First race without Italians?
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After the Petrov announcement, there are no Italian drivers for the first race this season.
That is quite unusual for F1, is it the first time there have been no Italians on the grid?
Mirko Bortolotti on Twitter isn’t impressed:
So F1 without Italians this year. Ok It’s a shame but not a defeat tho, ’cause F1 isn’t the top of motorsport anymore. #JustMoney
We all knew this day was going to come. Nobody did anything about it, probably nobody cares about it. Sad sad day.
I believe the last race without Italians was the 1969 Mexican GP.
Certainly no Italians started the 2005 United States Grand Prix – Fisichella and Trulli were among those who had to withdraw. Trulli was on pole, of course.
@keithcollantine Well that race is just irrelevant for stats like that, considering the stupid circumstances. You could say though that they did the formation lap (or 99% of it anyway).
I thought the Italian fans only care about Ferrari. So long as the national team is on the grid, an Italian driver is just a sidenote?
I think the Italian media is mainly focused on Ferrari, yes. Not having an Italian driver is a shame, but there hasn’t been an Italian World Champion since 1953. If they were truly worried about the lack of Italian talent, you’d think they’d have made more of that fact and tried to rectify it a long time ago.
I believe the last Grand Prix that did not feature any Italian drivers – Indianapolis 2005 not withstanding – was the 1996 Japanese Grand Prix, when Giovanni Lavaggi failed to qualify his Minardi within 107% of Jacques Villeneueve’s pole time.
But it sounds more impressive when you say “for the first time since 1970, there are no Italian drivers starting the season” as opposed to “for the first time since 1996, there are no Italian drivers starting a race”.
I read on Twitter 1969 was the last season without an Italian – so I checked out the last race of the season and there were no Italians. I didn’t know if “the last season without Italians” meant “the last season without Italians in the first race” or “the last season in which no Italian competed”.
And Italians took part in the “Grand Prix weekend” of the 2005 USA GP and 1996 Japanese GP, so they didn’t start the race but participated in the GP. In 1969 no Italian was on the grid (not sure though, I certainly don’t want to check all the races between 1969 and 2011).@Fixy – Ernesto “Timo” Brabilla attended the 1969 Italian Grand Prix. He was entered by Ferrari, but replaced at the last minute by Pedro Rodriguez. As far as I can tell, he never drove the car.
As for the last race where no Italian drivers took part in the Grand Prix in any capacity, the nearest I can find is the 1973 German Grand Prix.
trulli was past his sell by anyway, the tifosi will be supporting nando at monza, so its no big deal
, incidentely one of my fav italian drivers was the monza gorillaIsn’t Di Resta half Italian? Maybe they can support him?
They have Toro Rosso and Ferrari anyway, and I am sure a young Italian whizzkid will be in Formula 1 again soon.
Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone was replaced halfway through the season by an Italian
Di Resta is Scottish, he may have an Italian name and some Italian blood but he was born and raised in Scotland.
Torro Rosso is still a Red Bull team, it’s not really flying the Italian flag.
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