Grand prix racing is one of the few sports in which a competitor can enjoy a long and successful career without actually winning anything. Andrea de Cesaris, who has died in a motorcycle accident aged 55, started 208 world championship races between 1980 and 1994, but never managed to finish higher than second.
He was a fast but erratic driver who owed his arrival in Formula One to a strong personal relationship with the Philip Morris tobacco company, which was then pumping money into the sport in order to promote Marlboro cigarettes. His first two teams, Alfa Romeo and McLaren, carried the red and white Marlboro livery. But the resentment provoked by his combination of good fortune and wild driving, and the curiosity aroused by his pronounced facial tic, diminished as time passed, and he had many friends in the paddock.
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