Elio de Angelis | Birthdate: | March 26th 1958 | | | | Country: | Italy  | | | | Gender: | M |
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Elio De Angelis was a talented Italian driver who sadly became one of many Formula 1 drivers to perish at the wheel, the last for eight years.
Elio was one of the most popular drivers of the time, having kept the others entertained with his piano-playing during the drivers strike of the late-eighties.
The Roman made his debut in 1979 for the Shadow team. After a pretty anonymous year he left to join Lotus, where he had more success. In fact he almost took his first win in 1980, and in doing so would've become the youngest driver to ever win a race at just twenty years old. However he could only manage second at Interlagos, Brazil.
Having taken a few wins the following years De Angelis chose to leave Lotus to join Brabham. The Italian had got fed up with the team's backing of young protege Ayrton Senna and wanted to lead from the front. However the Brabham wasn't particularly good and De Angelis struggled. Then, in practice at Paul Ricard, Elio crashed the car causing it to catch fire. With no-one at the circuit to help De Angelis died of asphyxiation. This prompted increased safety measures in the sport and was the last death for eight years until Roland Ratzenberger died in Imola.
Elio's place at Brabham was taken by Derek Warwick in unusual circumstances. Warwick was reportedly the only driver who didn't contact Bernie Ecclestone about the drive after De Angelis' death, and was therefore chosen to drive the Brabham.
Statistics
| Statistic | # | Percentage | First | Last |
| Number of Grand Prix | 109 | 100% |  1979 |  1986 |
| Number of starts | 109 | 100.00% | 1979 | 1986 |
| Number of finishes | 60 | 55.05% | 1979 |  1986 |
| Number of finishes on podium | 9 | 8.26% | 1980 | 1985 |
| Number of finishes in points | 43 | 39.45% |  1979 |  1985 |
| Number of retirements | 48 | 44.04% |  1979 | 1986 |
| Number of wins | 2 | 1.83% |  1982 |  1985 |
| Number of pole positions | 3 | 2.75% | 1983 |  1985 |
| Seasons: | 8 (1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986) |
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| Leading: | 5 times during 31 laps in 5 Grand Prix with a total of 165.510 Km |
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| Points: | 122 (Average per start: 1.12) |
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| 3 | 13 | 14 | 23 | 2 | 34 | 33 | 0 | | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | |
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| Team: | Interscope Shadow Racing Team (1979), Team Essex Lotus (1980), Team Essex Lotus (1981), John Player Team Lotus (1981), John Player Team Lotus (1982), John Player Team Lotus (1983), John Player Team Lotus (1984), John Player Special Team Lotus (1985), Motor Racing Developments (1986) |
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| Chassis: | Shadow DN9 (1979), Lotus 81 (1980), Lotus 81B (1981), Lotus 87 (1981), Lotus 87B (1982), Lotus 91 (1982), Lotus 93T (1983), Lotus 94T (1983), Lotus 95T (1984), Lotus 97T (1985), Brabham BT55 (1986) |
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| Engine: | Ford Cos. DFV 3.0 V8 (1979), Ford Cos. DFV 3.0 V8 (1980), Ford Cos. DFV 3.0 V8 (1981), Ford Cos. DFV 3.0 V8 (1982), Renault 1.5 V6T (1983), Renault 1.5 V6T (1984), Renault 1.5 V6T (1985), BMW 1.5 L4T (1986) |
