Ivan Franco Capelli (born 24 May 1963, in Milan) is an Italian former Formula One driver.
He participated in 98 Grands Prix, debuting on 6 October 1985.He achieved three podiums, and scored a total of 31 championship points. From 1997 until 2018 he was a Formula One commentator on the Italian TV station Rai 1. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
After beginning in karts, Ivan Capelli moved up to Italian F3, where he dominated and took nine victories on his way to being Champion in 1983. Following that he moved with the Coloni team to the European F3 Championship and became champion in 1984.
1985 saw a move up to the European F3000 Championship with a Genoa Racing March-Cosworth and he won one race, although national service delayed his debut until the fourth race. The year saw him debut in Formula One, replacing Stefan Bellof at Tyrrell at the European GP and he later finished fourth in Australia. The Adelaide race was a test of endurance due to blazing heat and running for just over 2 hours. However, despite his drinks bottle failing almost immediately, he battled with M.Brundle and E.Cheever for his eventual fourth place, though needed medical attention after the race.
With no full-time F1 drive forthcoming for 1986 he contested the F3000 Championship with Genoa Racing plus raced a BMW in the European Touring Car Championship. Despite retiring from four out of eleven races in F3000, he won at Vallelunga and at Osterreichring, plus had four podium finishes, and took the title ahead of drivers such as Emmanuele Pirro, Pierluigi Martini, Philippe Alliot, Satoru Nakajima and Gabriele Tarquini. Despite not landing a full-time F1 contract for 1986 he did start several races for the AGS team, retiring from both the Italian and Portuguese GPs.
1987 saw him race for the season with March and he took their first point with a sixth place finish at the Monaco Grand Prix. He also continued racing for Schnitzer BMW in touring cars.
Things looked promising for the team and 1988’s March had a chassis designed by Adrian Newey, was powered by a Judd V8 engine and his team mate was Maurício Gugelmin. They made a strong team and the March 881 was the surprise of the year, with Ivan talking fifth place finishes in Canada, Italy and Germany and sixth places at Monaco and Australia. At Detroit, he broke a bone in his foot after hitting the pit wall and had to sit the race out but recovered in time for France, finishing ninth. He scored his first podium at Spa, with a third place behind Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost; although this was as a result of the Benettons being disqualified from third and fourth due to fuel irregularities) though his best finish was second at the Portuguese Grand Prix, behind Alain Prost.
The team became Leyton House March for 1989 but it would prove a disappointing year and although team mate Mauricio finished third in Brazil, this was with 1988’s car. 1989’s car was hampered by unreliability and unfortunately neither driver challenged for the top in the rest of the year. However the team kept fighting all season and it was helped by the strong unit formed during their rise through the lower formulae, which kept all the key staff in one place.
In 1990, the team struggled initially, with him retiring after twenty laps at Phoenix and at Interlagos neither car qualified due to the track’s bumpy nature. During the season, Adrian Newey left the team but had already devised a new floor plan which helped with the car’s aerodynamic problems. At Paul Ricard, the circuit’s smooth surface and long straights suited the car and it ran so well the tyres wore considerably less than the other teams. Ivan qualified a strong seventh and eventually both drivers led 1–2 for much of the race, though Ivan was overtaken by A.Prost’s Ferrari with 3 laps to go and finished a strong second. It was a popular result and even technical director Gustav Brunner jumped over the pit wall as he crossed the line.
1991 would be another disappointing season and though there were reliability problems, Ivan often qualified and raced well. He was running fifth at San Marino Grand Prix before he spun out due to a puncture and at Montreal was in fourth place until his engine failed. Hungary saw a sixth place finish, plus a point, and there could have been more points in Portugal until a kerb took off his nosecone. But after team owner Akagi was arrested on fraud charges the team found themselves in a precarious state. Ivan had signed for Ferrari for the following season so he voluntarily stepped down, to allow pay driver Karl Wendlinger to finish 1991’s season. He also personally paid to attend the races he would miss to offer support to the team and advice to K.Wendlinger and at the final race the team presented Ivan with a trophy in a pit lane ceremony to commemorate his six years with them.
The reaction after signing for Ferrari was immediate and he described how, on his way to Maranello on the morning of the press conference, he stopped on the way to refuel and there was no recognition. But in the evening, they stopped again to refuel at the same petrol station and his car was quickly surrounded by people asking for autographs.
Ferrari had strong expectations for their F92A but the car proved uncompetitive. Unfortunately he came to Ferrari at a turbulent period, as the team did not win a single race the previous year and Alain Prost had been sacked before the end of the season. Luca de Montezemolo returned to take charge and brought Harvey Postlethwaite as technical director but he was too late to influence the new car as the F92A was ready when he arrived. When Ivan did his first lap at Estoril he realised that it was not a positive advance compared to 1991’s car plus the V12 proved unreliable. Ivan also enjoyed the friendly atmosphere of a family-type team and struggled to integrate within the structure of Ferrari. At Kyalami, he qualified ninth but retired when the engine failed and in Mexico engines failed through practice and he started twentieth. He was able to finish fifth in Brazil and qualified fifth at Spain though in Monaco he ended up on the tyre wall at Rascasse, followed by a front wishbone failure in Canada. He finished fifth in Hungary, though subsequently retired from Belgium, Italy and Portugal but, in an ironic twist, he was sacked with two races of the season to go, as had Alain Prost the year before. For an Italian driver, it is a dream to race for Ferrari but unfortunately it proved a nightmare for him.
1993 saw him sign for Jordan (alongside R.Barrichello) but the damage had been done to his confidence and he failed to rediscover the spark that not long ago had marked him as a future champion. He retired in the season’s opening race at South Africa, and after failing to qualify in Brazil, he then left the team by mutual consent.
After leaving Formula One, he raced a Nissan Primera from 1994 to 1996 for BMS Scuderia Italia in the Super Tourenwagen Cup series plus competed at Le Mans in 1995, driving a Honda NSX GT1 (with Arin Hahne and Bertrand Gachot).
He later occasionally competed in GT races around the world, from Italy to Australia, and joined Trofeo Motorsport as a guest driver in the Australian GT Championship. In 2016 he took part in an Adelaide Motorsport Festival, where he was reunited with the Leyton House March he drove in 1989’s Australian GP. Following this he finished tenth overall and third in class at the 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour race in a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and in 2018’s race finished eighth overall and fourth in Pro-Am class.
For many years he has been involved as an F1 commentator for Italian TV and remains a popular personality in the paddock plus has regularly played in the charity World Stars Football matches which took place before the Monaco GP, playing for the Nazionale Piloti team of drivers (and ex-drivers).
