When a journeyman driver's F1 career lasted just 800m

This article was originally published on 4 April 2021

All racing drivers dream of making it to Formula 1. They dream of a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to motorsport’s most exclusive table and, once there, emulating the greats in their quest for champagne, championships and commendations.

What they don’t dream of is finding their way to F1, crashing out of the race metres before the first corner, and never dining at the motorsporting equivalent of the Ritz ever again. Alas, it was the fate that befell Marco Apicella, who had barely put the odometer at 800 metres before his time in F1 came to an anti-climactic end.

Apicella had earned a late call-up to the Jordan team in 1993 to partner Rubens Barrichello for the Italian Grand Prix, following the departure of Thierry Boutsen from the team after a disappointing tenure at the Irish squad. Boutsen himself had been a replacement for Ivan Capelli, whose confidence behind the wheel of an F1 car had been eviscerated by a gruelling season at Ferrari.

Eddie Jordan had hoped that the brace of veteran drivers would lead the team while Barrichello got up to speed but, with neither Capelli nor Boutsen able to match the rookie Brazilian driver, Jordan decided to use the second seat to trial some younger drivers – typically, all bringing some degree of backing to the team.

A single-seater journeyman before his far-too-brief foray in F1, Apicella stepped up to Formula 3000 in 1987, driving for the EuroVenturini team with its Dallara chassis. Dallara, a few years away from its metamorphosis into the single-seater powerhouse it eventually became, was unable to produce an F3000 chassis comparable with the fleets of Marches, Ralts and Lolas prevalent in the second-tier championship. In that respect, Apicella did well to score a fifth place with the Dallara 3087 in the aborted Spa-Francorchamps round, stopped for a hefty crash between Alfonso de Vinuesa and Luis Perez-Sala.

Marco Apicella, Jordan J193 Hart

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch

Apicella enjoyed a stronger 1988 season driving for First Racing and finished second at Monza, although was largely outgunned by his more experienced team-mate Pierluigi Martini. Remaining with First for ‘89, as the team switched from the March chassis to the Reynard – which had been a disruptive force during its first F3000 campaign and helped Roberto Moreno to secure the title with the Bromley Motorsport team – Apicella was fourth overall.

One more season at First ended with Apicella coming sixth overall, having come close to breaking his victory duck at Pau prior to sliding into the barriers, before the Italian took up at Paul Stewart Racing with its Mugen-powered Lola chassis. There, Apicella finished fifth overall, but still wound up winless despite adding to his extensive podium count.

In those years, Apicella had been invited to test Minardi’s F1 cars to supplement his F3000 activities – and then came tantalisingly close to a deal to drive for the new Modena team, a quasi-Lamborghini outfit with a car penned by ex-Ferrari designer Mauro Forghieri. But the deal never came to pass.

Although F1 seemed like a distant dream at best, Apicella had been in contact with Jordan over the years – having come close to a drive with the team in 1991

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“I started testing F1 cars at the end of 1987 with the Minardi, with the Motori Moderni engine,” Apicella recalls. “I tested with Minardi until 1990; I tested a few cars with different engines. [My role was] something like test driver but wasn't really official. But [it was] because Minardi, you know, he was always trying to help young guys, especially Italian. He was the only person who gave me that chance in the beginning of my career.

“After Minardi I tested with the Lambo F1 in '91, where I was able to probably be the driver. But in the end, Eric van de Poele, who then raced with [Nicola] Larini in the next year, he took my place basically. We did a few tests in Magny-Cours and Estoril - the car was not really good, but [it was] okay. It was a very new car in that moment, so it was okay like this.”

Marco Apicella, Mauro Forghieri, Eric van de Poele, and Nicola Larini

Photo by: Ercole Colombo

After a lack of opportunities presented themselves to Apicella in Europe for 1992, he elected to join a number of foreign drivers in Japanese F3000, joining constructors Dome at its works team. Apicella was up against countryman Mauro Martini, along with other imports like Ross Cheever, Roland Ratzenberger and Eddie Irvine, as well as local heroes Toshio Suzuki and Naoki Hattori. As Martini won out, Apicella finished 10th overall as the best of the few Dome runners, and stayed put with the team for 1993 - winning at Sugo to claim his first F3000 victory.

But although F1 seemed like a distant dream at best, Apicella had been in contact with Jordan over the years – having come close to a drive with the team in 1991. But with Boutsen now out of the picture, Jordan had a seat available for the upcoming grand prix at Monza – and the phone number of an Italian driver who knew the circuit particularly well.

“With Eddie Jordan, we knew each other since Formula 3000,” Apicella says. “I was very close to race with him in 1991, but then nothing happened. But of course, he knows me, I know him, I was in Japan with Eddie Irvine and other people, so he was always in contact.

"He was really in contact with Eddie Irvine, because he was his driver, even in Japan, but I think he looked at me because he thought ‘Marco is Italian, I can give him this chance for the Italian Grand Prix’. So he called me a few times [while I was] in Japan, and then we did the agreement for Monza.”

Apicella was given a couple of days at Imola to test the Jordan 193 beforehand, a solid if unspectacular car that had yet to break into the points despite Barrichello’s ubiquity in the middle of the grid thanks to poor reliability and set-up issues. Autosport’s technical consultant Tim Wright picked up race engineering duties for Apicella as he assumed Boutsen’s side of the garage, having followed the Belgian driver to Jordan from the Peugeot Le Mans project.

“I think Thierry realised that it wasn't doing his career any good whatsoever,” recalls Wright. “They decided that Spa was going to be his last race, and then the clutch failed at the start of the race, so I think he did maybe half a lap or something. It was just one of those desperate years. I think that just sort of made up his mind that enough was enough.”

Marco Apicella, Jordan J193 Hart

Photo by: Sutton Images

“We did have a lot of problems with the engine. Brian [Hart], bless him, was a great engineer, but that wasn't one of his finest efforts. We had a lot of problems; Thierry's clutch problems and things just breaking on the on the engine. I mean, it was not a good year at all.

“But the chassis was pretty awful [too]. It was one of these ones where, for some reason, it had a monoshock on the front - and it was desperately hard to get it to work properly.”

Once in Monza, Apicella seemed to get his head around the Jordan moderately quickly. He ended the practice sessions 19th and 18th - actually finishing ahead of Barrichello on the timesheets in the first session despite a spin at the second Lesmo when the circuit was damp. But, back in the days of multiple qualifying sessions, neither Jordan could set a competitive time in the first qualifying session – leaving the duo with work to do in Saturday’s session. Barrichello secured 19th on the grid in second quali, but Apicella was only half a second away from his comparatively more experienced team-mate, lining up 23rd on the grid – ahead of Minardi’s Christian Fittipaldi, Scuderia Italia driver Luca Badoer and fellow debutant Pedro Lamy, lining up for Lotus.

"The chassis and aerodynamics was really, really good. The main problem was the [Hart] engine, it was a very good engine to drive, but [there was] not enough power" Marco Apicella 

“The chassis and aerodynamics was really, really good,” Apicella recalls about the Jordan 193, perhaps unaware of the issues Wright and his fellow engineers had to battle. “The main problem was the [Hart] engine, it was a very good engine to drive, but [there was] not enough power. In Monza, unfortunately, where you need a lot of horsepower, the car wasn't as fast as it would be, that the car maybe demonstrated in Suzuka, or in other slower tracks.

“It was the first car I tried with semi-automatic gears,” Apicella continues. “The difficulty for me was only to get the right moment to be on the track because at that moment, it was only 12 laps [per qualifying session]. So Eddie sent me out just at the beginning, because he maybe was afraid I was not disturbing the top teams, but the track wasn't perfect because it was still damp. At the end of the qualifying, I think it wasn't so bad, because with Rubens there wasn't that big a difference, you know, and I was quite happy."

Apicella shuffled up another spot when JJ Lehto stalled his Sauber on the grid and was forced to start at the back. Thus, the Finn’s mistimed snatch at his clutch set into motion the events that befell the first corner. Off the line, Apicella got away cleanly but, in a bunched up field, was collected by Lehto – who then speared across the circuit and also claimed Barrichello in the first-lap fracas. Ending up on the grass, Apicella was left to spin and face the oncoming traffic, his car too broken by the contact to continue.

Derek Warwick, Footwork FA14 Mugen-Honda, is hit and spun by teammate Aguri Suzuki, Footwork FA14 Mugen-Honda, at the start after being tapped by Karl Wendlinger, Sauber C12

Photo by: Motorsport Images

“It was a disaster!” says Apicella. “Unfortunately, Monza, I know Monza very well because I'm Italian and I did have many races over there. And I knew about the first chicane so I was very, very careful. But somebody hit me, and that was the finish...”

With his Japanese F3000 schedule taking priority, Apicella had to cede the seat to countryman Emanuele Naspetti for the following Portuguese Grand Prix. Naspetti had more experience, having conducted test-driving duties for Jordan over the intervening years, along with a handful of starts in 1992 with the ailing March team in his back pocket. But he suffered an engine failure, and Jordan saw fit to add Eddie Irvine to the driving roster for Suzuka in Naspetti’s place. Irvine, who knew Suzuka like the back of his hand, was impressive and qualified a surprise eighth, four spots ahead of Barrichello – and the duo ended up both scoring points to finally open Jordan’s account for 1993.

Although Apicella is frequently awarded the dubious honour of having the shortest career of any F1 driver to qualify for a race, the German driver Ernst Loof barely made it off his starting blocks before his Veritas car packed up in the 1953 grand prix at the Nurburgring. Regardless, Apicella’s 800m career was certainly far too short, especially given his record in F3000 against other drivers who stuck around for far longer.

“I felt a bit sorry for [Apicella and Naspetti],” Wright admits. “Eddie [Jordan] was just trying to find somebody who might have a bit of talent - and they were just sort of thrown in there. Apicella especially didn't know the car at all. Naspetti had probably done a bit more testing with it. But it wasn't an easy car to drive.”

Apicella returned to Japan to complete his Japanese F3000 season with Dome, placing fourth overall – ahead of a title tilt in 1994, in which he beat Andrew Gilbert-Scott to that year’s honours with three wins at Mine, Suzuka and Fuji.

Marco Apicella, Jordan J193 Hart

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch

When Dome began plans for a Formula 1 entry for 1997 with a Mugen Honda-powered car, Apicella conducted test duties along with Hattori and Shinji Nakano – but, once more, the chance of a full-time F1 tenure eluded him as Dome decided not to press on with its plans.

“Mr [Minoru] Hayashi, the owner of Dome, was a good friend of Mr Honda," Apicella remembers. "I think both of them wanted to do something more; in that moment in Japan, the money was very good. So they tried, they built the car, they tested it - then something went wrong. Maybe just the money in the end, that's always the main problem! I'm not able to tell you what was the level of the car because we tested in Suzuka, but on the short track, and we tested in Tokachi, a race track that was never used in Formula 1, so it’s difficult to get any information for this.

Although his F1 tenure was very short-lived, Apicella at least lived the dream of being a Formula 1 driver for a weekend

“[But] it was good, the engine was good. The car looked good, and also I had good experience with them. And I know they are very good at building cars, [they have a] very good wind tunnel. Everything, the engineers were very good. So I'm sure they would be able to do a car. How fast [was it compared to other F1 cars]? I don't know."

Following his single-seater foray, after the Dome project was aborted and as his Formula Nippon (formerly Japanese F3000) campaign came to a close at the end of 1997, Apicella moved into Japanese GT racing for the turn of the millennium, interspersed with a few Le Mans 24 Hours outings before calling time on his career at the end of 2009. Today, he works as a freelance test driver for various manufacturers, including Dallara, and also with helmet manufacturer Stilo as part of its race service team.

Although his F1 tenure was very short-lived, Apicella at least lived the dream of being a Formula 1 driver for a weekend. But as the late, great Murray Walker once opined, "F1 is 'if' spelled backwards", and if the cards had fallen differently for Apicella, he could have enjoyed a much longer stay in the championship. Unfortunately, as it has done for so many drivers, it just didn't turn out that way.

Marco Apicella, Jordan J193 Hart

Photo by: Motorsport Images