Alessandro Nannini made his Formula 1 debut in 1986 with the Minardi team, which later became Toro Rosso and is now AlphaTauri. His debut in the Great Circus was in Brazil, where he started in 25th position, but after only 18 laps he had to retire due to clutch problems.
He drove two seasons for the small Italian outfit, failing to score any points, but when he moved to Benetton in 1988 things went much better.
He scored his first point in the second grand prix of the season, and finished on the podium twice, in Great Britain and Spain.
His best year was in 1989, as Nannini won in Japan and finished sixth in the championship. In the 1990 season, the Italian again scored some podium finishes and had some talks with Ferrari to get a seat in 1991, which seemed like a dream.
Nannini ended up rejecting the offer on the grounds that the one-year contract was too little. Subsequently, a helicopter accident in late 1990 caused Nannini’s Formula 1 career to come to an end.
After that event, the Italian began to work in the family company Pasticcerie Nannini, founded by his grandfather, but it was not successful, since the company went bankrupt on Valentine’s Day 2019.
Nannini, who is now 62 years old, would not have paid taxes for a long time, and would have accumulated a debt of 1.2 million euros, according to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica . These accusations are supported by the disappearance of the company’s accounts. Nannini is due to appear in court in May.
