Alex Dias Ribeiro (born in

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...

, November 7, 1948) is a former

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

from

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. He entered in 20

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

World Championship Grands Prix but scored no World Championship points.

Career

After solid graduation from the lower formulae (he placed fifth in the 1976 European Formula Two season), Ribeiro paid for his drive in the

March March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of Marc ...

Formula One team for the season (main sponsors were Caixa Econômica Federal-a Brazilian bank and Souza Cruz-a tobacco company). However, the season turned into a nightmare. March owner Max Mosley (later FIA president) hired four drivers, and the team simply could not provide for them all. Ribeiro's reputation as a driver suffered. In 1978, he tried to save his credentials as a racing driver and set up a privately owned F2 team to enter the 1978 European Formula Two season, a year dominated by the March factory team. His car was painted with the words "Jesus Saves". Ribeiro managed to win the Nürburgring round dramatically after favorites

Bruno Giacomelli Bruno Giacomelli (; born 10 September 1952) is a retired racing driver from Italy. He won one of the two 1976 British Formula 3 Championships and the Formula Two championship. He participated in 82 Formula One Grands Prix, competing for the fi ...

and

Marc Surer Marc Surer (born 18 September 1951 in Arisdorf) is a former racing driver from Switzerland currently working as TV commentator and racing school instructor. He participated in 88 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 9 September ...

retired from the race. The rest of the season, however, bore no fruit. Then, in 1979, the fellow Brazilian Fittipaldi team offered him two chances to qualify a second car, for the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

and

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

Formula One Grands Prix. However, the team was concentrating on former F1 champion

Emerson Fittipaldi Emerson Fittipaldi (; born 12 December 1946) is a Brazilian former automobile racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship and the Indianapolis 500 twice each and the CART championship once. Moving up from Formula Two, Fittip ...

, and Ribeiro failed to qualify for both events. Ribeiro was perhaps best known for his proclamation of faith in the form of 'Jesus Saves' slogans on his Formula One cars. He subsequently went on to perform Chaplaincy at the F1 events he attended as the driver of the Medical Car and is arguably the most accomplished driver in th
'Christians In Motorsport'
group. In 1994, he joined the

Brazil national football team The Brazil national football team ( pt, Seleção Brasileira de Futebol), nicknamed ''Seleção Canarinho'' (‘Canary Squad’, after their bright yellow jersey), represents Brazil in men's international football and is administered by the B ...

as a pastor at the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

in the United States. He held worship services for the team and later wrote a book about the team's journey to victory, titled "Who won the '94 World Cup?" (¿quién Ganó La Copa Mundial?). At the 2002 Brazilian Grand Prix, Ribeiro was involved in a potentially serious incident. During the morning warm-up on race day Sunday,

Enrique Bernoldi Enrique Antônio Langue e Silvério de Bernoldi (born 19 October 1978) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who raced for the Arrows Formula One team in 2001 and 2002, and was the test driver for British American Racing (later Honda) be ...

crashed his Arrows in Turn 2. When Ribeiro, the driver of the Medical Car, went out to check on Bernoldi, he opened the door to the car. Just as he opened it,

Nick Heidfeld Nick Lars Heidfeld (born 10 May 1977) is a German professional racing driver. Despite scoring regular podium finishes in with Williams Grand Prix Engineering, Williams, and in and with BMW in Formula One, BMW Sauber, Heidfeld never won a rac ...

came along in his

Sauber Sauber Motorsport AG is a Swiss motorsport engineering company. It was founded in 1970 (as PP Sauber AG) by Peter Sauber, who progressed through hillclimbing and the World Sportscar Championship to reach Formula One in . After operating it u ...

and smashed into the open door. Both Ribeiro and Heidfeld were uninjured. In 1981, Ribeiro wrote an autobiographical book called "Mais Que Vencedor" (translation goes something like "More Than A Winner"), in which he names March owner Max Mosley "Mack Mouse" and March engineer Robin Herd "Robin Hood". He owned a motorbike shop in Brasilia where both

Nelson Piquet Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (, born 17 August 1952) is a Brazilian retired racing driver and businessman. Since his retirement, Piquet, a three-time World Champion, has been ranked among the greatest Formula One (F1) drivers in various motorspo ...

and

Roberto Moreno Roberto Pupo Moreno (born 11 February 1959), usually known as Roberto Moreno and also as Pupo Moreno, is a Brazilian former auto racing, racing driver. He participated in 75 Formula One Grands Prix, achieved 1 podium, and scored a total of 15 c ...

worked as young mechanics, therefore having the unusual distinction that the same shop produced 3 Formula One drivers.

Racing record

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(

)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ribeiro, Alex 1948 births Living people Sportspeople from Belo Horizonte Brazilian racing drivers Brazilian Formula One drivers Hesketh Formula One drivers March Formula One drivers Fittipaldi Formula One drivers Brazilian people of Portuguese descent European Formula Two Championship drivers Stock Car Brasil drivers Brazilian Christians Top Race V6 drivers