Remembering Elio de Angelis
It was 25 years ago this week that Elio de Angelis lost his life in a testing crash at Paul Ricard. Tony Dodgins pays tribute to the popular Italian and looks back at his role in the 1980s Formula 1 story
It's 25 years ago today, May 15, that Elio de Angelis died after a testing accident at Paul Ricard in the 'laydown' Brabham-BMW BT55.
The rear wing failed, the car somersaulted a barrier and came to rest upside down with Elio trapped. A fire started, the marshals were inadequately equipped and the Roman was trapped in the car for almost 10 minutes. A helicopter to take Elio to hospital in Marseille took another half an hour to arrive and, although his physical injuries were limited to a broken collarbone and mild burns to his back, he died from smoke inhalation at just 28.
Share Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.