Fulvio Ballabio

Monte Carlo ALA 50

Fulvio Maria Ballabio (born October 8, 1954 in Milan ) is a former Italian racing driver and automobile manufacturer.

Racing driver

Ballabio took part regularly in the Formula 2 European Championship in 1983 . Initially he drove for Arturo Merzario's team , but in four races he only reached one finish that was outside of the points. In the summer he moved to the French team AGS , for which he achieved a fifth and a sixth place. Ballabio finished the season in 17th place in the drivers' standings. In 1984 , the last season of Formula 2, he was no longer given a cockpit; the same applied to the first year of the successor series, the Formula 3000 championship .

In 1986 he took part in a race in the Formula 3000 championship with his own team, the Écurie Monaco . On the occasion of the Trofeo Elio de Angelis , the fifth Formula 3000 race of the 1986 season, which took place at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola , Ballabio reported a self-constructed car called Monte Carlo 001 , which was derived from an older Dywa . In qualifying it took him almost twice as long as his rivals to complete one lap; therefore he did not qualify for the race. Ballabio then ended his Formula 3000 involvement. For the race after that at the Sicilian Autodromo di Pergusa , the Écurie Monaco, directed by Ballabio, reported a used March 85B . The driver was Guido Daccò , who finished 16th in the race. But even with that he failed to qualify.

Between 1987 and 1989 Ballabio drove in the CART series for Dick Simon Racing and Dale Coyne Racing . In 2004 he took part in two races of the Formula X Sport Series .

Automobile manufacturer

In 1985 Ballabio founded Monaco Racing Services , based in Fontvieille , Monaco , which later became known as Monte Carlo Automobile . It was from here that Ballabio first organized its Formula 3000 commitment. Later, the company constructed street sports cars that were very limited in use.

In 1989 Ballabio designed the Centenaire , a supercar , the first car built with carbon fiber reinforced plastic , long before Lamborghini or Ferrari started doing it. The car initially had a Lamborghini engine. In 1992 an open version was presented, the engine of which had roots in racing. The V12 biturbo engine designed by Carlo Chiti developed 720 hp (530 kW). It was a slightly modified Subaru MM3512 in the 1990 by Coloni had been used unsuccessfully in F1.

MCA's new supercar was unveiled during the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix . It was named in honor of the 50th birthday of Albert II. It was planned to start this super sports car in the 2010 Le Mans 24-hour race ; however, that could not be realized.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1986	Obermaier Racing	Porsche 956	Jürgen Lässig	Dudley Wood	Rank 5

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9
1983	Sauber motorsport	Clean C7	MON	SIL	ONLY	LEM	SPA	FUJ	KYA
								10
1986	Obermaier Racing	Porsche 956	MON	SIL	LEM	NOW	BRH	JER	ONLY	SPA	FUJ
			7th	12	5		8th	4th	4th
1990	Team Davey	Porsche 962	SUZ	MON	SIL	SPA	DIJ	ONLY	DON	MOT	MEX
				DNF

Web links

Commons : Fulvio Ballabio  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Ballabio's homepage ( Memento from October 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Overview of Ballabio's race results on the website www.driverdb.com (accessed on February 5, 2012).
2. ^ Page at Speedport Magazine , accessed April 22, 2010