Nicola Larini……not quite on my Formula One radar, until now

After watching the Tuscan Grand prix at Mugello at the weekend, I squeezed in watching the Italian Grand prix from 1988 as I researched a future blog post. Amongst the sight of both Ferrari’s inheriting the lead of the 88 race and winning in front of an adoring tifosi, I saw the Osella of Nicola Larini for a second or two as he retired on the second lap and realised that I didn’t know a great deal about the driver.

So time for some more research to get a better understanding of a driver I knew came 2nd at the infamous Imola Grand Prix of 1994 as a substitute for Jean Alesi, and for a brief period was team mate to Johnny Herbert at Sauber……and the more I looked into his racing career, the more I realised I did know more than a little about Larini.

Starting his racing in Italy Nicola won the 1986 Italian Formula Three drivers title with the Coloni team, with whom he also raced for a single race in Formula 3000, and after racing for the Forti team in F3000 in 1987 he made his Formula One debut with Coloni at the Italian and Spanish races.

Quite a rapid rise for any driver to experience; Formula Three to Formula One in one year was relatively common in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s, and whilst he wasn’t able to qualify for his first race he did make the grid in Spain. 26th ahead of the two Osella cars, his race lasted a handful of laps before suspension problems stopped his progress.

An offer of drive for Osella for 1988 led to a season towards the back of the grid, several races without progressing through pre-qualifying or qualification, but a positive result at Monaco (9th) and Portugal (12th) showed that there was clearly driving talent behind the wheel.

Larini stayed with the team for a second season, this time in a car even further from front running pace; one race finish and eight non-pre qualifications is a poor return for the season. In Formula One career momentum is a key factor in any driver making a successful career, and two and a bit seasons at the back of the grid could of ended his career at the end of 1989.

However Nicola was recruited in 1990 by Ligier, a team famous for sticking with native French drivers, including his team mate Phillippe Alliot . Whilst the Ligier JS33 was a step up from the previous Osella and Coloni cars he had driven, the closest Nicola got to scoring points was a sequence of 7th place finishes in Spain and Japan. He did however outperform his team mate over the course of the season.

The following season he was signed up to race for the Modena team and almost scored points in the teams debut at the US Grand Prix – another 7th place! However the first race was a season highlight; Nicola only qualified for four more races and never finished higher than 16th. Five seasons into his Formula One career, no points scored yet and with the exception of Ligier no car really worthy of his driving talent.

Now its hard for me to fully appreciate the significance of what happened next (I’m neither Italian nor have I ever been asked to test, let alone race for Ferrari) but that is exactly what happened next. Nicola was signed to specifically test drive to help develop the teams active suspension system in 1992, and whilst he filled his season driving and winning the Italian Touring Car Championship in an Alfa Romeo, after the team dismissed Ivan Capelli he was promoted to race alongside Jean Alesi at the last two races of the season.

An Italian driver racing for Ferrari – does it get any better? Starting at the back of the grid for both races, due to technical issues, he managed to finish 12th (Japan) and 11th (Australia) in the F92AT car.

No pun intended but again in 1993 his Formula One career appeared to have stalled. Retained by Ferrari as a test driver once again, he dovetailed this role with a full time drive in the DTM in Germany, where again driving for Alfa Romeo he took the drivers title.

Again acting as a substitute driver Nicola returned to Formula One in 1994 filling in for Jean Alesi who was injured for a couple more races for Ferrari. Elimination early on in the Pacific Grand Prix was unfortunate , but his drive in the fateful Imola Grand Prix led to his career best finish, 2nd, obviously totally overshadowed by the events of the race and no chance of celebration for Nicola achieving such a strong race result, at his home race in a Ferrari.

With Alesi back to fitness Nicola headed back to the DTM, finishing the season third, but his Formula One career appeared to be over. A couple more seasons with Alfa Romeo in DTM and newly formed International Touring Car Championship led to a race win and several more visits to the podium, and a real reputation developing of a fast Touring Car driver.

Previous connections to Ferrari led to a slightly surprising return to Formula One though in 1998 (Ferrari supplied engines to the Sauber team….) and another dream debut saw Nicola score his last F1 points with 6th place. Four races later he had left the team after arguments with team principal Peter Sauber and now some twelve years after his Grand Prix debut Larini’s career in Formula One was finally over.

49 race starts, 1 podium and 7 career points could be viewed as a pretty poor return on a career spanning eleven seasons, but driving for Ferrari, winning titles in Touring Cars and scoring points in Formula One are all great achievements; many drivers never score a Formula One point, and even greater number never make it to Formula One at all.

From Coloni driving back marker, to podium finisher for Ferrari is quite a story, and one which really should be acknowledged as a significant, if slightly unconventional one. In the current world of driver academies and manufacturer support its hard to see a Larini style driver story emerge in modern Formula One……but you never know!