Marco Apicella

Born on the 7th October 1965, near Bologna, Italy, Marco Apicella spent a number of years in Formula 3000 and entered one Formula One Grand Prix in 1993.

He started in karts from 1981 to 1983 before graduating to Italian Formula Three in 1984 where he raced Coperchino Corse’s Alfa Romeo powered Ralt RT3. Though he did not finish in the first two rounds he was third at Mugello and went on to finish fifth and sixth at Imola and Enna Pergusa plus had two further podium finishes with second at Magione and third at Vallelunga. He also contested two European F3 rounds with Scuderia Escolette’s RT3 and retired at the Lotteria di Monza and was tenth at Mugello.

Continuing with Coperchini he had a busy schedule in 1985 and despite retiring due to a puncture in the first race at Vallelunga he then took his first victory at the next race at Misano. Further finishes with the RT3 included thirteenth at Varano, sixteenth at Monza, sixth at Mugello and fourth at Vallelunga plus second and third at Imola and Magione. Highlights came with two further victories at the Gran Premio di Adriatico (ahead of Fabrizio Barbazza and Nicola Larini) and the Trofeo Paletti at Varano and he finished fourth in the Italian championship. There were two outings at the end of the season in International F3 with a Dallara F385 though he retired Venturini’s car from the the Coupe d’Europe at Paul Ricard and his own Apicella Racing entered car at the Macau Grand Prix.

1986 saw him teamed with Nicola Larini at Coloni Racing and besides taking three wins he also recorded four pole positions and a fastest lap. He hit the ground running with their Dallara F386 by taking victory in the first two races at Vallelunga (beating Stefano Modena, Andrea Chiesa, Nicola Larini and Alex Caffi) and Misano. There followed a strong run of results and though he did not finish at the prestigious Monaco F3 race due to an accident, in the next four rounds he took third places at Varano and the Lotteria di Monza, second at Magione plus victory at Imola. During the summer there were three consecutive third place results at Enna-Pergusa, the Gran Premio di Adriatico and the Premio Monza and he came home fourth at Enna Pergusa in September. Away from the Italian series, in late October he contested an International F3 race for Coloni at Imola but retired after a spin. At the end of the season Coloni would take the title with Marco the runner-up on 62 points to Larini’s 69 points.

Then came a move into Formula 3000 which he would contest up to 1991 and his first season started with EuroVenturini. He was fifteenth at Silverstone’s opening round and later results included thirteenth at Birmingham and Imola, fifteenth at Bugatti (Le Mans) and his best results were seventh at Donington and fifth at the challenging Spa circuit. During the year he had his first taste of Formula 1 when he tested for Minardi at Estoril.

He then had three seasons with Lamberto Leoni’s FIRST squad, driving a March in 1988 alongside Pierluigi Martini and he was fifteenth again at the opening race, this time at Jerez. In the next four rounds he was seventh at Vallelunga, fifth at Pau (plus took fastest lap), sixth at Silverstone and took an impressive second place finish at Monza but unfortunately the remaining races ended in retirements. In qualifying at the Birmingham Superprix Marco was engaged in an exciting battle with Roberto Moreno and Olivier Grouillard and they were separated by a 0.04 of a second. However, the race would prove eventful, having two restarts and R.Moreno took the chequered flag but Marco retired on lap 18 due to engine problems. The team were running Reynards the following year and he started with eighth at Silverstone but retired at the next round at Valelunga (though posted the race’s fastest lap). He went on to have a strong run of results with fourth at Enna-Pergusa plus third place finishes at Jerez and Spa. He was on pole at Pau and recorded the fastest lap and came home second while at Birmingham he fought throughout the race against Jean Alesi and it remained that way to the finish, with Alesi beating Marco by a slender margin. He finished fourth in the championship behind Jean Alesi’s Jordan and DAMS’ drivers Erik Comas and Eric Bernard. In his final season with FIRST he was thirteenth at Donington and took fifth at Monza and Nogaro but a crash at Pau prevented him from claiming his first win. There were three podiums with second at Jerez and Hockenheim plus third at Silverstone and he finished sixth in 1990’s championship. Alongside his F3000 commitments there were test drives with Minardi and Mauro Forghieri’s Lamborghini-powered F1 car and late in the year he went to Japan and tested for Bridgestone in a Reynard-Mugen F1 prototype car.

1991 was his fifth season in F3000 where he joined Paul Stewart Racing and driving alongside Stewart he finished fifth in the championship. His results included fourth at Pau and Brands Hatch plus two second place finishes at Mugello and Enna-Pergusa and eleventh in the season’s final race at Nogaro. Away from single seaters, there was a touring car outing at the 24 hours of Spa in a Peugeot 309 GT1 with Eric Bachelaart and Pascal Witmeur, but they retired with engine problems.

With no offers for a drive for 1992, Marco went to Japan to drive in their F3000 series and racing for the front-running DOME team he took sixth with the F103 at Mine, won at Autopolis plus was fifth and sixth at Sugo and Fuji. He continued to improve the next year and took fourth at Fuji and had a victory and second place finishes at Sugo and Fuji. Suzuka hosted 4 races that season and besides a fourth place at one round, in two others he was on pole plus recorded the fastest lap and at season end was fourth in the championship, behind Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Eddie Irvine and Ross Cheever. His performances in Japan earned him a drive for 1993’s Italian GP with Jordan, who needed a replacement for Thierry Boutsen following his retirement from F1. Prior to the race weekend, Marco tested the Jordan 193 car at Imola and qualifying at Monza saw him line up twenty third on the grid. Unfortunately, at the start, as they approached the first chicane, Derek Warwick and Aguri Suzuki’s Footwork drivers collided and took each other out then JJ Lehto’s Sauber and the two Jordans were involved and the three retired on the spot. Opinions on who was at fault varied, as Lehto stated “The car was moving in first gear and the engine just stopped.” As he got to the chicane he thought the Jordan hit someone, who then came across and hit him and caused him to spin. As his engine had stopped he was unable continue. Marco stated he was trying to careful through the corner, as his experience at Monza showed it was an easy place for a first-lap accident, telling how “Somebody hit me in the first corner. I saw Rubens spinning, and as I tried to miss him someone hit my front suspension.” Jordan team-mate Barrichello stated that before braking for the corner “somebody hit me hard from behind. It was a big shunt because the back of the car was actually lifted up and spun round. I don’t know who it was but as I spun I saw Lehto so it could have been him. I’m not sure. Marco’s debut lasted no more than 800 metres and Emanuele Naspetti was in the car for the following round in Portugal. However, an abiding image of the race was at the finish when Christian Fittipaldi’s Minardi made contact with team mate Martini’s car. After clipping his rear wheel he flew up into the air at 190 mph but fortunately his car came back down on its wheels and he rolled across the line to finish eighth.

For 1994 he continued with Dome and in the season’s 10 races (with two races at each round) he took three wins at Mine, Suzuka and Fuji, eight podiums, two poles and five fastest laps on his way to the title. Switching to the 5Zigen team, despite turning in some solid performances the following two seasons proved less successful with the Reynard and in his three finishes in 1995 he was eighth at Fuji plus eighth and tenth at Suzuka.

In 1996, with the series now titled Formula Nippon, he was thirteenth at Sugo, tenth, twelfth and fourteenth at three rounds at Suzuka and his best results were two eighth places at Fuji and Tokachi though his only point-scoring position was a fourth at Mine. The year saw his Le Mans 24 Hours debut and he, Jeff Krosnoff and Mauro Martini came home fourteenth (sixth in class) in SARD’s Toyota Supra GT LM. His main activity that year involved testing duties for Dome, testing their F105 car alongside Shinji Nakano and Katsumi Yamamoto from April to June at Suzuka; the aim was for the car to produce a base for the team to mount a challenge into F1. Shinji Nakano was first to shake down the car but in late April Marco took his first laps in the Mugen-Honda V10 powered car but his first run ended after 18 laps with a broken throttle linkage. He continued with a busy schedule during April-June and by the end of the month the 550km mark had been reached and by mid-May they had clocked up 900km. The team faced niggling faults and were surprised that the car’s parts needed to be replaced very often and it was not as durable as their F3000 car. Shinji Nakano took over the testing duties towards the end of the year (at one session the car was substantially damaged after a fire) but the project ultimately failed to make the grid.

1997 was his final season in Japan and he took fourth with Stellar International’s Reynard 96D at Mine, fifth and sixth at Sugo and Fuji plus eighth at Suzuka (twice) and Fuji. There was also one outing in the All Japan GT Championship in a Nissan Skyline GT-R for NISMO at Fuji and he and Aguri Suzuki came home fourth. Although not seen as much in the late 1990s he was back in Italy for 1999, competing in the Italian F3000 championship for Monaco Motorsport and won with the Lola T96/50 at Vallelunga and Misano. Though he did not qualify at Spa due to freak weather conditions during qualifying, he was eighth and eleventh at Donington and Misano plus also recorded three fastest laps on his way to finishing third in the final standings. In one FIA Sportscar outing in Target 24’s Riley & Scott MkIII he and Andrea de Lorenzi were fourth at Brno but racing the car (with Carl Rosenblad and Shane Lewis) at Le Mans they retired on lap 67.

He then returned to Japan where he was a regular in the Japanese GT series, competing in 2000 with Kazuyuki Nishizawa for the Sport Today Racing Team. However, it was a frustrating season, with low scoring results and numerous retirements in the Porsche 986 Boxster and there was only one pole position. He contested the following two seasons with Team JLOC’s Lamborghini Diablo GT1 (alongside Naohiro Furuya and Hisashi Wada) though experienced numerous retirements and low scoring finishes. 2003 and 2004 saw him driving Team Tom’s Toyota Supra and there was only one retirement in the first season, and he and Kurosawa took sixth and eighth at the Special GT Cup and 500km races, both at Fuji.

The second season was stronger and he and Takeshi Tsuchiya’s results included tenth at Sepang, fifth at Motegi, seventh at Sugo, Aida and Autopolis, fourth at Tokachi and a podium finish with second place in the Suzuka 300km. He was back in a Lamborghini Murcielago for 2005 and drove Reiter Engineering’s car at the GT test at Monza with Peter Kox and Norman Simon. Following this there was one Le Mans Series race with JLOC’s Murcielago R-GT and six races for the team in Super GT Japan. He continued with JLOC over the next two years, racing with Yasutaka Hinoi (plus Naohiro Furuya at Suzuka) in eight races in 2006. In the following year, in four races alongside Koji Yamanishi their best finish was twelfth at Fuji.

During this period has also competed in several Le Mans 24 Hours races though these three outings with JLOC’s Lamborghini Murcielago ended in retirement. In 2006, he, Koji Yamanishi and Yasutaka Hinoi’s race ended on lap 283 but in the following year, during Wednesday qualifying the session was red flagged about halfway through when Marco hit the wall at the first Mulsanne chicane. It was later announced by the ACO that the team would be allowed to use another Murcielago R-GT chassis, borrowed from the French DAMS team, but Marco was not allowed to drive in the race due to the head injuries he sustained in the accident. This left the team with two drivers (Atsushi Yogo and Koji Yamanishi) but the rebuilt Lamborghini was the first retirement of the race when the gearbox failed on the first lap.

Unfortunately, in 2009’s event, the JLOC car did not complete a lap in free practice after breaking a driveshaft and it then struggled with mechanical issues in qualifying. Marco, A.Yogo and Y.Yamagishi started at the back on the grid but once the race began they would retire on the first lap. There was one outing in 2009 in Super GT Japan with JLOC’s Murcielago RG-1 plus he raced Petri Corse’s Gallardo LP-560 in three Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo races.

These races saw the end of Marco’s professional racing career and after retiring he served as a racing instructor and sales representative for the Stilo race helmet company.