The book tells the story of a boy who came from karting, Gian Luigi Picchi and his seasons as an official Alfa Romeo Autodelta driver.
In the narration, the author starting from the 2015 Barcelona race when the president of the Scuderia del Portello, Marco Cajani invites him to race with a GTAm, one of the four original Autodelta that had raced at the 1970 Nurburgring, back in mind to the 1970 seasons / 71/72 raced with the GTAm and in 71/72 with the GTA Junior with which he won the European Championship by winning six races in 1971 and a total of eleven European rounds.
The story of the selection in which he was chosen as official driver, the further test at Balocco and the meeting with engineer Chiti provide a picture of the atmosphere that reigned in Autodelta at the time.
Between one chapter and another of the chronicle of the first straferte in the European circuits and of all the championship tests, the author also goes back with the description of his karting experiences.
He was the first Italian driver who came from the specialty to win a championship in cars, in the F850 as an official driver of De Sanctis in 1968 and was then hired by Tecno in 1969 with which he won the Italian Championship in F3 at his debut. He is the youngest Italian champion of the time in that specialty.
Through chronicles and tales of duels on the track, the description of the tracks on which he raced, traits of the psychology of a young driver, of piloting techniques, of race tactics in search of the result emerge, together with the profile of pilots with whom he was compared over the course of his career.
His approach with the 33/3000 prototype to be included in the team for the prototype world championship and his experience in F2 are the corollary to the seventeen races run with Autodelta with two overall victories, one of which at the Nurburgring and the another in Zandvoort in 1970 and nine victories in the first division with the GTA Junior of which he was the main interpreter, winning in Monza, Salzburg, Brno, Paul Ricard, Zandvoort and Jarama.
The book with short paragraphs and written in a journalistic style and full of photos of the time, immerses the reader significantly in the racing world of those years. The chronicles from the cockpit make the reader feel sitting next to the protagonist, the description of some epic duels on the track involve to the point of making the passionate reader, motor sport lover, almost feel the smell of tires and of oil and petrol vapors.
The beautiful preface is by Autodelta Heritiage Historian Vladimir Pajevic.
The book of 220 pages, full of photos of the time, is published by DriveExperience by Davide Cironi.
Available for purchase on the publisher's website and on Amazon.
