Today is Luca Badoer’s birthday, and while many will remember the Italian for his unfortunate few races with Ferrari in 2009, I’ll never forget the moment he showed the whole world just how much he wanted to score a Formula One point.
In 1999, Badoer drove for Minardi, a team that needed a complete miracle to score a point (especially as points only went to 6th back then). But at the European Grand Prix that year, that miracle so nearly did happen.
Just about everything happened in that race, the lights failed to go out at the start and when it did get going just about every leader ended up making a mistake. Badoer meanwhile found himself not only in the points but in 4th, and 4th for Minardi was like winning a World Championship.
It was all too good to be true however and Badoer’s car packed up with just 13 laps to go. Knowing that would have been his best ever result and his first Formula One points, Badoer sat down next to his Minardi and cried like a kid who just dropped his ice cream.
Them feels.