Ayrton and Angelo


It's not a news speak about Ayrton as a person very reserved, especially when the topics of the conversation are about his affections and his friendships. In a time when it's not rare to see the Formula One drivers surrounded by girls and friends in the paddock, Ayrton is often alone

Many have judged this way of being; many people also scatter the rumor that he is homosexual. Nothing can be more wrong: he was a perfectionist and a professional. He divides work by human relationships.



A person with whom he has always had a special relationship is the Italian photographer Angelo Orsi, and I think it is one of the few true friendships that Ayrton had in the "circus".

Both are there, on May 1, 1994. It is at 14:17 o'clock when the radio announces an accident at the Tamburello curve. Angelo, ready to capture every moment of the race with his Canon, takes his scooter and moves quickly on the back lane of the circuit until he arrives in the place of the incident; the photographer picks up his camera and shoots pictures after pictures, as if doing damn good his work is the only way to don't think.

The shots arrive to the office when the director of Autosprint, Carlo Cavicchi, gets a call from Angelo: the photographer asks that a photograph among many should be destroyed; it's depicting the face of Ayrton without his helmet. Cavicchi respects the decision of Orsi and eliminates the photograph. Meanwhile, on the circuit, the voice that the only photojournalist with the material about the accident is Angelo has already spread. Many offers arriving from everywhere, money that canchange the life of a simple photographer F1.

But Angelo does not betray the Friend ... the eternal Friend.

A testimony about Ayrton issued by Angelo for Sky: