| Alex Caffi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality: |  Italian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Date: | 18 March 1964 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Rovato, Italy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years: | – | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team(S): | Arrows/Footwork, Dallara and Osella | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Races: | 77 (56 starts) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Championships: | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wins: | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Podiums: | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Points: | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Poles: | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fastest Laps: | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Alessandro Giuseppe "Alex" Caffi[1] (born 18 March 1964)[2] is an Italian racing driver, former Formula One driver, and team owner.[3] He participated in 75 Grands Prix, debuting on 7 September 1986. In 2006 he raced in the inaugural season of the Grand Prix Masters formula for retired Formula One drivers.[4] He currently serves as the team owner of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series team Academy Motorsport and had acted as an owner-driver during the team's previous guise as Alex Caffi Motorsport.
Caffi was born in Rovato (province of Brescia), in Northern Italy.[2] He spent three years in Italian Formula Three from 1984 to 1986, finishing runner-up in 1984 and 1985, then third in 1986.[5] 1986 also saw him land a one-off drive with the Osella Formula One team.[5]
The San Marino Grand Prix, three weeks later, provided Caffi with his only classification of the year, 12th, despite running out of fuel five laps from the finish.[7] Then came a run of 10 consecutive retirements; in Belgium, Monaco, where he qualified an excellent 16th and ran as high as 10th, the United States, where he qualified 19th, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Italy and Portugal.[7]
As the season drew to a close, Caffi failed to qualify for two of the final four races in Spain and Australia, bookending retirements in Mexico, where he ran as high as 7th due to attrition, and Japan where he ran out of fuel.[7] Despite finishing so few races, none were down to driver error, though Caffi was unclassified in the Drivers' Championship.[9]
The new car arrived in time for San Marino, but fortunes failed to improve as Caffi retired[7] and an excellent 17th in qualifying at Monaco[7] was ruined when he crashed all alone on the opening lap, the first blot on his career copybook. Caffi's third retirement in a row in Mexico[7] and failure to qualify in Canada[7] only added to the nightmare.
Mid-season though saw a turnaround in both Caffi's, and the team's season, with four finishes on the spin; 8th in the United States, 12th in France after qualifying 14th, 11th in Great Britain and 15th in Germany after qualifying 19th.[7]
Form during the following five races was patchy. Three top-10 finishes; 8th in Belgium after qualifying 15th, 7th in Portugal (his best career finish at the time) after qualifying 17th and 10th in Spain after qualifying 18th, were scattered around a couple of retirements; in Hungary where he qualified in the top-10 for the first time in 10th, and Italy.[7]
1988 concluded with a brace of retirements in Japan, where he spun off, and after qualifying 11th in Australia.[7] For the second season in a row Caffi was unclassified in the Drivers' Championship.[9]
Momentum continued onto Monaco with another top-10 in qualifying, 9th,[7] followed by the first Formula One points for himself and the team with an excellent drive to 4th.[4] 13th in Mexico was followed by retirement in the United States,[7] when Caffi, who qualified 6th[7] and at one stage was running 2nd[4] only to Alain Prost, was pushed into the wall rather comically whilst trying to lap teammate Andrea de Cesaris.[4]
A second points finish of 6th in Canada[7] was another highlight but Caffi's season rarely peaked after that with just two finishes in the final 10 races; 7th in Hungary (after qualifying a stunning 3rd) and 9th in Japan.[7]
Failure to finish in France, Germany, Belgium, after spinning off, Italy, Portugal where he qualified 7th then collided with three-time World Drivers' Champion Nelson Piquet, Spain and Australia, where he qualified 10th before spinning off, along with a failure to pre-qualify in Great Britain rounded off an inconsistent year.[7] Four points and 19th in the Drivers' Championship were Caffi's rewards.[9]
Injury caused by a pre-season cycling accident forced Caffi to sit out the opening race in the United States, with German Bernd Schneider filling the gap.[13] Retirement in Brazil and failure to qualify in San Marino[7] only compounded Caffi's woes.
The following four races were patchy with a 5th, and two points, in Monaco followed by an 8th in Canada, failure to qualify in Mexico and retirement in France.[7] Five consecutive top-10 finishes mid-season; in Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Belgium and Italy brought about a consistency to Caffi's performance.[7]
His, and everybody's, Portuguese Grand Prix was ended early when he crashed into the Lola of Aguri Suzuki[14] and the resulting foot injuries ruled Caffi out of the next race, Spain, with Schneider once again deputising.[15]
Another positive performance of 9th in Japan was cancelled out by failure to qualify for the final round in Australia.[7] Over the course of the season Caffi scored all the team's points and outperformed the more experienced Alboreto to end 1990 with two points and 16th in the Drivers' Championship.[9]
For the first time in his Formula One career, Caffi failed to qualify for any of the opening four races; in the United States, Brazil, San Marino, and Monaco.[7]
The latter would be best remembered for a huge crash in practice,[4] when Caffi slid off line and into the barriers at the Swimming Pool series of corners. The impact was so heavy, the car broke in three; the gearbox and rear wing broke free from the engine, which in turn came clear of the tub.[16] Despite suffering no serious injuries as a result of the crash,[16] Caffi was injured shortly after in a road accident.[4]
As a result, Footwork drafted in Stefan Johansson for the races in Canada, Mexico, France and Great Britain[17] and when Caffi returned to fitness, he discovered the team were trying to keep the Swede on. He managed to regain his seat via a legal injunction, but the struggles re-commenced with failure to qualify in Belgium compounded by pre-qualification failures in Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Spain.[7]
The season ended on a slightly higher note, as Caffi finished 10th in Japan and kept his head above water to finish 15th in the deluge in Australia.[7] A season of catastrophe yielded no points and no classification in the Drivers' Championship.
However, registration problems with the FIA (involving Sassetti's refusal to pay the $100,000 entrance fee for new teams) meant that Caffi managed no more than a few exploratory laps at the South African Grand Prix, the opening round of 1992.[19] Before the next round in Mexico, the team's new car, the Nick Wirth-designed S921, was built and prepared but freight delays forced Sassetti to withdraw both Caffi and Bertaggia from the Mexican event.[19]
After two races Caffi had had enough, voiced his displeasure of the situation and was fired by Sassetti, with Brazilian super-sub Roberto Moreno taking his seat.[19] No points from both races meant no classification in the Drivers' Championship, but more significantly, it signalled the end of the Italian's Formula One career at the age of 28.
After F1 he raced on and off in sports and touring cars, mainly in the United States, where in 1998 he had an IRL test at Pikes Peak Raceway.[5] After a brief career in Spanish and Italian Touring Cars,[2] Caffi found his niche in sportscars, racing in GTs,[2] FIA Sportscar, and ALMS. He returned to International motorsport in the IRC Rally Monte-Carlo 2011, driving a Skoda Fabia S2000. 25 years after his Formula 1 career Italian Alex Caffi won on the streets of the Principality during the Monaco Grand Prix Historique 2016. Caffi was one of the high-profile winners during the 10th running of the GP Historique when he guided the Kessel Racing Ensign N176 to victory in the Pre 1977 3-litre F1 race.
In 2016, Caffi formed his own racing team Alex Caffi Motorsport. Alex Caffi Motorsport entered the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series on the same year as its formation, competing on a part-time basis for its debut season before stepping up to full-time competition in 2017.[20] The team took part in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series under the Alex Caffi Motorsport guise for five seasons before it was rebranded to Academy Motorsport in 2021 after entrepreneur Federico Monti became the co-owner of the team.[21] Academy continues to compete in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series to this day,[2] currently fielding the #1 Ford Mustang and #5 EuroNASCAR FJ 2020 in both EuroNASCAR PRO and EuroNASCAR 2.[22] [23]
When he is not racing he is an instructor at the official Subaru Italia safety driving and racing school.[5]
(key)
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Courage Compétition | Andrea Montermini Domenico Schiattarella | Courage C52-Nissan | LMP | 342 | 6th | 5th | ||
 Seikel Motorsport | Gabrio Rosa Peter van Merksteijn Sr. | Porsche 911 GT3-RS | GT | 148 | DNF | DNF | ||
| Spyker Squadron b.v. | Andrea Belicchi Andrea Chiesa | Spyker C8 Spyder GT2-R | GT2 | 145 | DNF | DNF | ||
(key) Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap.
(key) (
Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)| NASCAR Whelen Euro Series – Elite 1 results | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | Pts | Ref | ||
| 2016 | Alex Caffi Motorsport | 23 | Ford | VAL | VAL | VEN | VEN | BRH | BRH | TOU | TOU | ADR | ADR | ZOL | ZOL | 19th | 284 | [24] | ||
| 2018 | 1 | VAL | VAL | FRA | FRA | BRH | BRH | TOU | TOU | HOC | HOC | ZOL | ZOL | 42nd | 41 | [25] | ||||
| 2019 | VAL | VAL | FRA | FRA | BRH | BRH | MOS | MOS | VEN | HOC | HOC | ZOL | ZOL | 42nd | 28 | [26] | ||||