Fast, wild and big-haired, Italian Fabrizio Barbazza was born in Monza - that he should have become a racing driver was therefore, something of a birthright. He began racing in Italian F3 in 1984, driving a Dallara 384 with an Alfa Romeo engine tuned by Novamotor, as team-mate to Franco Forini. The two were closely matched, Forini ending up 5th with 27 points, and Barbazza 6th with 22. Notable other drivers that year included Alex Caffi who was 2nd, Marco Apicella who was 7th, and Ivan Capelli who was 12th. 
Continuing in that series in 1985, Barbazza proved extremely competitive, and came 3rd overall. In two years of Italian F3, he had recorded a total of 4 wins, the same number as Michele Alboreto, Luca Badoer, Enrico Bertaggia, Elio de Angelis, Teo Fabi, Riccardo Patrese and Siegfried Stohr. Either through choice or an inability to find a drive in Europe for 1986, he went to America, and found a drive in the new American Racing Series (which would later become known as Indy Lights) featuring cars distinctive for their rear wings that stuck out like a sore thumb.

1986-87: Talent shines through in inaugrual ARS; podium at his only Indy 500

The initial ARS rules dictated that only minor modifications were allowed to the otherwise identical Wildcat/March 86B chassis, while tuning of the 4.2 litre, V-6 Buick engines was strictly prohibited. Given virtually equal equipment, driver talent, not the latest technical development, figured to be the deciding factor in ARS competition. Barbazza in his Arciero Racing machine proved to be a cut above the rest, winning the inaugural title, ahead of such drivers as Jeff Andretti, Mike Groff, Juan Fangio II, Davy Jones, Wally Dallenbach Jr., and Stan Fox. 
He continued driving for Frank Arciero in America in 1987, but they moved up a notch to drive Indy cars - and came a fabulous 12th overall in the series. As the highest placed first-timer, he earned the coveted PPG 'Rookie of the Year' award. Of his amazing achievements, his crowning moment was at the Indianapolis 500, where he came a brilliant 3rd behind Al Unser, Jr. and Roberto Guerrero. He was, naturally, the highest-placed rookie. However, it would turn out to be his one and only race start at the Brickyard. 1987 also saw a brief fling back in Europe, where Barbazza made an unsuccessful attempt to qualify in the International F3000 event at Imola.

1988-90: A racing gypsy, he wanders from place to place

In 1988 he came back from America to race in F3000 on a more regular basis, but found it hard going, failing to qualify three times from his five entries that year, with a best place of 18th at Silverstone. Looking for success, he fled to Japanese F3000 in 1989, but underestimating the ability of his opponents he only managed to score one point and finished equal 17th overall. So for 1990 it was back to the hard F3000 grind in Europe, and driving a Leyton House Cosworth for the Crypton team, he was an expensive asset, recording no less than 5 crashes in 11 races. With 8 retirements overall, that was a record for a single F3000 season. 
But he did score a 4th place at Jerez, just ahead of Andrea Chiesa, but behind Erik Comas, Apicella and Andrea Montermini. The 3 points for this result put him equal 16th in the championship standings with Pedro Chaves and Heinz-Harald Frentzen. The aim was to continue in F3000 in 1991, and at Vallelunga in the opening round he finished 13th. But out of the blue, and probably due in no small part to the fact that he had some money floating around, he got called up into F1.

1991, AGS: Johansson knew when to quit, Fab didn't know what he was getting into

The struggling AGS team started off 1991 with a Cosworth DFR V8 engine tacked onto the back of their 1990 JH25 chassis, and with Gabriele Tarquini and ex-Ferrari and ex-McLaren Stefan Johansson in the driving line-up. Even though the team had the advantage of not having to pre-qualify in the first half of the season, whereas Coloni, Fondmetal, Lambo, Jordan and Dallara did, after only two races Johansson came to his senses and realised that the AGS was just about as pathetic as there was, and pulled out. 
AGS turned to Barbazza, and the Italian would acquit himself pretty well, all things considered, despite the fact that he never made it onto the grid. At Imola for his first ever F1 outing, he was 28th fastest in qualifying, 1.5s behind team-mate Tarquini who was 27th, and 8.9s off Ayrton Senna's pole time, but still faster than the floundering Footworks with their awful Porsche engine.

1991, AGS: Slower and slower; but oh so close come Montreal

Barbazza found Monaco hard to get to grips with, again only managing 28th fastest, 2.2s away from the last qualifier, a Finnish rookie called Mika Hakkinen, and 3.2s off Tarquini, who actually managed to qualify 20th. Then there was heartbreak in Canada when Barbazza was 27th, ahead of Tarquini, Mark Blundell and Johnny Herbert, but only 0.031s slower than Comas who was last on the grid. 
In Mexico he was slowest of all the 30 drivers in qualifying, and while AGS brought out a revised JH25B chassis for France, it only bumped Barbazza back up to 28th quickest, with Hakkinen also failing to qualify in 27th spot. But come Silverstone, AGS were really starting to fall behind, and Barbazza was 29th, just ahead of Tarquini.

1991, AGS: Made to PQ, by Spain Tarquini had done a runner; AGS withdraw

That was the half-way point of the season, and as deservedly as Jordan and Dallara got out of pre-qualifying, so AGS fell into the Friday morning lottery, where only the top 4 would make it into the main qualifying sessions. Barbazza was only 7th quickest in Germany and Hungary, and slowest of all in Belgium, where he was 1.7s off even Pedro Chaves in the horrendous Coloni. He was then 5th quickest in pre-qualifying at Monza, and again missed out by one spot in Portugal, where AGS brought out the new JH27 chassis in a last-ditch bid for credibility. By the time the championship reached Spain, Tarquini was gone, having done a driver-swap with Olivier Grouillard, but the AGSs were the slowest cars on the track, although Barbazza was over half a second faster than his new team-mate. After this, AGS ran out of funds and withdrew.

1991-92 Makes a mess of Mansell; returns to the US only to DNQ at Indy

Ironically, perhaps Barbazza's greatest impact all season came in a friendly soccer game between F1 drivers and journalists/photographers before that Spanish GP at Barcelona. As goalie for the journos, Barbazza brought down Nigel Mansell, rampaging towards his goal, damaging tendons in Mansell's ankle. Maybe that was revenge for being unable to save two Mansell penalties. 
Without a drive for 1992, he turned his attentions to America once again, and drove in two more Indy car races in a Lola/Buick for Arciero. He attempted to qualify for Indianapolis in two separate cars, but failed in both. It was a practice marred by the serious injury to Nelson Piquet, and the fatal accident to young Filipino driver Jovy Marcelo.

1993, Minardi: Lasted eight races before Martini took his rightful place

But in 1993, the Minardi team, finding itself in need of funds as usual, chose Barbazza as team-mate to Christian Fittipaldi in front of perennial favourite Pierluigi Martini, who was paying the price for having defected to Dallara in 1992. Although Martini did eventually replace Fabrizio after 8 races, at least Barbazza qualified for every race and even scored points, something which Martini could not do. 
The season kicked off in South Africa, where Barbazza qualified 24th, 1.7s slower than Fittipaldi in 13th. While the Brazilian eventually finished a fantastic 4th, Barbazza retired after colliding with Aguri Suzuki on lap 22. He was again the victim of a collision in Brazil, where he was punted off on the opening lap by Martin Brundle in the Ligier.

1993, Minardi: Fine performances at Donington, Imola before a welcome return to form

But then, for the European Grand Prix at Donington, he qualified a fine 20th, ahead of both Ligiers, and in difficult conditions in the race brought the Minardi home in 6th to score a point, albeit two laps down, but ahead of Fittipaldi, and setting the 14th fastest race lap. He continued his un-reject-like behaviour at Imola, where from 25th and last on the grid he again finished 6th in a superb performance. 
But after that, in Spain he spun out of the race, came home 11th and three laps adrift in Monaco, qualified ahead of Thierry Boutsen's Jordan in Canada only for his gearbox to pack up, and then had more gearbox problems in France having qualified in front of Andrea de Cesaris' Tyrrell. Minardi probably regretted replacing Fabrizio come season's end.

1994-95: New barrier design visionary; role in IMSA in Ferrari

Out of a drive again in 1994, Barbazza devoted his energies to developing an idea for impact-absorbing barriers to be manufactured by his father's company, and to be used in F1, but it would take time before his design was implemented anywhere. Indeed, the impact-protection system barriers (IPS) were only first seen at Imola in 2000, where they were used along a 60-metre stretch at the Rivazza corner. 
Ironically, and sadly, it was a horrific accident that curtailed his own racing career. In 1995, Barbazza had gone to the IMSA series in America, driving a Ferrari 333SP for the Euromotorsports team. At the Daytona 24hr classic in the car shared with Massimo Sigala, Gianfranco Brancatelli and Elton Julian, he had come 8th overall, and a superb 2nd in their class. But at Sebring they came 7th in their class, and a lowly 22nd overall.

1995-99: Almost fatal accident at Road Atlanta curtails his racing career

But his next entry would be his last. Joining Jay Cochran at Road Atlanta on 30 April that year, he spun to avoid two other spinning Porsches, but his car lay across the track and was smashed from side-on by Jeremy Dale's Oldsmobile at more than 100 mph. Barbazza's car split into two, and he sustained head injuries, a collapsed lung, a broken arm and leg, and went into a sedative-induced coma. 
It took Fabrizio a year to recover from his injuries, and after that he announced his retirement from racing to concentrate on his barrier designs. However, he has not been forgotten by race fans, especially in America. In the 1999 Road Atlanta round of the Women's Global GT series, Kiki Wolfkill's car even carried a sticker saying 'Racing for Fabrizio' in Barbazza's honour. 

(c) F1 Rejects