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Ivan Franco Capelli (born 24 May 1963) is an Italian broadcaster and former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to .
Born and raised in Milan, Capelli began competitive kart racing aged 15. He was widely successful across formula racing, winning titles in Italian Formula 3, FIA European Formula 3 and International Formula 3000. After making his Formula One debut with Tyrrell Racing at the 1985 European Grand Prix, he made sporadic appearances for Tyrell and AGS before signing for March full-time in . He participated in 98 Grands Prix, achieving three podiums.
After exiting Formula One, Capelli competed in touring car racing until 2017, becoming a race-winner in the Italian GT Championship and the Trofeo Maserati. From 1998 to 2017, he was a commentator and pundit for Rai 1.
In 1983 he became Italian Formula Three champion, after dominating the series with nine victories. After that, he moved with the Coloni team to the European Formula Three Championship, and here he was the champion again in 1984.
In 1985 he graduated to the European Formula 3000 Championship with a Genoa Racing March-Cosworth and won one race. After making his Formula One debut in 1985 and failing to sign a full-time contract, he contested the 1986 Formula 3000 Championship, still with Genoa Racing, and also raced a BMW in the European Touring Car Championship.
Despite not landing a full-time contract for 1986, Capelli started several F1 races for the AGS team. Meanwhile, Cesare Gariboldi, boss of Genoa Racing, was working with Robin Herd of March to create a new Formula One outfit. Capelli was a core component in their plans. By now, Capelli and Gariboldi had an almost father-son relationship.
In 1988 Capelli had a March chassis designed by Adrian Newey (later a winner of multiple Constructors' Championships as a designer at Williams, McLaren and Red Bull) combined with a Judd V8 engine (derived from the Brabham-Honda CART engine and the Judd/Honda F3000 unit). March had hoped to be the favoured development partner for this engine, but they found themselves sharing it with the French Equipe Ligier team as well as the defending F1 Constructors' Champions Williams who had lost their supply of turbocharged Honda engines to McLaren. Capelli was joined in the team by the British Formula 3 Champion, Brazilian rookie Maurício Gugelmin. They made a strong team and the March 881 was the surprise of the year. At Spa-Francorchamps he scored his first podium with a third place behind Ayrton Senna's and Alain Prost's McLarens (though this was not known until after the season when the Benetton Formula were disqualified for fuel irregularities). Capelli's best finish was second place at the Portuguese Grand Prix where he finished behind Prost. Even better was ahead for the Italian when he became the first non-turbo driver since to lead a World Championship Grand Prix. This happened on lap 16 of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit when Prost missed a gear coming out of the final chicane and Capelli was able to get ahead before the start/finish line and officially lead the lap. However, Prost used Honda's superior power and was ahead before turn 1. His Judd V8 suffered an electrical failure just three laps later.
However, the momentum did not continue. March had financial problems and a sponsor, Leyton House, acquired a controlling interest. Gugelmin finished third in his home race at Jacarepaguá in 1989, but this was done in the 1988 car. The definitive 1989 Leyton House March was a disappointment, and neither driver challenged for the top in the rest of the year. Capelli in particular only finished once throughout the season (12th in Belgium) and went far enough to be classified on one further occasion (Monaco where he dropped out from 6th place near the end and was classified 11th). Despite this, he was one of only six drivers to start in all of the 16 races of the 1989 season (the others were the McLaren drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, the Williams duo Riccardo Patrese and Thierry Boutsen, and Benetton's Alessandro Nannini). Team spirit remained intact despite the death of Gariboldi in a car crash and midway through the season Capelli felt happy enough in the team to take up his option for 1990. The new decade started poorly, though. Newey's car (given the prefix CG in honour of Gariboldi) had excellent aerodynamics and exclusive use of Judd's updated V8 engine, but it was intolerant of bumps. It was so bad on the notoriously bumpy Mexico City track that neither driver could control the car and both failed to qualify. Nevertheless, in the next at Paul Ricard in France came a complete turnaround in form. Capelli led Gugelmin in a Leyton House 1–2 throughout much of the race. Gugelmin finally retired, and Capelli was overtaken near the end by the Ferrari of Prost with only 3 laps remaining and went on to finish second. Revisions to the car had made it more competitive (ironically Newey left the team shortly before the race to join Williams), but it was the billiard table-smooth track which allowed the result. Despite some promising showings at Silverstone and Hockenheimring, it remained their best race of the season.
In 1991, Leyton House was responsible not only for chassis development but also bankrolled the ambitious Ilmor V10 engine programme. With so many new ingredients, results were again sparse, although Capelli often qualified and raced well. When Leyton House's owner Akira Akagi was arrested in connection with the Fuji Bank fraud, the team was in a precarious state. Capelli had signed for Scuderia Ferrari for the '92 season, so he voluntarily stepped down, allowing pay driver Karl Wendlinger to finish the season and personally paid to attend the races he missed to offer support to the team and advice to his rookie substitute.
This experience seemingly broke his spirit, but those who had worked with him in March still had faith, notably Ian Phillips, then Jordan's team manager. Taking a Jordan seat for 1993 alongside young rookie Rubens Barrichello, whom the team hoped would prosper under the more experienced driver, Capelli failed to rediscover the spark that not long ago had marked him as a champion of the future. After failing to qualify for the second race in Brazil, he left the team by mutual consent, being replaced by Thierry Boutsen. He did not race in Formula One again.
| European Formula Three | Torino Corse | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| European Formula Three | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 15th | |
| Italian Formula Three | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 12th | |
| Macau Grand Prix | Theodore Racing | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | 5th |
| Formula One | Tyrrell Racing | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 17th |
| Japanese Formula Two | Leyton House Racing | 3 | 0 | 0 | ? | 2 | 33 | 7th |
| Formula One | Jolly Club SpA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| Macau Grand Prix | David Price Racing w/ Marlboro Theodore Racing | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | 11th |
| IMSA GT Championship | Conte Racing | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| World Touring Car Championship | Schnitzer Motorsport | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 60 | 23rd |
| European Touring Car Championship | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC | |
| FIA Touring Car World Cup | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 20th | |
| Formula One | Sasol Jordan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| Campeonato de España de Turismos | Team Repsol Nissan | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | NC† |
| 24 Hours of Le Mans | Honda Motor Co. Ltd. | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | DNF |
| Campeonato de España de Turismos | Team Repsol Nissan | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | NC† |
| FIA GT Championship | Konrad Motorsport | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| FIA GT Championship | Supertech erg | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| Australian Tourist Trophy | Trofeo Motorsport | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 66 | 5th |
| Australian GT Championship | Trofeo Motorsport | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 73 | 14th |
| Intercontinental GT Challenge | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 14th | |
| 1985 ! nowrap | Genoa Racing !rowspan=2 nowrap | March 85B !rowspan=2 | Cosworth | SIL | Thruxton Circuit | EST | NÜR | VAL | SPA | Dijon-Prenois | PER | ÖST | ZAN | Donington Park !rowspan=2 | 7th !rowspan=2 | 13 | |
| 1986 ! nowrap | Genoa Racing ! nowrap | March 86B ! Cosworth | SIL | VAL | PAU | SPA | IMO | Mugello Circuit | PER | ÖST | BIR | Bugatti Circuit | JAR | 1st | 38 | ||
| ! nowrap Tyrrell Racing ! nowrap | Tyrrell Racing 014 ! nowrap | Renault EF4B 1.5 V6 Turbocharger | BRA | POR | SMR | MON | CAN | DET | FRA | GBR | GER | AUT | NED | ITA | BEL | EUR | RSA | AUS ! 19th ! 3 |
| ! nowrap Jolly Club SpA ! nowrap | AGS JH21C ! nowrap | Motori Moderni Tipo 615-90 1.5 V6 Turbocharger | BRA | ESP | SMR | MON | BEL | CAN | DET | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | AUT | ITA | POR | MEX | AUS ! NC ! 0 |
| !rowspan=2 nowrap Leyton House March Racing Team ! nowrap | March 87P !rowspan=2 nowrap | Ford Cosworth DFZ 3.5 V8 | BRA | !rowspan=2 19th !rowspan=2 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| ! nowrap Leyton House March Racing Team ! nowrap | March 881 ! nowrap | Judd CV 3.5 V8 | BRA | SMR | MON | MEX | CAN | DET | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | POR | ESP | JPN | AUS ! 7th ! 17 |
| !rowspan=2 nowrap Leyton House Racing ! nowrap | March 881 ! nowrap | Judd CV 3.5 V8 | BRA | SMR | !rowspan=2 NC !rowspan=2 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| ! nowrap Leyton House ! nowrap | Leyton House CG901 ! nowrap | Judd EV 3.5 V8 | USA | BRA | SMR | MON | CAN | MEX | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | POR | ESP | JPN | AUS ! 10th ! 6 |
| ! nowrap Leyton House ! nowrap | Leyton House CG911 ! nowrap | Ilmor 2175A 3.5 V10 | USA | BRA | SMR | MON | CAN | MEX | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | POR 17 | ESP | JPN | AUS ! 18th ! 1 |
| !rowspan=2 nowrap Scuderia Ferrari ! nowrap | Scuderia Ferrari F92A !rowspan=2 nowrap | Scuderia Ferrari 038 3.5 V12 | RSA | MEX | BRA | ESP 10 | SMR | MON | CAN | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | !rowspan=2 13th !rowspan=2 | 3 | ||
| ! nowrap Sasol Jordan ! nowrap | Jordan 193 ! nowrap | Hart 1035 3.5 V10 | RSA | BRA | EUR | SMR | ESP | MON | CAN | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | POR | JPN | AUS ! NC ! 0 |
Driver did not finish the Grand Prix but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
| 1994 ! nowrap | Nissan Primera Racing ! nowrap | Nissan Primera | AVUS | Wunstorf | Zolder | ZAN | Osterreichring | Salzburgring | SPA | NÜR | ! 11th ! 21 | |||||||||
| 1995 ! nowrap | Nissan Primera Racing ! nowrap | Nissan Primera | Zolder | Zolder | SPA 1 | SPA 2 | Osterreichring | Osterreichring | Hockenheimring | Hockenheimring | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | Salzburgring | Salzburgring | AVUS | AVUS | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | ! 29th ! 26 | |
| 1996 ! nowrap | Nissan Primera Racing ! nowrap | Nissan Primera | Zolder | Zolder | ASS 1 | ASS 2 | Hockenheimring | Hockenheimring | Sachsenring | Sachsenring | Wunstorf | Wunstorf | ZWE 1 | ZWE 2 | Salzburgring | Salzburgring | AVUS | AVUS | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 ! 25th ! 49 |
| 2003 ! nowrap | Porsche AG ! nowrap | Porsche 996 GT3 | ITA1 | ESP | AUT | MON | GER1 | FRA | GBR | Hockenheimring | Hungaroring | ITA2 | USA1 | USA2 ! NC‡ ! 0‡ ! |
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