Riccardo Paletti – F1 | The “forgotten” drivers of F1

1982 – Pre-season tests at Kyalami in 1982. Photo/source FB

1982 SA GP. Photo Roger Swan via www.motoprint.co.za

1982 GP San Marino

1982 GP San Marino

1982 GP San Marino. Photo Cosmo Aletto

1982 GP San Marino. Photo Cosmo Aletto

1982 GP San Marino. Photo Cosmo Aletto

1982 GP San Marino. Photo Cosmo Aletto

1982 GP San Marino. Photo Cosmo Aletto

1982 GP San Marino. Photo Cosmo Aletto

1982 San Marino GP Imola. Photo from https://www.facebook.com/momentsofmotorsport/

1982 USA GP Long Beach. Photo Kurt Oblinger

1982 USA GP Detroit. Photo Mark Windecker

1982 USA GP Detroit. Photo Mark Windecker

1982 USA GP Riccardo Paletti Osella FA1C/Ford Cosworth followed by Roberto Guerrero Ensign N181/Ford Cosworth. Photo and info Mark Windecker

1982 Italian Formula 1 rookie Riccardo Paletti crashed in his Osella when the right rear drive shaft broke over a bump during practice for the 1982 Detroit Grand Prix. The car was destroyed, but he would walk away unscathed. Here, Riccardo is offered a cigarette by a corner safety worker. © Richard Kelley Photography 2013. All rights reserved. Get personal downloads and prints at www.richardkelleyf1.com. Tragically, fate wouldn’t pass him by; he would be killed a week later at the start of the Canadian Grand Prix. Launching his car from the last row of the grid in blinding rain, Riccardo hit the rear of Didier Pironi’s stalled Ferrari, made nearly invisible by the spray, and succumbed to his injuries. R.I.P. Riccardo. Photo and info Richard Kelley

1982 Long Beach GP. Photo Walter C. Harbers III

1982 Canada GP. Photo Pete Post

Riccardo Paletti in Osella FA1C/2 during Friday’s morning practice served as prequalifying session of the sad 1982 Belgian GP weekend at Zolder, 7th May 1982. Riccardo, with best time of 1:21.784, didn’t prequalify. And the next day became one of the saddest in the F1 history when Gilles Villeneuve was desperately trying to improve his time 1:16.616 came upon Jochen Mass going a lot slower. The Ferrari left-front tyre just clipped the right rear tyre of the March and launched it up into the air, to somersault and crash nose first into the ground still travelling forwards at upwards of 140 m.p.h. The front of the Ferrari broke off completely and wreckage scattered across the track. Practice was stopped and the unfortunate Canadian was flown by helicopter to the nearby Louvain hospital where doctors put him on a life support system to try and recover him, but it was to no avail and in the evening his death was announced officially. And 36 days later at Gilles home circuit, arena of the 1982 Canadian GP, Riccardo would lost his life as well… Info Konstantin Pavlenko