The last time I met him in Varano just over a couple of years ago: he came down from his home on the hill behind the Parma racetrack. He was driving the Maserati Granturismo but proceeded slowly, peering into the garage to see if there were any familiar faces. When he saw me, a honk that was worth a greeting and then an invitation to have a chat in the splendid green estate, to relive situations and stories of a life in racing. First as a driver, then as a TV commentator and journalist and, finally, also as a very capable entrepreneur in the management of the International Safe Driving Center and the route at the foot of his hermitage.
It is not difficult to understand that I am talking about Andrea de Adamich: a multifaceted character who left us at the age of 84. He had difficulty walking and now spoke slowly, but his reasoning was as clear as ever. Intelligent, pushy, with a very tough, very tough character, demanding of himself and others. He always managed to turn everything he touched into gold.
Andrea de Adamich, March 711 Alfa Romeo, 1971 British GP
Photo at: Motorsport Images
Triestino, he made his racing debut at Castell’Arquato-Vernasca with a Triumph TR3 in 1962: “The three of us left Levanto – says Antonio Ghini – Andrea, Momo Moretti and I. We were friends as children and we told the families that we were going to meet acquaintances and, instead, we went racing secretly”.
De Adamich had immediately gone very well and the trio had deserved a “wage” of 25 thousand lire to go after Bobbio-Penice to the Trofeo Erice in Sicily: “On Saturday he had achieved a time with the Triumph as fast as that of the winner the year before – continues Ghini – but then he crashed in the race causing a bad accident. He was very fast, technical, but he had outbursts of anger which jeopardized more important results. He was a great friend for a life and I’m sorry that we broke up badly during the Covid period due to a disagreement.”
In 1963 he tested himself on the track by racing a Lola-Ford in Formula Junior, attracting the attention of Mario Angiolini who wanted him at the Jolly Club. Italian F3 champion in 1965, he joined Autodelta, the Alfa Romeo racing team.
For two years (1966 and 1967) he was the European touring car champion of Division 2 with a Giulia GTA, while in 1968 with single-seaters he won the XVII Temporada Argentina at the wheel of a Ferrari Dino 166 V6.
“Today I reveal a detail – says a distraught Guido Schittone, Andrea’s colleague for years in the Italia 1 team that followed the F1 GPs – as a child he was my idol, I fell in love with him as a driver. He didn’t have the money to go to the Circus and he won the Temporada. I remember that he wrote a column in Autosprint in which he recounted his South American experience and in middle school we had to keep a sort of diary which I always began with ‘Dear Andrea’. I think I having been nice to him, he knew that I respected him a lot and he taught me a lot.”
Andrea de Adamich has been head of the safe driving school since 1991
Photo by: ACI Sport
There were three phases in Andrea’s life: the pilot, the TV commentator and soul of Grand Prix and the entrepreneur. In F1 he arrived in 1967 in the Spanish GP not valid for the world championship with a Ferrari: a fourth place to start with. After second place in F2 at Vallelunga with a red car he became the Cavallino’s third driver in 1968. On his first outing in Kyalami he had a bad accident after qualifying seventh, followed by another terrible crash at Brands Hatch at the Race of Champions, a race not valid for the championship. He suffered serious neck injuries and was out for a good part of the season.
In 1967 he was involved by Carlo Chiti in the adventure with the 33: alongside great endurance specialists he had often finished on the podium, winning the 200 Miglia of Buenos Aires and, then, the 1000 Km of Brands Hatcg and the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen. In 1974 with the 33 TT12 he contributed to second place in the world championship behind the Matra with three third places and second at the Osterreichring.
Watch: De Adamich: “Scheckter never spoke to me after the Silverstone crash”
In 1970, meanwhile, he returned to F1, bringing an Alfa Romeo engine to McLaren, bringing the Biscione back into the Circus. The disappointing experience with the March followed. In 1972 with the Surtees TS9B he achieved a prestigious fourth place in Jarama, repeating himself the following year at Spa-Francorchamps, before the accident in the British GP: following a terrible crash caused by Jody Scheckter, Andrea was trapped in his Brabham BT42 suffering numerous injuries and fractures to his legs.
Arturo Merzario was a bitter adversary of the Trieste driver: “He was very fast until the crash at Silverstone – recalls the Como native – he had not fainted after the impact and lived through the entire rescue collaborating with the rescuers. It is inevitable that something will remain with you, considering that at the time the F1 cars were catching fire like matches. A very technical driver, he had a tough character and a very authoritative person: he managed to establish excellent relationships with the team managers, often obtaining some advantages. In the first half of the ’70s we were the two most prominent local drivers: me at Ferrari and him at Alfa Romeo. I remember that he ‘stole’ an overall Italian title from me by racing in an uphill race and secured the title by half a point. Today I remember him fondly.”
Watch: De Adamich: “Ferrari wanted me after beating Giunti in Vallelunga”
As a TV commentator he changed the paradigm of F1 live broadcasts: with De Adamich we moved out of the era of the “knights of risk” and entered the new, more technological and certainly less epic, but more real phase. His knowledge, the result of almost obsessive preparation, had made the hundredth of a second the protagonist in the GP scan.
Davide Amaduzzi, Franco Nugnes and Andrea de Adamich
Photo by: Franco Nugnes
Without taking anything away from Giampaolo Dallara, undisputed count of Varano de’ Melegari, it is not surprising that Andrea was considered the mayor of the Parma town. A curiosity that did not go unnoticed by those who had the privilege of visiting him: before the golf training course used for his youngest daughter, a real anti-aircraft emplacement could be observed! Married to Sofia Spanou since 2010, after the long marriage with Donatella, he had three children: Gordon and Cora also raced and won in the Touring Car championship.
The condolences of the Motorsport.com editorial team go to the family. The funeral will be celebrated on Saturday at 2pm in the Varano church.
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