Michele Alboreto's Fatal Crash (Photo)

This is a picture of Michele Alboreto's fatal crash.

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 near 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 practicing his Audi at the EuroSpeedway of Lausitzring, 65 kms north of Dresden, Germany.

While running at about 340 km/h near the end of the main straight of the German track, his Audi R8 had a rear left tyre failure. Suddenly the car 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 raced together and sometimes we shared the race car, but I first met Alboreto as a boy in the European Formula 3 race at Paul Ricard in 1979 when I approached him and asked with admiration for an autograph..." Ortelli remembered. Reinhold Jöst was shocked upon hearing what happened, "Michele was like a brother to me", he said.

During his 14-year Formula 1 career he scored 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.

R.I.P. Michele Alboreto

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• michele
• alboreto
• fatal
• crash
• 2001
• audi
• tire
• failure
• eurospeedway
• lausitzring

[RacingAccidents2]

@SuperDrKas Okay, one, I never said it was "my video". Second, aside from your comment, nobody's called me an idiot. And third, it says in the title that this is a photo. What the fuck did you think would be in this video? If it was actual footage I would have said so. So just take a Midol or something and calm the fuck down.

[MrOfess]

RIP

[Robmiami9]

@erasetoimprove read the title of the "video" much.... frickin' idiot

[sloanienz]

Apparently a man who was the most talented down-shifter that Formula One will ever see.

[erasetoimprove]

This doesn't count as a video

[humbirdguitar]

song? what was it

[WakeUpDummies]

@RacingAccidents2 ROFLMAO

[dh5830]

Yeah the car is pretty good shape which is a bad thing. It means it's crash structures where not able to disapate this energy properly. My understanding was that the impact with the ground after the crash cause multiple spinal injuries.

[HeZu1987]

I didnt know that Alboreto is dead :/

[95bochamp]

@roddy0

I had heard that the car flipped sideways over the guardrail and hit the ground up-side down, thus fatally injuring Alboreto but leaving the car in relatively good shape.

[fsca72]

tire pressure sensors.

they dont work half the time anyways

[roddy0]

Not to diss anyone here, but that doesn't look like a car that has been through a high speed multiple rollover crash. TBH, it doesn't look badly damaged at all... Just saying.