In the highly competitive and professional sport of Formula 1 it is rare for anyone to be universally liked. This has not always been the case. For the first couple of decades of Formula 1 it remained very much more a sport than a business. Gentlemen racers could compete in the same races as Grand Prix acing's elite. These individuals were usually from affluent backgrounds and often owned their own car or raced for a private entrant. Occasionally they even proved fast enough to merit a drive with a works team, such as the extraordinary Marquis Alfonso De Portago, a Spanish nobleman and millionaire. Besides racing, he also competed as a jockey in the Grand National and a bobsledder at the 1956 Winter Olympics. He had a child with the famous model Dorian Leigh and also dated Linda Christian.

By the time Elio De Angelis was born, on 26th March 1958, the Count had been dead almost a year, killed in a horrific accident near the finish of the Mille Miglia road race in Italy. The crash also claimed the life of his co-driver and nine spectators. Elio would have fitted perfectly into the continental Grand Prix circus of the fifties, but his career lay some years ahead, by which time the sport had changed remarkably.

Elio was of a privileged upbringing, the family owning a large construction company. He was the eldest of four children, having two brothers and a sister. His childhood was a happy one, spent kart-racing, skiing and following his favourite football team, AC Roma. Elio was also a gifted artist and pianist, the latter coming in useful when entertainment was required to relieve the tedium of a drivers strike before the 1982 South African GP.

Elio's big opportunity arrived in 1979 when he was offered a drive in Formula 1 with the small Shadow team. Although the car was not competitive his performances were enough to attract the attention of Lotus boss Colin Chapman, who signed him up for the following season as team-mate to the 1978 World Champion, Mario Andretti. Elio would go on to become the driver who competed in the most Grands Prix for Lotus and, in the main, it was an extremely happy period of his life. The highlights would come in Austria 1982, where he won his maiden Grand Prix by a matter of inches from Keke Rosberg, and San Marino in 1985, scene of his second and final win.

The relationship with Lotus began to deteriorate during that 1985 season, following the arrival of a young Brazilian as Elio's team-mate. Ayrton Senna was unlike any

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