1985-05-19 156-85 (27) Michelle Alboreto CAN - Montreal 1
The 1985 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal on 16 June 1985. The 70-lap race was won by Italian driver Michele Alboreto, driving a Ferrari 156-85, with Swedish teammate Stefan Johansson second and Frenchman Alain Prost third in a McLaren-TAG.
Michele Alboreto, is the last Italian driver to win a race with Ferrari. He was runner up to Alain Prost in the 1985 Formula One World Championship, as well as winning the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans and 2001 12 Hours of Sebring sports car races. Alboreto competed in Formula One from 1981 until 1994, racing for a number of teams, including five seasons (1984–88) for Ferrari.
At the age of 24, Alboreto made his Formula One debut at the 1981 San Marino Grand Prix for the Cosworth-powered Tyrrell Racing team, replacing Ricardo Zunino after the Argentine failed to impress team boss Ken Tyrrell.
In his debut season for Ferrari, Alboreto took victory in the third round at Zolder becoming the first Italian driver to win an F1 Grand Prix for Ferrari since Ludovico Scarfiotti won the 1966 Italian Grand Prix. 1985 would prove to be Alboreto's most successful year in Formula One. He took two wins: the first at the Canadian Grand Prix, and the second at the German Grand Prix.Alboreto was Prost's only real challenger for the World Championship". Ultimately it was Ferrari's unreliability which cost Alboreto his chance at the World Championship as he failed to finish the final five races of the season all due to mechanical failure.In 1986 Ferrari's new car, the F1/86 designed by Harvey Postlethwaite, proved to be slower and less reliable than its predecessor as Alboreto retired from nine races, of which seven were mechanical failuresAustrian Gerhard Berger joined Ferrari in 1987 which signalled the end of Alboreto's time as leader of the Ferrari team.The 1988 season would be Alboreto's final year with Ferrari. With the McLarens of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost dominating the season, the Ferrari team only managed a single win during the year at the Italian Grand Prix which Berger won from Alboreto in second place.Alboreto competed in eighty Grands Prix for Ferrari, which established a new record. It stood until the 1995 Argentine Grand Prix, when it was surpassed by Berger.
After Ferrari he raced for various less competitive teams and finished his career in F1 in 1994 racing for MinardiIn 2001, a month after his Sebring victory, he was killed testing an Audi R8 at the Lausitzring in Germany.
