Andrea Montermini drove in the years 1995 and 1996 in the Formula 1 . However, this is only a small part of his racing career, which has continued to this day. Montermini has occupied cockpits of racing cars in many well-known racing series around the world. He started his career in 1987 in Italian Formula 3 , then switched to Formula 3000 and worked as a test driver at Ferrari and Benetton at the same time . In 1992 he finished second in Formula 3000 and was already seriously toying with the CART series in the United States before signing with Simtek in 1994 to replace the fatally injured Roland Ratzenberger . There, on his actual debut, he survived a serious accident in the barriers at the Spanish Grand Prix during training, living with luck, so that he only had to be hospitalized with a broken toe and a broken heel. For the remainder of the season, Simtek planned with David Brabham . During his time as a Formula 1 driver, Montermini sat in vehicles from the Simtek , Pacific and Forti teams . He couldn't celebrate any great success here, partly because the teams didn't have good material. His best placement was eighth at the German Grand Prix in the 1995 season.