09.01.2004 ALFA ROMEO ARE PUSHING TO RETURN FABRIZIO GIOVANARDI TO THE FOLD

Alfa Romeo are making a strong push to bring Fabrizio Giovanardi back to the Autodelta team, with long time stalwart Nicola Larini expected to make way for the former double European Touring Car Champion's return.

Fabrizio Giovanardi left Alfa Romeo at the end of 2002 for BMW after an incredible run of six touring car titles in six years. He kicked off by taking the Spanish Touring Car Championship in 1997, two consecutive Italian Superturismo titles in 1998 and 1999 followed. He then stepped up with Alfa Romeo to claim the new European Super Touring Car Championship in 2000. This evolved into the FIA sanctioned European Touring Car Championship the next year, and Giovanardi, again at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo, took the new series' first two driver's titles in 2001 and 2002.

However a move to BMW with the crack Italian Ravaglia team, after being offered parity of factory equipment, last year proved ultimately disappointing. A promising start saw Giovanardi take a second and a fifth place in the opening pair of races in Barcelona, but his season went downhill rapidly. A second and third place at Brno were his only other trips to the podium during a year when he was never in the hunt.

Now a return to Autodelta is on the cards. With Nicola Larini expected to leave and Roberto Colciago unlikely to be retained, Gabriele Tarquini is presently the only confirmed driver. The third berth is likely to be chosen from youngster Augusto Farfus, Andrea Montermini, who impressed the team after coming out fastest in a mass test held at the end of last year, and Sweden's Rickard Rydell, who has just come to the end of a ten year association with Volvo.

Nicola Larini, now expected to be dropped from Alfa Romeo's plans, has been a factory driver for thirteen years, his greatest success for the Italian marque coming with his 1993 German DTM title at the wheel of the 155 V6 TI racer.

Larini started out his career in Italian F3, winning the title in 1986, before being offered his F1 break with the tiny Coloni team the next year. With the new and untried car he failed to qualify on his first outing at the Italian Grand Prix, but made the race second time out at Jerez, before retiring with suspension failure during the race.

1988 and 1989 saw Larini switch to another small Italian team, Osella, where, with a largely uncompetitive car, he impressed the paddock with a series of strong performances, including running as high as third in the 1989 Canadian Grand Prix before suffering mechanical failure.

In a promising career that always saw him in the wrong place at the wrong time, he moved to Ligier for 1990 and then on to the woeful Lamborghini Modena team in 1991, left high and dry when the team collapsed. Ferrari rescued him to become their test driver over the next four years, and his first race chance with them came after Ivan Capelli was sacked in 1992 and he stood in for two races.

He later stepped in again at Ferrari for another pair of races in 1994 after Jean Alesi was injured, scoring six points for a career best second place at the San Marino Grand Prix, his first ever points scoring position in F1. However this strong performance was completely overshadowed by Ayrton Senna's death in the same race.

His last Grand Prix appearances, during an F1 career that spanned 50-races, were for Sauber in 1997 where he took in five Grands Prix. With Sauber switching to using Ferrari engines that year, Luca di Montezemolo had pushed Larini for the drive, but he quickly fell out with team boss Peter Sauber, accusing the Swiss of favouring his team mate Johnny Herbert and the Italian was sacked after the Monaco Grand Prix. He scored a solitary point during this spell with a sixth place in the opening Grand Prix of the season in Melbourne.

After the collapse of the Lamborghini Modena team during 1991, he had immediately switched to Touring Cars to revive his career, and driving for Alfa Romeo won the Italian Supertourismo Championship the following year. For 1993 Alfa Romeo stepped up to the German DTM series with the Martini-backed 155 V6 TI, Larini leading the team. Competitive from the start, he comfortably won the series.

He has remained an Alfa Romeo driver ever since, leading the DTM program through to its phase as the ITC before the team withdrew at the end of 1996. Alfa Romeo returned to the touring car scene domestically and then into the European series in 2001, but Larini has always has to play bridesmaid to Fabrizio Giovanardi as his team mate embarked on a run of sixth consecutive titles.