”
When we get back to talking about Formula 1 Elio becomes feistier. In just over two years he has perfectly understood how to act in order not to be overwhelmed in a difficult world.
“But it’s not true that friendship doesn’t exist. Of course there is a strong rivalry between us. But among the people closest to me I can count two drivers, Beppe Gabbiani, who I followed with sympathy in the Imola race, and Gianfranco Brancatelli, an extraordinary guy, who was very unlucky in his sports career. The important thing in the racing environment is not to get too emotionally carried away. You must know how to absorb disappointments and not get excited about a positive result. It’s a continuous alternation of happy moments and problems that distress you. But I wouldn’t be able to conceive, today, my life without racing. I’ve asked myself many times why I do it and the answer, even if it may seem a bit rhetorical, is always the same: because I have speed in my blood.”
In Zolder, except for some sensational surprises in a negative sense, Elio De Angelis returns. The “great absentee” from Imola, car permitting, will fight to regain the platonic, but no less valid, title of best Italian Formula 1 driver obtained at the end of last season.
“I don’t think about the world championship anymore – he concludes – but I would like to finish the championship in a better position than I did in 1980.
I would like to win at least one grand prix and, why not, challenge the excellent Patrese of this beginning of the world championship.”
© 1981 Autosprint • By Oscar Orefici • Published for entertainment and educational purposes, no copyright infringement is intended
