Brazilian Grand Prix: How the medical car was wrecked by F1 drivers

At the Brazilian Grand Prix in Interlagos, there’s one person who’s always there: Alex Dias Ribeiro, who’s soon to turn 78. Throughout his career, the diminutive South American has raced with the slogan ‘Jesus saves’ (in English or Portuguese); he has even founded a racing team of the same name, through which he supports young Brazilian drivers.

Alex Ribeiro 1975

Foto: Grand Prix Photo

Every now and then, Ribeiro could do with all the protection he could get, because as a Formula 1 oddity, he managed to wreck the Grand Prix medical car – twice!

In 2002, a half-hour warm-up session was still held in Formula 1 at half past nine on Sunday morning – those were the days!

Two minutes before the end of the so-called warm-up, Arrows driver Enrique Bernoldi lost control of his car at the Senna S bend at Interlagos; the car came to a halt in the middle of the track and even caught fire; Ribeiro immediately drove to the scene, with the then race doctor, Professor Sid Watkins, sitting beside him.

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As the Brazilian pulled over at the scene of the crash and flung open the door, Nick Heidfeld’s Sauber approached from behind. The German was completely taken by surprise by the scene, swerved to the inside left and hit the door head-on – a scene straight out of a cheap action comedy. Fortunately, no one was injured in this unusual incident.

Alexandre ‘Alex’ Dias Ribeiro from Belo Horizonte competed in twenty Formula 1 Grand Prix weekends between 1976 and 1979, but he only qualified for the race on ten occasions because his cars were not competitive.

As a result, he never managed to score any points – two eighth-place finishes in Germany and Canada in 1977 remained his highlights. As a reminder: back then, only the top six drivers received World Championship points.

Ribeiro proved that, with good cars, he was certainly capable of keeping up with the best in the sport in the European Formula 2 Championship, finishing fifth overall in 1976. Some of his rivals at the time included Keke Rosberg, René Arnoux, Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Eddie Cheever – drivers of the calibre of Grand Prix winners, Indy 500 victors and world champions. In 1978, Ribeiro won at the Nürburgring – the world’s most challenging race track – in his Formula 2 car.

Little known fact: before becoming a medical car driver, Ribeiro worked, amongst other things, as a chaplain for the Brazilian national football team, which won the World Cup in the USA in 1994 against Italy.

Also little known: Interlagos 2002 was already the second time he’d brought the Mercedes medical car back badly battered. In Monaco in 2000, he hadn’t been too fussy about sticking to the ideal line and had badly crumpled the front right-hand side of the Silver Arrow.

Unfortunately, for legal reasons, we are unable to show you the Interlagos footage featuring Nick Heidfeld here. But of course, we can’t stop you from searching for ‘Heidfeld’ and ‘Safety Car’ on YouTube.

The scene is definitely worth watching.