21 Facts About Riccardo Paletti

Riccardo Paletti was an Italian motor racing driver.

Riccardo Paletti's early sporting interests were broad; he was Italian junior karate champion at thirteen, and was in contention for a place on the Italian national alpine skiing youth team.

In 1978 Riccardo Paletti entered nine races in Formula Super Ford, and in his inaugural race he led for 18 laps.

In 1979, Riccardo Paletti entered a full F3 championship season, but his best placings were two fifth-place finishes.

Riccardo Paletti tested extensively during the winter, and the effort paid off during the opening rounds of the season, as he qualified 10th in the first race at Silverstone, before finishing second behind Mike Thackwell.

Riccardo Paletti admitted that Formula One struck him with a little bit of fear, but his sponsor, Pioneer, wanted him to move up and Paletti did not want to miss his opportunity.

Riccardo Paletti's teammate was the experienced Frenchman driver Jean-Pierre Jarier.

Riccardo Paletti travelled with a personal medical adviser who was monitoring his blood pressure and heartbeat with small sensors attached to his body during testing and practice sessions.

Riccardo Paletti was a massive three and a half seconds slower and failed to qualify again.

Riccardo Paletti had managed to beat the ATS of Eliseo Salazar and was supposed to start from the back of the grid.

However, on Sunday afternoon Riccardo Paletti's Osella failed to fire up for the warm-up lap and by the time he had left the pits the other cars were already lining up for the start.

Riccardo Paletti never got close to the rest of the field and after seven laps he had to park his car due to another suspension failure.

At Zolder Riccardo Paletti failed to prequalify on Friday, getting more and more disappointed with the Osella.

The new chassis, which was to be introduced at Monaco, gave some promise, but still Riccardo Paletti knew that qualifying for Monaco was virtually impossible with only twenty entries allowed to start in the narrow streets of the principality.

On his seventh Grand Prix, in Detroit, Riccardo Paletti was much closer to Jarier's pace and, although the gap was still over a second, he qualified right behind his teammate.

However, during the warm-up session Riccardo Paletti lost a wheel at the beginning.

Riccardo Paletti was flown by a medical helicopter to the Royal Victoria Hospital, where he died soon after arriving.

Riccardo Paletti's mother was watching from the stands, where they were to celebrate his 24th birthday later that week.

Riccardo Paletti suffered a torn aorta as well as fractures to both legs.

Riccardo Paletti was the second Formula One driver to die during the 1982 season.

Riccardo Paletti was the last Formula One driver to die in a race until the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, which saw the death of Roland Ratzenberger during qualifying and of three-time world champion Ayrton Senna during the race itself.