Remembering a lost Dutch F1 hopeful
Twenty-five years ago Marcel Albers lost his life in a huge Formula 3 accident at Thruxton. Here, the Formula 1 hopeful is remembered by those who knew him best
At just after half past two on Easter Monday, April 20 1992, Gil de Ferran and Marcel Albers led the field around to the Thruxton grid to continue their fight for the British Formula 3 Championship title. After the opening two rounds the scores stood at one win apiece: Albers had triumphed at Donington Park; de Ferran at Silverstone.
Eight laps later at the Chicane: screams, shouting, silence. Albers, who was attempting to fight back up the field after dropping to seventh, had clipped the rear of team-mate Elton Julian's car as he tried to slipstream him on the approach to the Chicane.
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Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.
Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.
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