De Angelis's performance with Shadow caught the eye of Lotus boss Colin Chapman, who hired him to partner Mario Andretti in 1980.

His first victory came in the 1982 Austrian Grand Prix at the Österreichring, 0.05 seconds ahead of the Williams of eventual 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg.

In 1983, Lotus switched from the Cosworth DFV they had been using since 1967, to Renault turbo engines, but it was a disappointing season, suffering multiple mechanical failures.

De Angelis was the only driver to finish in the top 5 in 1984 not to score a race win, showing his consistent performances throughout the season with the improving Lotus-Renault.

De Angelis's second win came in the third race of the season, at the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix, after Alain Prost was disqualified when his McLaren MP4/2B was found 2 kg underweight.

However, de Angelis chose to leave Lotus at the end of the season, frustrated that the team's efforts were being focused mostly on Senna.

Although the team worked hard to overcome these problems, it was clear from early in the season that Brabham had fallen behind the leading pack.

A 30-minute delay ensued before a helicopter arrived and de Angelis died 29 hours later, at the hospital in Marseille where he had been taken, from smoke inhalation.

De Angelis was a concert-standard pianist, and famously kept his fellow Formula One drivers entertained with his skills by playing multiple concertos by Chopin and Mozart, while they locked themselves in a Johannesburg hotel before the 1982 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami when the Grand Prix Drivers Association held a strike in protest at the new Super Licence conditions imposed by the governing body, the FIA.

The French-Italian driver Jean Alesi, who broke into the sport in 1989, wore a helmet that matched de Angelis's design, in tribute to his semi-compatriot.