Alexandre “Alex” Dias Ribeiro (born in Belo Horizonte, 7 November 1948) is a former racing driver from Brazil.
He entered in 20 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, but scored no World Championship points. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
A very religious man, during his racing days Alex Ribeiro sometimes competed with ‘Jesus Saves’ slogans on his car and in 1994 was a pastor with the Brazilian football team at the World Cup in America. At one time, Alex ran a kart and motorbike shop in Brasilia called Camber and two of his early, teenage, customers were Nelson Piquet and Roberto Moreno.
Born in 1948 in Belo Horizonte, Alex’s early racing involved endurance events, and co-driving with J.Luis Fonseca they finished second at 1967’s 500km Brasilia (in a VW), third and fourth in the following year’s 500 mile Guanabara and 500km Brasilia races and in 1969 were third in a Camber at the GP Fortaleza. Racing solo saw him finish fifth in 1971’s 300km Trauma in an Amok 2000 followed by victory in 1972’s Circuito de Brasilia with an Equipe Hollywood Porsche 910.
In 1973 he was the Brazilian Formula Ford champion, taking five wins from seven races and he then headed for Europe. Competing in F3 with a GRD 374, he won three races, and followed this with a factory F3 March in 1975. Continuing in European F2 in 1976, there was an impressive pole position in quailifying at Rouen and he finished second at Thruxton and Enna-Pergusa.
1976 saw his Formula 1 debut at Watkins Glen for the US GP, where he brought the Hesketh 308D-Ford home to a twelfth place finish. He then contested a full F1 season March in 1977 but it proved to be a frustrating time, as the team had four drivers, and struggled to provide for them all. There were five finishes during the year with his best results being eighth in Germany and Canada.
There were a number of F2 races through 1977 and he took pole and finished third at Thruxton. In the following year he set up his own team to compete in European F2 (his March 782-Hart featuring the words ‘Jesus Saves’) and took a strong win at the Nurburgring. In 1979 he raced with Fittipaldi Automotive in a non-championship Dino Ferrari GP at Imola and was invited to drive for the team (alongside Emerson Fittipaldi) in the end of season US and Canadian races, though failed to qualify.
In 1981, he wrote an autobiography called ‘Mais Que Vencedor’ (translation similar to ‘More Than A Winner’) in which he called March owner Max Mosley ‘Mack Mouse’ and engineer Robin Herd ‘Robin Hood’.
Alex went on to enjoy a long career in touring cars in Brazil and was a contender in 1992’s SudAm F3 Championship, driving a Ralt RT33 with ‘Jesus Saves’ logos displayed on his car.
In 1994 he was the pastor with Brazil at the World Cup in the United States, holding worship services for the team and later wrote a book about the team’s victory, titled ‘Who won the ’94 World Cup?.’ During the celebrations after winning the final against Italy, the team raised a banner on the field in Ayrton Senna’s honour and dedicated the World Cup victory to him.
In 1999 he returned to Formula 1, driving the medical car at World Championship Grands Prix. Unfortunately in 2000 he crashed and hit the barriers during practice at Monaco, leaving passenger Professor Sid Watkins with three broken ribs.
At 2002’s Brazilian GP, Alex luckily escaped serious injury in an incident during the morning warm-up on race day. Enrique Bernoldi crashed his Arrows and when Alex went to check on him, just as he was about to get out of the car Nick Heidfeld’s Sauber smashed into the open door. Fortunately neither of them were injured. N.Heidfeld was braking for the corner when he saw the repeater warning lights flashing on the dashboard of his Sauber, but was unable to slow enough to avoid the accident.
