Towards the end of 1967, it seemed that Andrea de Adamich might be the next Italian set to take on the demanding task of upholding national F1 honour after Lorenzo Bandini’s death at Monaco.

A former McLaren driver, who started 30 Grands Prix and later became a highly regarded F1 journalist, Andrea sadly passed away on 5 November at the age of 84.

The tall, bespectacled law student had been born in Trieste on 3 October 1941, and while studying, he won the 1965 Italian F3 Championship and the 1966 and ’67 European Touring Car Championships with Alfa Romeo’s Autodelta team.

This earned him an invite to race a Ferrari 312 F1 in the non-championship Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama. He qualified fifth and, until his run was halted by a puncture, he was running fourth behind World Champions Jim Clark and Graham Hill in their Lotus Cosworths and Jack Brabham’s Brabham-Repco. His reward was to race alongside Chris Amon and Jacky Ickx in the 1968 South African GP. He started seventh on the grid, outqualifying Amon, but crashed on the 13th lap.

In his next outing, at the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, he crashed during practice and suffered neck injuries. These took a long time to heal properly, and he was sidelined until the following winter, when the team called upon him to support Ernesto Brambilla in the Argentine F2 Temporada series at the end of the season. The Ferraris dominated, with Andrea winning in Cordoba and San Juan.

Despite this success, he was not retained, and raced a Surtees TS5 for John Surtees in F5000 in 1969, as well as sports cars with Alfa Romeo. His first drive in a McLaren came in Jim Hall’s Chaparral-entered M12 Can-Am car at Michigan in September 1969, where he subbed for Surtees and finished fifth.

When Alfa Romeo started supplying engines to McLaren in 1970, he raced an M7D and then an M14D, but the Italian V8 was no match for the established Cosworth DFV. The McLaren-Alfa struggled and generally failed to qualify - his best finish was eighth at Monza.

Later, he drove a works Surtees to fourth in the 1972 Spanish GP, and took a second and a third in the non-championship races in Imola and Brands Hatch. In sports cars, he won World Championship races for Alfa in 1971, at Brands Hatch with Henri Pescarolo and Watkins Glen with Ronnie Peterson.

In the 1973 British GP, soon after taking a Brabham to fourth in the Belgian GP, he became the sole driver to be injured as he sustained leg breaks in the multiple-car collision triggered when Jody Scheckter spun his M23 on the exit to Woodcote corner at the end of the opening lap.

Always a charming and popular figure, Andrea went on to establish himself as a respected journalist and F1 analyst, and played a key role in Alfa Romeo’s N.Technology racing effort.