“So close to victory ” – Grand Prix International – n. 15/1980 – Un editoriale, con intervista, sul Gran premio del Brasile 1980

 

Si riporta sotto il testo originale nella lingua inglese. Segue una traduzione in lingua italiana a cura del presente sito.

Last year it was a real effort for him to qualify. This year he aims at the front rows when he’s driving in practice. The least one can say is that he’s made the right choice by swooping from Shadow to Lotus 81. Now his talent, apparent on occasions last year, is matched with the right equipment. His father had to help him buy his way out of the Shadow team so that he could join Lotus, but that scarcely has anything to do with his driving capabilities. He’s still an attacking driver. At Interlagos, Elio was as good as Pironi and Villeneuve in the fast curves, those that separate the men from the boys.

The evening before the race, De Angelis spoke optimistically but in his usual measured tone of his hopes for the race, having qualified seventh in practice. But if his situation had changed, he clearly hadn’t. He was still thoughtful, ponderous, almost cold. «My car is fantastic, its roadholding is excellent and it’s easy to drive» . He hadn’t been so happy the previous evening after the first qualifying session. «We suspected the skirts of not working properly, but the mechanics discovered that by the end the shock absorbers on the left hand side were no longer working. The bumpy circuit had worn them out».