Description
Author: Lorie Coffey, Hardbound, 208 Pages, ISBN: 9781902351261, First Published, 2006**VERY RARE BOOK IN EXCELLENT CONDITION, 2 pages in the middle are wrinkled from the printer **
"Elio De Angelis, piano player and gentlemen" were words that always seemed to go hand in hand in the late 70s/early 80s whenever journalists wrote about the young Italian driver. However there was so much more to Elio, not only was he a concert standard pianist he was also a very talented artist often producing very complex designs, in fact, had he not followed his passion and became a racing driver he would probably had become an architect in the families construction business. He loved speed boats and from a very young age could be seen in the back of his fathers boat. He started racing Karts in Rome along with the likes of Riccardo Patrese, Beppe Gabbiani and Eddie Cheever who later became Elios Brother in Law. He progressed to Formula 3 and then to F1 for a short season with Shadow, after which he joined Lotus to become No 2 to Mario Andretti for a season before taking the No 1 position when Mario moved on. He was the youngest driver to have the primary seat in a F1 team. His team mate was Nigel Mansell and what evolved was a long partnership that developed into a great friendship. When Mansell moved to Williams, Elio was partnered by the almost unknown Ayrton Senna, this was to become a very belligerent relationship with Elio getting pushed to one side more and more in favour of the outstanding young Brazilian. Even when Elio was fighting for the Championship with Michele Alboreto, Lotus appeared to favour Senna. This had a serious effect on De Angelis, he later described it as the worse period in his life and felt he had no choice but to move on and took a seat in the Brabham with fellow countryman Riccardo Patrese. It was a partnership that was not to last too long as in a private test session at Paul Ricard in 1986 Elio was involved in a fatal car accident in the new Brabham BT 55. This book follows Elio through his school years to his racing and career, and gives an insight into the fun loving man that was always getting into trouble as a result o
