Andrea De Cesaris - racing driver

Career defined by unwanted record

Andrea De Cesaris at the wheel of the Marlboro 
McClaren he drove in his first full F1 season

The racing driver Andrea De Cesaris, who competed in 15 consecutive Formula One seasons between 1980 and 1994, died on this day in 2014 as a result of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.

De Cesaris, who was 55, lost control of his Suzuki motorcycle on Rome’s orbital motorway, the Grande Raccordo Anulare, and collided with a guard rail.

The Rome-born driver, the son of a tobacco merchant, retired from competition with the unwanted record of having never won a race in 208 Formula One starts, the most by any driver without a victory to his name in the sport’s history.

He needed no second invitation to hit the accelerator on the track but his daring often veered towards the wild and erratic and had a reputation for being accident prone, putting not only himself but other drivers at risk.  A facial tic reinforced the perception of some rivals that he was slightly mad.

His tendency to drive into trouble gave him a number of other records he would have preferred not to have earned: the most consecutive non-finishes, 18 between 1985 and 1986, although that includes mechanical failures, the most successive non-finishes in a single season, 12 in 1987, when he also set the record for the most non-finishes in a single, 16-race season, at 14. 

De Cesaris raced for 15 seasons
in Formula 1 but never won 

The pattern was set in 1981 - his first full season in F1 - driving for McLaren after forging a strong personal relationship with the Philip Morris tobacco company during their promotion of the Marlboro brand.  De Cesaris was involved in 19 crashes in practice and competition, most of them ascribed to human error.  He finished only six of the 14 races that he started.

The British-based team, which ran him alongside John Watson, a five-time GP winner, did not extend his contract beyond the 1981 season.

Yet, having entered F1 with a record of success in karting, Formula Three and Formula Two, De Cesaris was never without a team.

In all, he represented 10 teams during his career and in only one season, when he drove for Minardi in 1986, did he fail to register a point.

His best years came with Alfa Romeo in 1982 and 1983, when he achieved three of his five career podium finishes.

In 1982, De Cesaris became at 23 the youngest man ever to take pole position at the Long Beach Grand Prix, which made him only the second Alfa Romeo driver to capture a pole in 30 years.  In the same season he finished third in the Monaco GP and sixth in the Canadian GP in Montreal.

He might have claimed second place in Monaco had he not ran out of fuel on the last lap when in a position to potentially pass Didier Peroni.

De Cesaris driving for Sauber in the 1994 British
Grand Prix in his final competitive season

At Spa the following year he led the Belgian GP for half the race, and set the fastest lap, before his engine let him down. Second places at Hockenheim and Kyalami helped him accumulate a career-high 15 points to eighth in the drivers' championship, his best finish.

Alfa's withdrawal after the 1983 season left him without a drive but he was soon hired by Ligier for two seasons, and subsequently represented Minardi, Brabham, Rial, Dallara, Jordan - alongside Michael Schumacher - Tyrrell and Sauber.

Sauber’s car was unreliable and De Cesaris decided to retire at the end of the 1984 season, when he finished sixth in the French GP at Magny-Cours in France but was let down by his engine in failing to finish any of the next seven races.

Away from racing De Cesaris became a successful currency broker in Monte Carlo, a career he combined with a new sporting passion in windsurfing, in pursuit of which he travelled the world.  He bought a house in Hawaii to use as his windsurfing base.

His funeral took place at the church of San Roberto Bellarmino in the Parioli district of Rome.

The now-abandoned Pista d'Oro karting circuit
just outside Rome, where De Cesaris once raced

Travel tip:  

Some of De Cesaris’s earliest racing experience was gained at the now-abandoned Pista d’Oro, a karting stadium in Rome where Italian drivers of the calibre of Elio De Angelis, Emanuele Pirro, and Giancarlo Fisichella and even current world champion Lewis Hamilton have competed. The stadium was situated about 20km (12 miles) east of Rome at Tivoli Terme on the Via Tiburtina, which follows the route of the Roman road of the same name that linked Rome with Aternum (the modern Pescara) on the Adriatic coast. It was built by the Roman consul Marcus Valerius Maximus around 286BC, and covered a distance of approximately 200km (124 miles). 

The church of San Roberto Bellarmino
in the Parioli district of Rome

Travel tip:

The Parioli district is one of Rome's wealthiest residential neighbourhoods. Located north of the city centre, it is notable for its tree-lined streets and elegant houses, and for some of Rome's finest restaurants. The Auditorium Parco della Musica and the Villa Ada, once the Rome residence of the Italian royal family and surrounded by the second largest park in the city, can also be found within the Parioli district.

Also on this day:

1658: The birth of Mary of Modena, queen consort of England

1712: The birth of painter Francesco Guardi

1928: The birth of painter Alberto Sughi

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Maria De Filippi - television presenter

One of the most popular faces on Italian TV

Maria De Filippi has become one of the
most popular presenters on Italian TV

The television presenter Maria De Filippi, who has hosted numerous talk and talent shows in a career spanning 25 years, was born on this day in 1961 in Milan.

De Filippi is best known as the presenter of the long-running talent show Amici de Maria De Filippi, which completed its 17th season this year, having been launched in 2001.

The show’s predecessor, called simply Amici, was hosted by De Filippi from 1993 onwards.

One of the most popular faces on Italian television, De Filippi has been married since 1995 to the veteran talk show host and journalist Maurizio Costanzo, who celebrated his 80th birthday this year.

The daughter of a drugs company representative and a Greek teacher, De Filippi was born in Milan before moving at age 10 to Mornico Losana, a village in the province of Pavia, where her parents owned a vineyard.

A graduate in law, she had ambitions of a career as a magistrate but in 1989, while she was working in the legal department of a video cassette company, she had a chance meeting with Costanzo at a conference in Venice to discuss ways of combating musical piracy.

Maria De Filippi presented the 2017 Sanremo Music
Festival along another popular TV host, Carlo Conti

She clearly made an impression on the broadcaster, already well known as the face of the Maurizio Costanzo Show. He soon invited her to move to Rome to work for his communication and image company.

What began as a professional relationship then turned into a romance. Costanzo, who was separated from his third wife, the television presenter  Marta Flavi, moved in with De Filippi and after five years they were married, in 1995.

The chance for De Filippi to break into television came in 1992 when the original choice as presenter of the Amici show, Lella Costa, withdrew after becoming pregnant.  With little time to find a replacement, the producers decided to take a chance with De Filippi, despite her lack of experience, and it paid off handsomely.

The show, modelled on the United States hit Fame, featuring a school in which two groups of aspiring young singers and dancers compete against each other before a panel of judges, proved hugely popular, twice winning coveted Telegatto awards, and De Filippi was soon being offered more television work.

Maria De Filippi survived a car bomb
attack on her husband in 1993

She had another hit with Uomini e donne (Men and Women), which began as a talk show focusing on conflicts between husband and wife but evolved into a dating show.

De Filippi became a judge on Canale 5’s Italia’s Got Talent in 2009, alongside Gerry Scotti and Rudy Zerbi, a position she kept until Mediaset lost the rights to the show in 2014, after which she was asked to front a new show, Tù si que vales.

Alongside Carlo Conti, she presented the Sanremo Music Festival in 2017 and currently presents Uomini e donne, Tù si que vales and C’è posta per te (You’ve Got Mail) as well as Amici, and produces a number of other shows.

Before they were married, she and Costanzo had a lucky escape in 1993 from a Mafia-organised car bomb attack, a response to a number of programmes Costanzo produced focusing on the fight against the Cosa Nostra in Sicily.

The bomb detonated in the Via Ruggero Fauro, close to the Parioli Theatre in Rome where the Maurizio Costanzo Show was filmed, but Costanzo and De Filippi were not in the car they usually used. Their driver and bodyguard suffered injuries but they were unhurt.

UPDATE: Sadly, De Filippi was widowed in February, 2023, when Costanzo died at the age of 84 in a clinic in Rome, where he had been recovering from colon surgery. After a funeral at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Montesanto, he was buried at the Italian capital's Campo Verano cemetery.

The landscapes of the Oltrepò Pavese, which includes Mornico
Losana, give it the look of rural Tuscany

Travel tip:

Mornico Losana, where De Filippi moved when she was 10 years old, is in the Oltrepò Pavese, an area of scenic beauty south of the Po river in Lombardy that is often called the Tuscany of the North, on account of its rolling hills, medieval villages and castles and panoramic views. It is the largest wine producing area of Lombardy and one of the largest in Italy, specialising in Pinot Nero grapes. The landscape is scattered with vineyards and is popular with hikers and mountain bikers.

The Teatro Parioli, part of the wealthy Parioli
neighbourhood, north of Rome's city centre

Travel tip:

The Parioli district, in which the Parioli Theatre is located on Via Giosuè Borsi, is one of Rome's wealthiest residential neighbourhoods. Located north of the city centre, it is notable for its tree-lined streets and elegant houses, and for some of Rome's finest restaurants. The Auditorium Parco della Musica and the Villa Ada, once the Rome residence of the Italian royal family and surrounded by the second largest park in the city, can also be found within the Parioli district.

Rome hotels from TripAdvisor

More reading:

Gerry Scotti - host of Italy's Millionaire

Why Sanremo winner Adriano Celentano is Italy's biggest selling recording artist of all time

The remarkable life of veteran talk show host Maurizio Costanzo

Also on this day:

1443: The birth of Pope Julius II

1687: The birth of composer and violinist Francesco Gemianini

1861: The birth of World War One general Armando Diaz


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Adriano Panatta – tennis player

French Open champion was most at home on the clay

Adriano Panata was at the peak of his career in 1976

The only tennis player ever to defeat Bjorn Borg at Roland Garros in Paris, Adriano Panatta was born on this day in 1950 in Rome.

A successful singles player, Panatta reached the peak of his career in 1976 when he won the French Open, gaining his only Grand Slam title, defeating the American player, Harold Solomon, in the final 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6.

Panatta learnt to play tennis as a youngster on the clay courts of the Tennis Club Parioli in Rome, where his father was the caretaker.

He won top-level titles at Bournemouth in 1973, Florence in 1974 and at Kitzbuhel in Austria and Stockholm in 1975.

In the same year that he won the French Open, Panatta won the Italian Open in Rome, beating Guillermo Vilas in the final 2-6, 7-6, 6-2, 7-6. In the first round of the competition he had saved 11 match points in his match against the Australian Kim Warwick.

Panatta ended 1976 by helping Italy capture its only Davis Cup title, winning two singles and a doubles rubber in the final against Chile. He also reached his career-high singles ranking of World number four that year.

Adriano Panatta aged 20 in 1970 - the
 year he beat Nicola Pietrangeli

The only player to have defeated Bjorn Borg in the French Open, Panatta had the distinction of achieving this feat twice, in the fourth round in 1973 and in the quarter finals in 1976.  

Panatta’s most notable performance at Wimbledon was in 1979 when he reached the quarter finals. 

In all, he won 10 tournaments in singles and 17 in doubles. He is one of only four Italian players to have won a Grand Slam tournament, the others being Nicola Pietrangeli, who won the French open in 1959 and successfully defended his title in 1960, Francesca Schiavone, who won the French in 2010, and Flavia Pennetta, who was US Open champion in 2015.

It was by defeating Pietrangeli in five sets at the Italian International championships in Bologna in 1970 that Panatta first gave notice of his potential to reach the top.

As wells as helping Italy win the Davis Cup in 1976, Panatta assisted his country to reach the final in 1977, 1979 and 1980.

Since retiring as a player in 1983, Panatta has served as captain of Italy’s Davis Cup team and as Tournament Director of the Rome Masters.  For a while, he pursued an interest in speedboat racing and also served on Rome City Council as councillor in charge of sports and major events. For a number of years he worked as a television commentator.

The Parioli district is a pleasant Rome suburb with
bars and pavement cafes

Travel tip:

The Tennis Club Parioli, where Panatta learnt to play, is in Largo Uberto De Morpergo in the Parioli district, a northern suburb of Rome. The name comes from Monti Parioli, which are a series of hills. During the Fascist regime, many high-ranking party officials had residences in the Parioli district. Nowadays it is one of Rome’s most elegant residential areas and a number of foreign embassies are located there.

The Italian Open attracts large crowds to the Foro Italico

Travel tip:

The Italian Open, which Panatta won in 1976, is one of the most prestigious clay court tournaments in the world. It takes place each year at the Foro Italico, formerly known as Foro Mussolini, which was built between 1928 and 1938. Foro Italico is considered a prime example of Italian Fascist architecture, which was encouraged by Mussolini. The purpose was to bring the Olympic Games to Rome in 1944, however London won the bid. In the event, the 1944 Olympic Games had to be cancelled because of the Second World War.

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