Quote:
Originally Posted by S griffin
Fittipaldi was tested with Spirit prior to 84 as he was thinking of making a comeback to F1 with that team. Fulvio Ballabio was also in line to take that seat, but was refused a superlicence
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The actual plan was to run Ballabio in a Cosworth engined 2nd car and use the funds to employ an ace in the number one car. Emerson was tested but the car overheated an awful lot and he got negative publicity from the Brazillian journos, especially compared to Senna in the simillarly Hart engined Toleman that ran reliably and shot Ayrton up the timesheets. Emmo instead went off to race an IMSA GTP for Ralph Sanchez in the Miami GP which lead to various CART outings in 1984 for different teams and ultimately a ride wth Patrick in 85 that cemented him as a CART fan favourite.
Sadly Fulvia Maria Ballabio was refused a Superlicence and tragically his Dad died of a heart attack on hearing the news. Fulvia carried on his Group C career and later appeared in CART as well as producing his own F3000 car in 1986 the Monaco 001 based on an old Dywa AFX British F1 design. Its DNQ'ed at Imola and was never seen again. He also produced a Supercar built in Monaco that failed to qualify at Le Mans one year in the 90s.