ANDREA DE ADAMICH 1941-2025

He left quietly, just as he had lived — with discretion, yet leaving behind an echo that won’t fade. Andrea De Adamich has passed away at 84, only a month after celebrating his birthday. Driver, journalist, and unmistakable voice of Italian motorsport, he was one of those men for whom the racetrack was never just a place, but a state of mind.

Born in Trieste in 1941, he first chased speed up the climbs of the Italian Hill Climb Championship, behind the wheel of a Triumph TR3. It was 1962, and even then, you could sense he was made of the stuff that never stops seeking the limit. After Formula Junior and Formula 3 came the 1965 Italian title — and with it, the beginning of his story with Alfa Romeo: two consecutive European Touring Car Championships, in 1966 and 1967, driving the legendary Giulia GTA.

Formula 1 came shortly after. He made his debut in 1967, in Spain, with Ferrari — finishing a promising fourth in a non-championship race. The following year marked his official entry into the World Championship, still with Maranello, but fate quickly revealed the sport’s harsher side: a crash in South Africa, then another, more serious one at Brands Hatch. Yet he returned to racing, driving for McLaren, March, Surtees, and Brabham, earning solid results and universal respect. He never won a Grand Prix — but he never needed to. His talent was defined more by clarity than by spectacle, more by determination than by drama.

In the World Sportscar Championship, success came with Alfa Romeo, with victories at Brands Hatch and Watkins Glen. But in 1973, fate intervened again — a horrific accident at Silverstone shattered both legs and ended his driving career. That, however, marked the beginning of another: that of a communicator.

In 1978, he became the face of Grand Prix, the TV program that brought the smell of gasoline into Italian living rooms. Then, from 1991 to 1996, he served as the calm, witty, and steady voice of Formula 1 broadcasts on Mediaset. He told the stories of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost with balance and depth — and when Michael Schumacher arrived, he was among the first to grasp the scope of his greatness.

For many, though, his voice is tied to a different kind of memory: a joystick and a flickering screen. He lent his voice to the official PlayStation Formula 1 games from 1997 through 2006. One phrase — “He’s hit Frentzen!” — was enough to transport an entire generation back to childhood, dreaming of racing on the very circuits he knew so well.

But perhaps his most meaningful contribution came far from the spotlight. In 1991, De Adamich founded the International Safe Driving Center in Varano de’ Melegari, near Parma. There, he shared his deepest belief about driving — that speed is never blind, and that true control comes from awareness. Thousands of drivers, racers, and ordinary motorists learned from him what it really means to feel a car — to understand it, respect it, and make it an extension of oneself.

His teaching style was technical yet human, precise yet empathetic. He didn’t just teach how to brake — he taught when not to. He helped people recognize the fine line between instinct and reason, where the true difference lies between those who merely drive and those who truly master the art. “Safe driving isn’t fear,” he used to say, “it’s awareness.” In that simple phrase lives the philosophy of a man who turned speed into culture.

Honored as a Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2022, De Adamich leaves behind a legacy not measured in trophies, but in respect — for cars, for the track, for people. His was a life lived in perfect balance between passion and poise. And today, as the sound of engines feels a little more distant, his voice remains to remind us that — in life as on the racetrack — a race never truly ends as long as someone remembers it.

© Cavalieri Garage & Co.