F1 | Goodbye to Alberto Colombo, the big hat who dreamed of the GPs

Nice, always smiling. Extremely passionate about racing. Long-haired, with curly hair worthy of Napo Orso Capo, the 70s cartoon. The gentleman driver from Varedo had what it took to shine in Motorsport, but perhaps he was of too good a character to conquer a permanent cockpit in F1. The Circus had only grazed him with three failed qualifications, but he had made a solid reputation in Formula 2 where he achieved brilliant results.

Fans who are not new will have recognized Alberto Colombo, the driver from Brianza who passed away on Sunday 7 January after a long illness at the age of 78. “In 1978 I wanted him on my second car in the Italian GP in Monza – recalls a distraught Arturo Merzario -. Bernie Ecclestone had forced the teams to field two cars and I gave the other A1 to Alberto who had failed to pass pre-qualifying in what was to all intents and purposes the race on his home track.” Colombo's presence was supported by a wonderful initiative by Autosprint readers who had raised funds to find the resources necessary to deploy the second Merzario A1 in the temple of speed.

The Colombo family had an established company that produced bicycle rims which they were able to export to China already at the beginning of the 1970s. Alberto's uncle, a lover of motor racing, had ignited the passion in his nephew who had shown good motor skills from his first contact with single-seaters. In 1974 with Scuderia del Lario, driving a GRD-Ford and a March-Toyota, he became Italian F3 champion. The following year he moved to Formula 2 with the March-BMW of Trivellato Racing and scored his first point in the European series in Nogaro. In 1977 he was eighth in the continental series with 18 points and a third place at Mugello. Behind Riccardo Patrese he is second in the Italian F2 championship.

In 1978 he attempted to move to F1: Gunther Schmidt, owner of ATS, looked for him to replace Jean-Pierre Jarier at ATS. The HS1 was an uncompetitive car and Colombo failed to qualify for the Belgian and Spanish GPs, losing his place, but the German team had rotated six drivers that season and no one had ever managed to score points. Then the disappointment of the failed attempt with the Merzario in Monza led him to fall back on Formula 2 again.

“Alberto was extraordinary – explains Marzario – he ran Sanremo Racing with his uncle and spent all his time in the workshop taking care of the car which he then took around Europe with a van, a trolley and a mechanic”. With March-BMW, ​​in a season of half-service in Formula 2 he scored 11 points. He did better in the following two seasons: in 1979 he was third at Thruxton and in 1980 he reached the podium at Hockenheim. At the end of the year he switched from March-BMW to Toleman-Hart and in Monza, in a non-titled race for the European Championship he finished second in the slipstream of Derek Warwick's similar car.

Inside himself, Colombo had always cultivated the dream of F1: he would have liked to give life to his team and had thought of the Riviera, a car designed by engineer Giorgio Valentini which has never been seen except in a few rare images.