They’re on the road, they drive you off the road, endanger others with their driving behavior, don’t mince words or ease off the gas, and in the process, they wreck a lot of cars. They’re often extras, sometimes winners, and rarely champions. They’re timeless, even today. They are the Bad Boys of F1. Today in our series on F1’s Bad Boys: Andrea de Cesaris.
It doesn’t take long for Andrea de Cesaris to earn the nickname ‘The Crasheris’. He brings it upon himself, because if you see a dust cloud and flying parts in the eighties and early nineties, there’s a good chance the Italian has initiated one of his infamous overtaking maneuvers.
Usually, he’s the victim, like in 1985 during a seemingly innocent spin at Zeltweg. De Cesaris manages to turn this minor incident on the notorious Austrian circuit, which also has a very bumpy verge, into a mega-crash that became a YouTube hit years later. Look it up.
After all those years of accidents, spins, and written-off cars, De Cesaris finally redeems himself when he signs for Jordan in 1991. In the autumn of his career, this earns him a new reputation: that of a reliable, experienced veteran. Who occasionally inexplicably flies into the guardrails, that much is still true.
