In July 1981 de Cesaris and Henri Pescarolo finished second to the team of Riccardo Patrese and Michele Alboreto in a 6-hour endurance race at Watkins Glen, New York.

[4] After switching back to Alfa Romeo in 1982, de Cesaris became the youngest man ever to take pole position at the Long Beach Grand Prix.

He then proceeded to put in what many consider as the drive of the day to eventually finish 3rd (without ever losing a lap) behind Roberto Moreno (winner) and Keke Rosberg.

Guy Ligier stated that "I can no longer afford to employ this man", despite Marlboro paying the bulk of de Cesaris' salary.

For the first time in his career, de Cesaris went the entire season without scoring a point; he retired from every race but two (DNQ in Monaco, 8th in Mexico).

For 1988, Brabham pulled out of Formula One and de Cesaris switched to the new Rial team, run by German Günter Schmid, the former boss of the ATS outfit.

With a Cosworth engine in the car, de Cesaris managed to qualify for all sixteen races of the season and take fourth place in the Detroit Grand Prix.

By now one of the more experienced drivers in the field, de Cesaris was on course for a podium position in Monte Carlo, before being taken out by triple world champion Nelson Piquet at the Loews Hairpin.

Two races later, after an early delay, he was being lapped by Dallara teammate Alex Caffi when he ran his fellow Italian into the wall, robbing his team of a potential podium.

He also nearly took out the Ferrari of 2nd-placed Nigel Mansell while being lapped during the race, prompting BBC commentator and 1976 World Champion James Hunt to call him an idiot on live television.

At the season's first race in Phoenix, de Cesaris selected the wrong gear in the short pre-qualifying session, buzzed the engine and was out.

De Cesaris showed better form at Monaco, forcing his way past the Benetton of Roberto Moreno and was running in the points until the Jordan's throttle cable snapped.

Suspension failure in Great Britain led him to crash but the Italian bounced back to qualify seventh and finish fifth in Germany.

Despite the pressure of being outqualified by debutant teammate Michael Schumacher, de Cesaris moved through the field to take second position until his car's Ford HB V8 blew.

A communication problem between Ford and the Jordan team meant the oil tank in the car was too small to service a new type of piston ring, which used more lubricant.

But during the Brazilian Grand Prix, Eddie Irvine was blamed for causing a massive accident which saw Jos Verstappen barrel roll over the top of Martin Brundle.

He crashed again during the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola due to poor fitness, having not driven a race distance in six months.

Irvine returned for the next race but Sauber had noticed the Italian's form, and signed him to replace the injured Karl Wendlinger in the Mercedes-powered machines.

[citation needed] De Cesaris ended his career with 208 Grand Prix starts, second only to Riccardo Patrese at the time.

[12] He scored points for 9 out of 10 teams he raced for: McLaren, Alfa Romeo, Brabham, Rial, Tyrrell, Jordan, Ligier, Scuderia Italia and Sauber, failing to do so only for Minardi.

In October, he set the fastest time in the first Grand Prix Masters test at the Silverstone South circuit in England.

Italian press reported that he died on impact with the guard rail on the outer lane of Rome's Grande Raccordo Anulare freeway, in proximity of the Bufalotta turn-off.