I’d read lots – probably too much – about Alex Fiorio. And now, here he was, standing in front of me.
He was pouring himself a cup of coffee, pondering a biscuit. He felt the weight of my gaze, turned and gave me that trademark big, wide, toothy smile.
“Ciao,” he offered.
Still, I stared. How on earth could one person be so cool? It was a genuine question I was wrestling with. His Lancia-Martini overalls were tied around his waist, revealing a white Martini Racing t-shirt. And then, of course, the obligatory shades.
This was Penmachno, 1990. The Mobil1 Rally Challenge. This made-for-telly event was not the most public of events, but my father and I had found our way into the service area next to the stage. I’d never really seen a genuine WRC star in the sunshine. Prior to this, my experience had been limited to a wet Chatsworth on an RAC Sunday.
And now, there he was. Just standing there.
“Err, hello…” was my woeful response.
David's picture of Fiorio at the Mobil 1 Rally Challenge
It was another 12 years before I met him again. This time we were in Raglan on the first morning of Rally New Zealand, 2002. I reminded him of our first meeting in the middle of Wales. Predictably, he had no clue what I was talking about. But he remembered the Mobil1 Rally Challenge, his eyes lit up and the stories were rolled out.
That conversation only served to confirm his status as a bona fide legend.
And today (Monday) came the news of his passing, aged 61.
As you can imagine for the son of Cesare Fiorio, the man who ran Lancia’s World Rally Championship effort and subsequently Ferrari’s Formula 1 squad, motorsport was never far from the mind of a young Alessandro.
Initially, ski racing would sate the need for speed, but cars were coming. He entered his first ice race without his father’s knowledge and was summoned to Cesare’s office when Fiorio Sr read about his son’s maiden victory behind the wheel!
They made an agreement that he could take a shot at some Italian events in a Fiat Uno. But, Cesare warned, if he was nowhere then they were done. Alex won pretty much everything he started.
Alex drove for the Jolly Club outfit, but perhaps he should've driven for the works Lancia team instead
Talking to Cesare a few years ago, he smiled at the problem that caused him.
“What could I do?” he asked. “I couldn’t put him straight to the Lancia team because of his name… my name. We decided he could go to Jolly Club, this was right place for him. But I felt it was difficult, I think he deserved a place in the [factory Lancia] team.”
Alex Fiorio arrived in the WRC at a difficult time. Group B was pretty much done, and Group A was still to capture the imagination of rally fans around the world. In 1987, his first season in the WRC, he lifted the inaugural FIA Group N Cup having won three of the six events he started in a showroom class Lancia Delta.
Stepping up to a Group A Delta for the following season, the then 22-year-old Italian finished second on the Monte Carlo Rally. A result he repeated in Portugal, Olympus and Sanremo on his way to an exceptional third place in the drivers’ race. He bettered that result with the runners-up spot – behind countryman and fellow Lancia driver Miki Biasion – in 1989.
Arguably, that 1989 season gave him best chance of a victory. Despite being armed with a Jolly Club eight-valve Delta Integrale, he gave Biasion and his father’s team the fright of their life when he came within five seconds of beating the defending world champion at home… on the debut of the all-new 16-valve Integrale.
The 1990 season was one expected to deliver Fiorio’s first WRC win, but instead it delivered a complete change of direction and a high-profile switch to Ford.
Ford’s Q8-liveried Sierra Cosworth 4×4 will be remembered for one reason and one reason only on the 1991 Monte Carlo Rally: François Delecour. The Frenchman’s instant speed in his native mountains put both Fiorio and Malcolm Wilson into the shade. Boreham was keen to immediately expand Delecour’s program and that, combined with frailties in the car’s suspension and transmission, meant Fiorio’s time with the British team was up at the end of the season.
The switch to Ford didn't work out as hoped
A move to Mazda was expected to follow, only for the Japanese marque to pull the plug on its WRC effort. From then on, it was back to the Delta for a series of Astra Racing-run WRC and ERC outings.
Fiorio remained at the forefront of Italian Championship rallying and returned to the WRC for that Production Car title tilt in 2002; sadly there wouldn’t a second showroom crown to be worn.
Latterly, Alex and his daughter Mariapaola had turned their attention to the Fiorio Cup, an invitational event on their family farm which showed the very best of the sport.
Alessandro Fiorio was a driver that had me hooked. Should he have won a WRC round? Yes, for sure. But what he missed out in terms of outright WRC success, he more than made up for in terms of charisma.
To the wider Fiorio family and to Alex’s many friends right around the world, DirtFish extends its deepest sympathies.
