Mario Poltronieri, the storyteller of a Formula 1 that is no more

On Sunday Mario Poltronieri would have turned 96: the celebrated RAI commentator was born on November 23, 1929, in Milan, the same city where he passed away aged 87 on January 18, 2017.

“Every now and then people say to me, ‘His commentaries were quite different from the current ones.’ Many thanks: now 22 cars show up on the grid and 22 come in. Except for the start, there is usually very little to see” he had recounted in an interview given in the fall of 2015 to local newspapers of the Espresso Group.

“When I was at the microphone, there were 40 at the start and at the finish line it was yes is or no 12 or 15. Every retirement gave you a cue, mechanical failures had to be analyzed, as well as driver errors”, he had among other things added.

Poltronieri, here in a wonderful image from 1977 while he was busy interviewing Gilles Villeneuve, accompanied the Italians in Formula 1 races with a polite and competent style. He began working for RAI in 1961. He was also a good driver and gave driving lessons in a column entitled “Wheels and Roads.” In 1971 the’final hiring in state TV and the’growing commitment to reporting Formula 1.