Stefano Modena

Stefano Modena
Born	12 May 1963 (age 61); Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Italian
Active years	1987–1992
Teams	Brabham, EuroBrun, Tyrrell, Jordan
Entries	81 (70 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	2
Career points	17
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1987 Australian Grand Prix
Last entry	1992 Australian Grand Prix

Stefano Modena (born 12 May 1963) is an Italian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1987 to 1992.

Born and raised in Modena, Modena began his career in kart racing. After winning the junior direct-drive Karting World Cup in 1978, as well as back-to-back direct-drive European Championships in 1983 and 1984, Modena progressed to Italian Formula Three in 1985. Following several race victories the next season—and taking pole position at the Macau Grand Prix—Modena moved to International Formula 3000 in 1987, winning the championship in his debut season. He participated in 81 Formula One Grands Prix for Brabham, EuroBrun, Tyrrell, Jordan, debuting at the 1987 Australian Grand Prix. Modena achieved two podiums and 17 championship points across six seasons.

Career

Stefano Modena was born on 12 May 1963 in Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.^[1] A former 125cc Junior Karting Champion in Italy, he spent two seasons in the Italian Formula Ford national series before joining Euroracing in his domestic Formula 3 series in 1985, placing 15th in an Alfa Romeo engined Ralt. For 1986 he switched to Team Seresina's Reynard chassis and scored three wins to finish 4th overall, also placing 2nd at the Monaco support race and winning a round of the European series at Imola. In 1987 he joined Onyx for the Formula 3000 series, winning three rounds and being crowned as champion.^[2]

His raw speed saw many mark him as a future champion, resulting in Modena being offered a one-off drive for Brabham in the final race of the 1987 Formula One season. While he impressed by qualifying 15th at the 1987 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, his inexperience with the turbo charged BMW engine saw him stop three times to replace flat-spotted tyres before retiring with exhaustion before mid-distance. Modena was intent on becoming a full-time Grand Prix driver for 1988, testing for Benetton before the season.^[2] However, for a full-time drive he had to join the new EuroBrun team, who included many of the same Euroracing mechanics Modena had worked with in 1985. The EuroBrun ER188 with its 3.5 litre Ford Cosworth V8 engine was not competitive however, and Modena was consigned to run near the rear of the field for the year. He did however prove to be faster than his teammate, fellow F1 rookie and former Brun Motorsport sportscar driver, Argentina's Oscar Larrauri.

1989 saw Brabham reform after a sabbatical in 1988, now owned by Swiss businessman Joachim Luthi (who had bought the team from Walter Brun, the owner of EuroBrun), but featuring a lot of the same staff as in 1987. Modena was offered one of the seats, driving alongside Martin Brundle. Equipped with Pirelli qualifying tyres Modena frequently qualified well, starting inside the top 10 on eight occasions despite using the Judd V8 engine. However, the car wasn't reliable - though Modena's sole points finish would come with his 3rd place at the Monaco Grand Prix, his first of two F1 podiums. Before the 1990 season Luthi would be imprisoned for fraud and Brabham endured a difficult year with ownership problems. Modena raised the team's spirits by finishing 5th at the season-opening United States Grand Prix but after that results were rare.^[3]

He finally got his big break in 1991 when he was signed as replacement for Ferrari-bound Tyrrell team leader Jean Alesi. With a healthy group of sponsors, 1990 spec Honda engines, Pirelli tyres and a development of the successful 020 chassis much was expected of the combination, with some predicting race wins. While his season started off with 4th place at Phoenix many of the front runners had retired without Modena getting near them. The wet conditions at Imola saw similar attrition allowing Modena to reach 3rd place before transmission failure. The following race at Monaco saw an even better performance as he qualified on the front row alongside his friend and World Champion Ayrton Senna, harrying the McLaren driver until being held up in traffic and suffering a violent engine failure. A steadier run in Canada was rewarded with 2nd place after Nigel Mansell retired on the final lap. After that Modena's form dropped off badly as Pirelli struggled to develop a consistent race tyre while the heavy Honda engines made the 020 chassis (originally designed for the Cosworth DFR V8) difficult to balance. While Modena continued to qualify frequently in the top half of the grid he struggled in races, only scoring one more point for 6th place at the Japanese Grand Prix.^[4]

The season was considered a huge disappointment, and Modena left Tyrrell for Jordan the following season.^[2] The team had made a strong debut in 1991 and many considered Modena was lucky to land a drive with them. However, their car was hindered by the underpowered Yamaha V12 engine and Modena struggled all season. He failed to qualify for four races and became unpopular with his team for his lack of mechanical sympathy and moody behaviour compared to teammate Maurício Gugelmin. This was confirmed by Gary Anderson, who had designed the 1992 car. Anderson said of Modena that the failures to qualify took his motivation away from him, and, due to his temper, he accumulated disappointments without being able to get over them. Despite scoring the team's only point of the year at the final round in Australia he was unable to find a drive in Grand Prix racing for 1993.

Modena drove instead for Alfa Romeo in the Italian and German touring categories from 1993 to 1999, winning occasional races but never looking like a serious contender for the title. After a year with Opel in 2000, he retired from motorsport.^[2]

After retiring he participated to some twenty-four hours karting races and in 2003 he was hired by Bridgestone, to test first racing tires and then road tires. Over the years he has conducted hundreds of tests in every geographical and climatic condition, including France, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Belgium and Japan. Always for the Asian company he dedicated himself to the promotion, marketing and development of new road tires, travelling to Turkey, Indonesia, Thailand, New Zealand, the United States and Dubai.

Since the late nineties he has been living permanently in Rome with his wife and former actress Sveva Altieri, with whom he had two children: Ascanio, an archaeologist and journalist, and Vittoria, a jurisconsult.

Modena was known for being an eccentric character with bizarre habits verging on the obsessive, including not wanting to have his car parked on the left side of the team garage, and not allowing anyone to touch his race car once he was inside other than the team member who helped him with his safety belts. During his F1 career it was not unusual to see Modena get out of his car after being strapped and get back in before the warm-up lap if he had seen someone else touch the car. Modena was also known to race with his gloves inside out. However, as he has claimed, this wasn't due to superstition.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
1985	Italian Formula Three	Euroteam	13	0	0	1	0	5	15th
1986	Italian Formula Three	Euroteam	13	3	1	4	5	38	4th
1986	Macau Grand Prix	Euroteam	1	0	1	0	0	N/A	13th
1987	International Formula 3000	Onyx Racing	11	3	0	1	4	41	1st
	Macau Grand Prix	Euroteam	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	15th
	Formula One	Motor Racing Developments	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1988	Formula One	EuroBrun Racing	10	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1989	Formula One	Motor Racing Developments	15	0	0	0	1	4	16th
1990	Formula One	Motor Racing Developments	16	0	0	0	0	2	16th
1991	Formula One	Braun Tyrrell Honda	16	0	0	0	1	10	8th
1992	Formula One	Sasol Jordan Yamaha	12	0	0	0	0	1	17th
1993	Italian Superturismo Championship	Euroteam	20	0	0	0	0	46	11th
1993	FIA Touring Car Challenge	Euroteam	2	0	0	0	0	14	13th
1994	Italian Superturismo Championship	Euroteam	13	3	3	6	5	116	6th
	Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft	Alfa Corse	6	1	1	2	2	74	12th
	FIA Touring Car World Cup	Alfa Corse	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1995	Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft	Euroteam	11	0	0	1	1	26	16th
1995	International Touring Car Series	Euroteam	10	0	0	2	1	49	7th
1996	International Touring Car Championship	JAS Motorsport Alfa Corse	25	0	0	0	3	92	12th
1997	Super Tourenwagen Cup	JAS Engineering	20	0	0	0	0	129	20th
1998	Super Tourenwagen Cup	Euroteam	18	0	0	0	0	146	18th
1998	Italian Superturismo Championship	Nordauto Engineering	2	0	0	1	1	32	15th
1999	Super Tourenwagen Cup	Euroteam	19	0	0	0	0	271	13th
2000	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	Euroteam	14	0	0	0	0	15	15th
Sources:^[5]^[6]^[7]

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos.	Pts
1987	Onyx Racing	SIL 4	VAL 1	SPA Ret	PAU Ret	DON 2	PER 6	BRH 4	BIR 1	IMO 1	BUG Ret	JAR 6	1st	40
Sources:^[5]^[6]

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Pts
1987	Motor Racing Developments	Brabham BT56	BMW Str-4	BRA	SMR	BEL	MON	DET	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	AUT	ITA	POR	ESP	MEX	JPN	AUS Ret	NC	0
1988	EuroBrun Racing	EuroBrun ER188	Cosworth V8	BRA Ret	SMR NC	MON EX	MEX EX	CAN 12	DET Ret	FRA 14	GBR 12	GER Ret	HUN 11	BEL DNQ	ITA DNQ	POR DNQ	ESP 13	JPN DNQ	AUS Ret	NC	0
1989	Motor Racing Developments	Brabham BT58	Judd V8	BRA Ret	SMR Ret	MON 3	MEX 10	USA Ret	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 11	BEL Ret	ITA EX	POR 14	ESP Ret	JPN Ret	AUS 8	16th	4
1990	Motor Racing Developments	Brabham BT58	Judd V8	USA 5	BRA Ret															16th	2
1990	Motor Racing Developments	Brabham BT59	Judd V8			SMR Ret	MON Ret	CAN 7	MEX 11	FRA 13	GBR 9	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 17	ITA Ret	POR Ret	ESP Ret	JPN Ret	AUS 12	16th	2
1991	Braun Tyrrell Honda	Tyrrell 020	Honda V10	USA 4	BRA Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	CAN 2	MEX 11	FRA Ret	GBR 7	GER 13	HUN 12	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	ESP 16	JPN 6	AUS 10	8th	10
1992	Sasol Jordan Yamaha	Jordan 192	Yamaha V12	RSA DNQ	MEX Ret	BRA Ret	ESP DNQ	SMR Ret	MON Ret	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER DNQ	HUN Ret	BEL 15	ITA DNQ	POR 13	JPN 7	AUS 6	17th	1
Sources:^[5]^[8]

Complete Italian Superturismo Championship results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Pts
1993	Euroteam	BMW 318i	MNZ 1 8	MNZ 2 9	VAL 1 Ret	VAL 2 Ret	MIS 1 8	MIS 2 6	MAG 1 15	MAG 2 11	BIN 1 6	BIN 2 7	IMO 1 8	IMO 2 12	VAR 1 8	VAR 2 6	MIS 1 9	MIS 2 Ret	PER 1 10	PER 2 7	MUG 1 14	MUG 2 9	12th	45
1994	Euroteam	Alfa Romeo 155 TS	MNZ 1 15	MNZ 2 4	VAL 1 1	VAL 2 7	MAG 1 Ret	MAG 2 DNS	BIN 1 4	BIN 2 16	MIS 1 Ret	MIS 2 DNS	VAL 1 1	VAL 2 2	MUG 1 2	MUG 2 1	PER 1	PER 2	VAR 1	VAR 2	MUG 1 Ret	MUG 2 7	6th	116

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft/Masters results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	Pos.	Pts
1994	Alfa Corse	Alfa Romeo 155 V6 Ti	ZOL 1	ZOL 2	HOC 1	HOC 2	NÜR 1	NÜR 2	MUG 1	MUG 2	NÜR 1	NÜR 2	NOR 1	NOR 2	DON 1	DON 2	DIE 1	DIE 2	NÜR 1	NÜR 2	AVU 1 1	AVU 2 1	ALE 1 2	ALE 2 2	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 7	12th	74
1995	Euroteam	Alfa Romeo 155 V6 Ti	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 DNS	AVU 1 5	AVU 2 2	NOR 1 5	NOR 2 4	DIE 1 12	DIE 2 Ret	NÜR 1 Ret	NÜR 2 DNS	ALE 1 Ret	ALE 2 DNS	HOC 1 14	HOC 2 Ret											16th	26
2000	Euroteam	Opel Astra V8 Coupé DTM 2000	HOC 1 13	HOC 2 10	OSC 1 12	OSC 2 Ret	NOR 1 10	NOR 2 10	SAC 1 14	SAC 2 Ret	NÜR 1 19	NÜR 2 15	LAU 1 C	LAU 2 C	OSC 1 Ret	OSC 2 DNS	NÜR 1 Ret	NÜR 2 DNS	HOC 1 9	HOC 2 4							15th	15
Sources:^[5]^[7]

Complete International Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	Pos.	Pts
1995	Euroteam	Alfa Romeo 155 V6 Ti	MUG 1 6	MUG 2 11	HEL 1 2	HEL 2 Ret	DON 1 6	DON 2 13	EST 1 20	EST 2 5	MAG 1 5	MAG 2 6																	7th	49
1996	JAS Motorsport Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 155 V6 TI	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 DNS	NÜR 1 17	NÜR 2 Ret	EST 1 DNS	EST 2 9	HEL 1 7	HEL 2 Ret	NOR 1 3	NOR 2 13	DIE 1 4	DIE 2 3	SIL 1 4	SIL 2 Ret	NÜR 1 13	NÜR 2 10	MAG 1 13	MAG 2 7	MUG 1 Ret	MUG 2 14	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 10	INT 1 2	INT 2 8	SUZ 1 5	SUZ 2 4	12th	92
Sources:^[5]^[7]

Complete Super Tourenwagen Cup results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Pts
1997	JAS Engineering	Alfa Romeo 155 TS	HOC 1 10	HOC 2 17	ZOL 1 14	ZOL 2 27	NÜR 1 23	NÜR 2 20	SAC 1 23	SAC 2 Ret	NOR 1 27	NOR 2 7	WUN 1 14	WUN 2 Ret	ZWE 1 18	ZWE 2 20	SAL 1 19	SAL 2 17	REG 1 16	REG 2 10	NÜR 1 DNS	NÜR 2 Ret	20th	129
1998	Euroteam S.R.L.	Alfa Romeo 156	HOC 1 18	HOC 2 18	NÜR 1 15	NÜR 2 12	SAC 1 10	SAC 2 17	NOR 1 Ret	NOR 2 DNS	REG 1 14	REG 2 Ret	WUN 1 Ret	WUN 2 9	ZWE 1 10	ZWE 2 10	SAL 1 16	SAL 2 Ret	OSC 1 18	OSC 2 15	NÜR 1 22	NÜR 2 17	18th	146
1999	Euroteam	Alfa Romeo 156	SAC 1 7	SAC 2 11	ZWE 1 9	ZWE 2 10	OSC 1 10	OSC 2 Ret	NOR 1 12	NOR 2 13	MIS 1 6	MIS 2 Ret	NÜR 1 4	NÜR 2 4	SAL 1 7	SAL 2 4	OSC 1 Ret	OSC 2 DNS	HOC 1 7	HOC 2 Ret	NÜR 1 10	NÜR 2 7	13th	271

References

^ Jenkins, Richard. "The World Championship drivers - Where are they now?". OldRacingCars.com. Retrieved 29 July 2007.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "DRIVERS: STEFANO MODENA". Grandprix.com. Inside F1. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
^ "ROGUE PROFILE OF STEFANO MODENA". F1Rogues.com. Archived from the original on 22 January 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
^ "Stefano Modena: 1991 Formula One Results". racing-reference.info. Fantasy Sports Ventures. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Stefano Modena Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
^ ^a ^b "Stefano Modena". Motor Sport. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Stefano Modena race results". TouringCars.net. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
^ Small, Steve (2000). "Stefano Modena". Grand Prix Who's Who (Third ed.). Reading, Berkshire: Travel Publishing. pp. 386–387. ISBN 978-1-902007-46-5. Retrieved 31 August 2023 – via Internet Archive.

Sporting positions
Preceded by Alex Caffi	FIA European Formula Three Cup winner 1986	Succeeded by Steve Kempton
Preceded by Ivan Capelli	International Formula 3000 champion 1987	Succeeded by Roberto Moreno

[WATN-1] Jenkins, Richard. "The World Championship drivers - Where are they now?". OldRacingCars.com. Retrieved 29 July 2007.

[ifgp-2] "DRIVERS: STEFANO MODENA". Grandprix.com. Inside F1. Retrieved 23 September 2012.

[3] "ROGUE PROFILE OF STEFANO MODENA". F1Rogues.com. Archived from the original on 22 January 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2012.

[4] "Stefano Modena: 1991 Formula One Results". racing-reference.info. Fantasy Sports Ventures. Retrieved 23 September 2012.

[MSportStats-5] "Stefano Modena Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 31 August 2023.

[MSportMagDatabase-6] "Stefano Modena". Motor Sport. Retrieved 31 August 2023.

[TouringCarNetResults-7] "Stefano Modena race results". TouringCars.net. Retrieved 31 August 2023.

[8] Small, Steve (2000). "Stefano Modena". Grand Prix Who's Who (Third ed.). Reading, Berkshire: Travel Publishing. pp. 386–387. ISBN 978-1-902007-46-5. Retrieved 31 August 2023 – via Internet Archive.

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