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| Last updated: 27-February-2002 | |
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1987
Starts late in life, ends up with no continutity of drive |
Few drivers have driven for more teams in more categories than Andrea Montermini, from Sassuolo in Italy. His is a story of constantly scraping deals together, on the principle that any opportunity was better than no opportunity at all, in the hope that he could nail down a permanent drive somewhere. Sadly, although his racing record would suggest that he deserved otherwise, his career now seems to have petered out without Andrea ever having had an extended stay in any team, in any series.
He started late in motor racing, and that probably put him at an immediate disadvantage. It was only in 1987 that he began racing in Italian Formula Alfa Boxer, and even then he only had the funds to do 5 races. Clearly, he was good; 3 victories, two 2nd places and 3rd overall despite his limited participation attested to that. But the lack of sponsorship dollars behind him would prove to be a recurring theme throughout his career. |
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1988-90
Joins Euroteam for F3 wins before taking it to them in F3000 for ol' Nige |
In 1988 he moved up to Italian F3, racing for the Automotor Team in a Ralt Volkswagen. But the car proved uncompetitive, and Montermini scored no points. The next year, though, he secured a drive with Gabriel Seresina's Euroteam outfit, piloting a Reynard 893 Alfa Romeo to a win at Vallelunga, two 2nds, a 3rd and a 5th, enough for 27 points and 4th overall. Second place at the Monaco F3 event, held in front of F1 team bosses, further underlined his definite ability.
As a result, in 1990 he actually earned a role as test driver for the Scuderia Italia Dallara team, but racing-wise he graduated up to F3000 with the Mansell-Madgwick team in a Reynard 90D Mugen. Amazingly, he took pole for his first race at Donington, but crashed out. Fast but raw, he retired from 6 of the 11 races that year through going off the track, but otherwise picked up a 4th at Silverstone, 3rd at Jerez and 2nd at Le Mans to score 13 points, enough for 8th place. |
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1991-92
Hired and fired as Ferrari tester; joins up with Rubens, taking a win in Spain |
In 1991 he was taken on board by none other than Ferrari as official test driver, and he quickly acclimatised to the semi-automatic gearbox. Meanwhile, he had been hired by Mike Earle to race in F3000 for his 3001 International team, in a Lola T91/50 Cosworth. Once again he proved fast, taking pole at Hockenheim and fastest laps at Pau and Hockenheim, but more accidents and mechanical failures limited his point-scoring to 3rds at Jerez and Le Mans, his final position being 10th with 8 points.
However, as Ferrari argued and bickered its way to its first winless season since 1986, drastic changes were made for 1992, and Andrea's services were discarded. Forced to continue in F3000, he firstly drove for the Il Barone Rampante team in a Reynard 92D Judd, as team-mate to Rubens Barrichello. He took poles at Pau and Barcelona, crashing out in the former but finishing the job to take the win in Spain, before qualifying 2nd and coming home 3rd at Enna. |
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1992
Makes the F3000 sit up and take notice with a great 2nd in the title race |
But things then went pear-shaped, as (you guessed it) sponsorship problems forced Montermini to change teams on the eve of the Spa round. He joined Forti Corse to drive their Reynard 92D Cosworth (replacing Emanuele Naspetti who was F1-bound), and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. At Spa, amazingly he blitzed the opposition, taking pole, fastest lap and the race win, before qualifying 3rd at Albacete, and storming to yet another victory with another fastest race lap under his belt.
Suddenly, Andrea was back in the 1992 championship hunt. He then qualified 2nd in the remaining two rounds, coming 4th at Nogaro before crashing out at Magny-Cours, allowing Luca Badoer to walk away with the crown. Despite the mid-season switch, Montermini had ended up with 34 points and 2nd overall, and as a consolation that year he had also won the World Cup F3000 event held at Buenos Aires. With these results, he could have fully expected some kind of F1 offer to come his way. |
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1993
Turns the sow's ear into a silk purse with CART drive, performing Lola wonders |
But it was not to be. Perhaps it was his age (he would be 29 in 1993), or the lack of finances he offered, but all he got for the 1993 season was the Benetton test role. Apart from that, he had to be content firstly with another victory in the World Cup F3000 event, this time held in Halifax in Canada, and also a sporadic four-race stint in the CART PPG Indy Car World Series with the Euromotorsport team in a year-old Lola T92/00 Chevrolet.
His CART debut wasn't exactly glorious, as he qualified 23rd on the Gold Coast and retired from a loss of fuel pressure. But at his next start at Belle Isle in Detroit, he qualified his aging machine an incredible 6th, and finished an amazing 4th behind race-winner Danny Sullivan, Raul Boesel and Mario Andretti. After retiring in Toronto, he started 7th in Vancouver, but suffered another mechanical failure. With 12 points, he was 18th overall, but he had been seriously impressive. |
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1994
Drives for 4 CART teams in two years; shows versatility in winning Monza rally |
But in what was now becoming typical fashion, Montermini could not obtain a full-time drive anywhere for 1994. He had a one-off with Dale Coyne Racing in a Lola T93/06 Ford for the CART season-opener on the Gold Coast, but did not start after a heavy practice crash. He then secured his first F1 racing opportunity which ended as soon as it began, and after recovering from that, he picked up two drives again in CART with the Budweiser King Racing team in a Lola T93/04 Ford.
After driving a sensible race in Cleveland to come 16th, he proved his ability on street circuits by qualifying 13th in Toronto and finishing well in the points in 7th place. Demonstrating his versatility, Andrea then took part in the 17th Rally of Monza in a Lancia Delta Evolution and promptly won the event, before returning to America for another CART start at Laguna Seca, piloting a Project Indy Lola T93/06 Ford to 9th from 25th place on the grid. With 10 points, he was 24th in the 1994 CART series. |
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1994 Simtek Takes a drive for mourning team, but things go from bad to worse |
Back in mid-1994, though, Montermini had jumped at the chance to race in F1 for the first time, although he would have preferred to do it in happier circumstances. For he replaced the late Roland Ratzenberger in the Simtek team, which was still reeling from the likeable Austrian's death at Imola. Along with team-mate David Brabham, Andrea had a big responsibility on his shoulders at the Spanish GP at Barcelona to put in a good showing to lift the team's spirits.
But instead, although through little fault of his own, Andrea plunged the team into further despair. Suffering from a fever and flu, the feisty Italian bravely flung his Simtek S941 Ford around the track in qualifying, only to lose it on the kerb as he exited the tricky final sweeper. As he lost control, the kerb speared the car towards a tyre wall on the outside of the track, and Montermini was a total passenger as the Simtek slammed into the tyres. |
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1994
Disastrous start to his F1 career sees Andrea out with foot injuries |
Worse still, the impact rebounded the car back onto the track. Spinning wildly at great speed, the battered machine crossed the circuit and had a second hit, this time against the concrete pit wall on the inside of the track. It looked like a hideous accident, and it was. The Simtek sat in the middle of the track, its nosecone, front wheels and front suspension completely torn off, Andrea's mangled legs hanging out the front.
Montermini sat motionless in the wreck, and after the spate of accidents F1 had seen in previous months, the paddock feared the worst. But when medics attended to him, they found that the Italian had suffered only relatively minor ankle and foot injuries, which no doubt gave everyone much relief. The bad news for Andrea, though, was that he faced a period of recuperation, and his F1 dream had seemingly been dashed as soon as it started. |
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1995 Pacific Takes the drive that no-one wanted, but manages to outdo his teammates |
The news was not all bad, though, for by the start of the 1995 season, Andrea had been offered a full-time F1 drive with the Pacific team. In some ways this was the seat no-one wanted, looking at Pacific's 1994 record when they made only a handful of starts out of 32 attempts, but with a promising new PR02 chassis, a fairly reliable if powerless Ford ED V8 engine, and guaranteed starts in every race due to a reduced entry list, at approaching 31 this was a chance Montermini couldn't refuse.
He made the most of it too, in qualifying regularly outpacing both fellow cellar-dwellers Forti (which had moved up from F3000 for 1995), and his succession of Pacific team-mates, such as Bertrand Gachot, Giovanni Lavaggi and Jean-Denis Deletraz. He started as high as 20th out of 24 at the Nurburgring, and also in Japan (albeit only because Mark Blundell had crashed his McLaren in practice and failed to record a time, therefore starting 24th). |
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1995
Takes his best finish in Germany, but doesn't see the black flag in Monaco |
From time to time he was able to nibble at the lower midfield trundlers, and Montermini recorded finishes of 12th in Hungary, 9th in Brazil and 8th in Germany. He finished in France 10 laps down but wasn't classified. However, the financial shortage Pacific faced meant that parts were at a premium, and often used well beyond their use-by date. As a result, there were no less than 6 gearbox failures in races throughout 1995, including one in Spain which struck before the race even started.
In Argentina, he retired with suspension failure after coming together to his team-mate in a collision caused by Karl Wendlinger's Sauber, and he was disqualified at Monaco after failing to come in for a stop-go penalty for jumping the start. He spun off at Silverstone and Suzuka, and at Monza he didn't even get to participate in the race after being caught up in the race-stopping collision at the first start. |
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1995
Flies past the Finn but his team can't tell him; refuelling stop a disaster |
Montermini's most eventful race throughout 1995 was undoubtedly the European GP at the Nurburgring, though. Losing a wheel early in the weekend, he started the race 20th, on a wet track in the early stages of the race he found himself dicing with the McLarens, struggling desperately having gambled wrongly to start on slick tyres. First he disposed of Blundell, before even passing Mika Hakkinen. Unfortunately, his rapturous pit crew could not inform him of his advantage, since they didn't have a 'Hakkinen' sign for their pit board!
But when Andrea came in for fuel, disaster struck. A fuel rig problem meant no fuel was going in, and when he realised this refueller Paul Summerfield took the nozzle out, and without stepping away from the car, turned to look at the rig. The rest of the team thought the stop was complete and sent Montermini on his way. The rear-right wheel of the Pacific hit Summerfield, breaking his leg in two places. Inevitably, the car ran out of fuel. |
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1996 Forti Partners Luca in assault on the 107% limit, which wasn't reached in Oz |
By the end of the year Pacific had closed its doors, and in fact very little of the money which Montermini had promised to bring to the team actually materialised. Nonetheless, for 1996 he was happy to be re-united with Forti as team-mate to his ex-F3000 rival Luca Badoer, even if it meant another season at the wrong end of the grid. With neither driver bringing a huge amount of funds, once again money would be in short supply, and not surprisingly the 1996 challenger was late in arriving.
In the meantime, the Italian team had to start the year with a revised version of the horribly cumbersome 1995 car, rebadged as a Forti FG01 95B, coupled to a Ford Zetec R V8 engine. The introduction of the 107% qualifying rule meant that just getting into races with the old car would be an achievement in itself, but as expected neither Montermini or Badoer made the grid in the season-opening Australian GP. |
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1996
When he's on the grid it rains; the new FG03 is a much better steed |
Incredibly, Andrea did get on the grid for the next two races, starting 20th out of 22 in Brazil (only because neither Tarso Marques or Pedro Diniz recorded a time) but spinning out in the wet race, and finishing 10th but 3 laps down in Argentina. He was faster at the Nurburgring than Badoer but still not close enough to make the grid, although usually Badoer had the better of him. Thus when the new FG03 debuted at Imola, it was Luca who drove it, and he promptly qualified whereas Andrea didn't.
Montermini finally got his hands on the new car for Monaco, and qualified it 22nd, but when heavy rain began falling on race day and an extra practice session was called, Andrea punted the car into the armco and was forced to sit out the race. Another DNQ followed in Spain, and by the following round in Canada a mysterious bunch called the Shannon Group had acquired ownership of the Forti team, painting the yellow cars red, white and green instead. |
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1996
It's all over red rover after Forti then Lola die public deaths |
It brought the team a slight upturn in fortunes. Montermini qualified in both Canada and France, although loose ballast and electrical problems respectively put him out of both. But since the Shannon Group didn't even pay up, funds were dwindling fast, and in Britain neither Forti made the grid. Guido Forti tried in vain to regain control of the team, and come the German GP, although the team showed up their entry was withdrawn, and Andrea was once again out of a drive.
Having just turned 32, and having never started from higher than 20th on the grid, regardless of his pugnacity, his F1 prospects now looked extremely slim. At the start of 1997, it was reported that he had been signed in a test role once again, this time for the Mastercard Lola team, but the catastrophe of that entry has been well documented, and I doubt Montermini ever even sat in the car if such a deal had ever been made. His involvement in F1 was finally over. |
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1997
Winning feeling again as Andrea's Ferrari 333SP is victorious in IMSA WSC |
In the wake of his morale-sapping sojourn in F1, Montermini picked himself up off the canvas, and took to sports car racing instead for 1997. He teamed up with Moretti Racing to drive a Ferrari 333SP, and in the Monza 1000kms, came 7th with Gianpiero Moretti and Antonio Hermann, having taken pole and the fastest lap of the race. Clearly, it was a competitive package, and Andrea proved it when the team went to America to compete in the ambitiously-named IMSA World Sportscar Championship.
After failing to finish at the Sebring 12hrs with Moretti, Hermann and Didier Theys, for the rest of the series Montermini and Hermann were right at the front. They took 5 poles, while Montermini himself recorded 6 fastest laps as the pair stormed to victories at Lime Rock, Pikes Peak and Sebring. There was also a 2nd place at Laguna Seca and 3rds at Road Atlanta and Las Vegas, but several mechanical failures cost them dearly, and Montermini only finished 6th overall with 175 points. |
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1998-99
TWR picks him up for Le Mans testing which pays off with a 6th |
Considering he'd never raced in sports cars before, these results made Andrea a revelation, and in 1998 he was picked up by Tom Walkinshaw to help the TWR Nissan squad prepare for the Le Mans 24hrs. Apart from undertaking some 25,000 kilometres of testing, he also kept his eye in by competing in Masterkart events (having already tasted the celebrity kart scene by racing at the indoor event at Bercy at the end of 1996), plus he was gained pocket money as an F1 commentator for Italian digital TV.
At Le Mans, Montermini shared a TWR Nissan R390 GT1 with Jan Lammers and Erik Comas, finishing a fine 6th, and only 9 laps down on the winning Porsche. In 1999, he raced at Le Mans again, this time in a Courage C52 Nissan, taking 6th once more with Alex Caffi and Mimmo Schiattarella. He also made one start in the American Le Mans Series, retiring at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in a Doyle-Risi Ferrari 333SP shared with Caffi and Wayne Taylor. |
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1999-2002
Makes the trip back to the US, with CART drives and 2 Daytona starts |
Towards the end of 1999, Montermini also made a return to the CART scene, joining the All American Racers team to race the Eagle 997 Toyota in 4 rounds. Unable to qualify the uncompetitive machine higher than 21st at Laguna Seca, he came 11th at Vancouver but retired from the other three races, claiming 31st overall with 2 points. Although he hoped to secure a Champ Car drive for 2000, he ended up sitting out the whole year, but he showed up again at the start of 2001.
At the Daytona 24hrs, he joined Fabian Peroni, Sergey Zlobin and Tony Ring to classify 36th in a Mastercar Ferrari 355. He then raced at the Vallelunga 6hrs with Paul Knapfield and Paolo Nardini in an Art Engineering Porsche 996 GT3-R, placing 9th, before competing again at Daytona at the start of 2002. With Zlobin, Franco Bertoli and Vincenzo Polli, he was classified 27th in a Ferrari 360 GT. His racing career seemingly fading, Andrea now has time to indulge in his other interests, such as skiing, tennis, golf and working out. |
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