New ‘Racing Rarities’ puzzle: More courage than most other drivers

Mostly drawn from the archives of our photo partners XPB and Grand Prix Photo, every week from Tuesday we present a little piece of motorsport history. Tell us who you can recognise (Example: Jo Siffert, Monza, 1970) and join in the guessing game for the honour of it – there’s nothing to be won. Send your answer to: mathias.brunner@speedweek.com. The closing date for entries is midnight on Sunday of the current week.

Entry is free of charge. The competition is open to anyone aged 18 or over. Employees of the participating companies are excluded. The decision is final.

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For the new puzzle: This driver brought more courage to the racetrack than most other drivers

Our clue for the final task was: This driver holds a Formula 1 record, yet is unknown to most GP fans. Pictured is the Italian Marco Apicella, who tested for Minardi (now Racing Bulls) at Estoril in Portugal in late 1987 and early 1988.

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Marco Apicella fuhr 1987 und 1988 Tests für Minardi in Estoril

Foto: Grand Prix Photo

Apicella, now 60, from Bologna, is said by many statistics to have had the shortest Grand Prix career. At the 1993 Monza Grand Prix, Jordan driver Marco Apicella made it exactly as far as the first corner before colliding with JJ Lehto’s Sauber and the Jordan driven by his team-mate Rubens Barrichello. So are Apicella’s 800 GP metres the shortest Formula 1 career? Not a chance!

Numerous quiz participants – quite rightly – submitted Apicella’s name correctly, but then pointed out that the German racing driver Ernst Loof covered 20 metres in his Veritas at the 1953 German Grand Prix before coming to a halt due to a fuel supply fault.

That’s hard to beat, so the record goes to Loof, with second place (so to speak) for Apicella, and whilst we’re on the subject, let’s also mention Miguel Ángel Guerra from Argentina.

Guerra competed in four Grand Prix weekends with Osella in 1981, but failed to qualify for the race at Long Beach, in Brazil and in Argentina.

At Imola, he finally managed to qualify, but then the young South American barely got half a kilometre down the track: A collision with the March driven by the Chilean Eliseo Salazar sent Guerra’s Osella crashing into a wall, and the front axle was crushed so badly that Miguel Ángel suffered a double ankle fracture.

“Unfortunately, I never got another chance in Formula 1,” the Argentine said later. “A financial crisis broke out in my country, and it was no longer possible to find new sponsors for Grand Prix racing.”

Back to Marco Apicella: following tests with Minardi, which did not lead to a Grand Prix career, Apicella continued his career in Japan. In 1994, he became champion of Formula Nippon, Japan’s leading single-seater series.

It was also Apicella who, in the mid-1990s, carried out numerous test drives in the Dome racing car that never came close to competing in a Grand Prix – the project failed due to a lack of funding.