Riccardo Paletti

Paletti was killed when he crashed on the start grid in his second Formula One start, only two days before his 24th birthday.

Born in Milan, Riccardo Paletti was the son of Gianna and Arietto Paletti, a Milanese entrepreneur who had built his fortune as a real estate developer, and amongst a number of business interests was the importer for Pioneer audio equipment in Italy.

Paletti's early sporting interests were broad; he was Italian junior karate champion at thirteen, and was in contention for a place on the Italian national alpine skiing youth team.

Riccardo Paletti (15 June 1958 – 13 June 1982) was an Italian motor racing driver.

In 1978 Paletti entered nine races in Formula Super Ford, and in his inaugural race he led for 18 laps.

Although he did not win during the first season, he took two second places and finished third in the overall championship.

During the end of his first season, he also made his Formula 3 debut in the Italian Championship with a March-Toyota.

In 1979, Paletti entered a full F3 championship season, but his best placings were two fifth-place finishes.

Later the same year, he competed in a few Formula 2 races for the first time with the team run by Mike Earle.

His best result was at Misano, where he finished eighth.

For the 1981 European F2 championship season, Earle severed his collaboration with March to start with Onyx.

Although still on a learning curve in the lower class racing, Paletti decided to join the uncompetitive team Osella in 1982.

He admitted that Formula One struck him with a little bit of fear, but his sponsor, Pioneer, wanted him to move up and Paletti did not want to miss his opportunity.

His teammate was the experienced Frenchman driver Jean-Pierre Jarier.

He travelled with a personal medical adviser who was monitoring his blood pressure and heartbeat with small sensors attached to his body during testing and practice sessions.

His diet was constantly adapted to the results.

Few Formula One drivers took this professional approach seriously at the time.

Making his first attempt during the South African Grand Prix in January 1982, Jarier managed to haul his Osella to qualify in the last position on the grid but Paletti was almost two seconds slower, failing to qualify.

For the second round of the season, at the Jacarepaguá circuit near Rio de Janeiro, the venue for the Brazilian Grand Prix, Paletti had to prequalify on Friday morning, but a wheel fell off the Osella after a suspension failure and again he did not make the grid.

The next round of the championship was the US GP West at the street circuit of Long Beach.

Jarier found the right set-up for the Osella and managed to put the car in the top ten during qualifying.

Paletti was a massive three and a half seconds slower and failed to qualify again.

For the fourth Grand Prix of the season, at Imola on 25 April, amidst a war between the FISA and FOCA, only 14 cars loyal to the organisation started the race.

Paletti had managed to beat the ATS of Eliseo Salazar and was supposed to start from the back of the grid.

However, on Sunday afternoon Paletti's Osella failed to fire up for the warm-up lap and by the time he had left the pits the other cars were already lining up for the start.

As a result, the moment he crossed the starting line he was already 49 seconds behind.

He never got close to the rest of the field and after seven laps he had to park his car due to another suspension failure.

At Zolder Paletti failed to prequalify on Friday, getting more and more disappointed with the Osella.

The new chassis, which was to be introduced at Monaco, gave some promise, but still Paletti knew that qualifying for Monaco was virtually impossible with only twenty entries allowed to start in the narrow streets of the principality.

There was only one new monocoque for Jarier and the new rear suspension was delayed.

Once again, Paletti failed to prequalify.

On his seventh Grand Prix, in Detroit, Paletti was much closer to Jarier's pace and, although the gap was still over a second, he qualified right behind his teammate.

However, during the warm-up session Paletti lost a wheel at the beginning.

The mechanics tried to repair the car in time for the race and, while there still was the possibility of starting the race in the spare car, that option went up in smoke as well, after Jarier's fire extinguisher had gone off accidentally.

Jarier took the spare car.

This meant it would be a race against time for Paletti's mechanics to set up the car and they were still busy when the rest of the field progressed to the grid.

Paletti tested extensively during the winter, and the effort paid off during the opening rounds of the season, as he qualified 10th in the first race at Silverstone, before finishing second behind Mike Thackwell.

He retired in the second round at Hockenheim but set the fastest lap of the race, and his good form continued in round three at Thruxton, where he finished third — this time behind Roberto Guerrero.

At that point, he was joint second in the championship with Stefan Johansson, trailing Thackwell by three points.

But from then, his results declined, and he finished tenth in the championship.