Teo Fabi was fortunate enough to have a foot in both the Formula 1 and Indy Car camps. However, sadly for the Italian, he was unable to make the most of either opportunity.

    The European karting champion of 1975, Teo began his rise to prominence with fourth place in the 1978 European F3 championship, followed by a trip down-under to win the New Zealand Formula Pacific series. This set up a season in Formula 2 for 1979 with a semi-works March, but Fabi took a while to find his feet and finished a disappointed tenth in the final standings.

    With the backing of Robin Herd, who rated him very highly, Teo led the works March Formula 2 effort in 1980. The season was dominated by the Toleman pair of Henton and Warwick, but Fabi was third, and seemed certain to join the March F1 team for 1981 until the drive went to Derek Daly at the eleventh hour. Instead Teo opted for a season in Can-Am with the Paul Newman team's March 817 and won four races, but the more consistent Geoff Brabham took the title.

    In 1982 the Toleman team gave Teo a Grand Prix opportunity that he was soon to regret taking. The year was a disaster and Fabi's stock in Europe was low, but help was at hand and, with Herd's backing, Teo got himself a ride in Indy cars for 1983. He put the Forsythe March on pole for the Indy 500 - only his second outing for the team - and led the race. He went on to score four wins that season and was undisputed Rookie of the Year. Teo then took on a punishing schedule for 1984, accepting an offer to continue in Indy cars while racing in F1 for Brabham whenever commitments allowed, and in the end he gave up the Indy ride to concentrate full-time on F1. Rejoining Toleman for 1985, he earned pole position at the Nurburgring, which indicated the car's potential, but reliability was elusive. After the take-over by Benetton, Fabi stayed on, and the 1986 BMW-powered car proved very fast, Teo taking two pole positions, but he was overshadowed by his team-mate Berger and then, in 1987, by Boutsen.

    Realising his chances of finding a top seat in F1 were slim, Fabi opted for a return to Indy cars in 1988 with the ambitious Porsche project but this was to prove fraught with many problems over its three-year span and yielded but a single win, in 1989. Teo then successfully turned to endurance racing with TWR Jaguar, winning the 1991 drivers' championship, mainly by dint of his consistent finishes.

    He had to be content with a place in the Toyota team at Le Mans the following year, but set up yet another return to Indy cars for 1993, although his tenure with the Pennzoil Hall/VDS team was to prove largely undistinguished. The 1995 season saw a real return to form, however, as Teo joined forces once more with Jerry Forsythe and Robin Herd. Often a front-runner, the little Italian was distinctly unlucky not to pick up a win, but his performances were not deemed sufficient for him to retain his seat and he was passed over in favour of Indy Lights sensation Greg Moore.

    Teo made a brief return to CART action in 1996, substituting for the injured Mark Blundell with PacWest. His races at Long Beach and Nazareth were as low key as the Italian himself, who then slipped quietly away from the racing scene.

(c) 'Who is Who' by Steve Small, 2000