The prize takes its name from former Formula 1 driver Lorenzo Bandini. A driver who also raced for Ferrari, the Italian died three days after the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix due to injuries sustained in a serious accident.

The award was established 25 years later, in 1992, by Francesco Asirelli and Tiziano Samorè from the municipality of Brisighella. Located in the Emilia-Romagna region, the municipality of Brisighella hosts the award ceremony.

The trophy is awarded to those who have shown a “commendable performance during the season.” The prize is not awarded based solely on sporting results but on how those results are achieved, taking into account elements such as the approach to races.

While in the past, residents of Brisighella voted, currently, a jury is established to award the prize. The jury consists of twelve jurors, including motorsport journalists and former Formula 1 team members.

Winners can only be elected once in their careers. The Bandini Trophy Association handles the trophy presentation; the award is a miniature ceramic model of the Ferrari 312/67 with the number 18 of Bandini, crafted by the ceramist Goffredo Gaeta.

Finally, here is a list of all the drivers, managers, and teams that can boast this prestigious award in their palmares:

1992 – Ivan Capelli;
1993 and 1994 – not awarded
1995 – David Coulthard;
1996 – Jacques Villeneuve;
1997 – Luca Cordero di Montezemolo;
1998 – Giancarlo Fisichella;
1999 – Alexander Wurz;
2000 – Jarno Trulli;
2001 – Jenson Button;
2002 – Juan Pablo Montoya;
2003 – Michael Schumacher;
2004 – Kimi Räikkönen;
2005 – Fernando Alonso;
2006 – Mark Webber;
2007 – Felipe Massa;
2008 – Robert Kubica;
2009 – Sebastian Vettel;
2010 – Lewis Hamilton;
2011 – Nico Rosberg;
2012 – Bruno Senna;
2013 – Piero Ferrari;
2014 – Daniel Ricciardo;
2015 – Mercedes (first team to win – Toto Wolff withdrew it – in honor of the significant work done at the start of the hybrid turbo era);
2016 – Max Verstappen;
2017 – Ferrari (in honor of Ferrari’s 70 years and 50 years after Bandini’s death, attended by Bandini’s widow);
2018 – Valtteri Bottas;
2019 – Antonio Giovinazzi;
2020 – Charles Leclerc;
2021 – Stefano Domenicali and Massimo Rivola;
2022 – Kevin Magnussen;
2023 – Lando Norris;

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At the end of the season, Enzo Ferrari offered him a works drive with the Scuderia, alternating between Sports car races and Formula 1. Of his three races with the Maranello single-seaters, he took his first podium at Monaco with a third place finish, but it was not enough to secure him a full time drive. In 1963, he began the Formula 1 season with BRM, but winning the Le Mans 24 Hours, paired with Scarfiotti, earned him a place among the factory drivers for the Prancing Horse in Formula 1.

1964 was his best year: victory in the Austrian Grand Prix and three further third places, all making an important contribution to his team-mate, John Surtees, taking the Drivers’ title. In 1965 and ’66, Bandini was an occasional Formula 1 front runner, taking two more podiums in Monaco and one in Belgium, even if he never gave the impression he could be a number one driver, but that role did actually drop in his lap in 1966, after the split between Surtees and the Scuderia. He had more success in sports cars: apart from the previously mentioned Le Mans victory, his record includes wins in the 1966 Targa Florio with Nino Vaccarella and in the Daytona 24 Hours and the Monza 1000 Kilometres the following year, in both cases paired with the New Zealander Chris Amon.

His 1967 season with Ferrari began at the second race, the Monaco Grand Prix. Bandini was a strong contender but on the 82nd lap, he came up to the harbour chicane too fast: his 312 F1 turned over and caught fire. The rescue crews did not get to him quickly and Bandini was taken to the hospital in the Principality where he died a long and agonising death on 7th May.

Much loved by the fans, there was a large crowd for Bandini’s funeral, which took place at Reggiolo. The Brisighella community established an award named after him, to to be presented annually to a rising star in Formula 1 and to this day, it is one of the prizes drivers appreciate the most. “He has now become a symbol of motor sport in Italy. That could be seen from the guaranteed support he had from those who flocked to all the race circuits,” Enzo Ferrari wrote of him in “Piloti, che gente…’ “They were immediately attracted to the young man with delicate features, which Margherita would usually point out with wifely pride. However, he was always the typical calm bourgeois driver… I remember that day in May 1967. I was in my study in Maranello, watching the final stages of the Monaco Grand Prix on television. When I saw the large mushroom cloud of black smoke which floated sinisterly across the bay of Monte Carlo, even before the unforgettable broadcaster Piero Casucci commentated on the catastrophic images, I felt that the car on fire was one of mine. Now, I can’t say why, but I realised Bandini was in the blaze and I was sure I would never see him again.

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The 1964 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 4, 1964, at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York. It was race 9 of 10 in both the 1964 World Championship of Drivers and the 1964 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The 110-lap race was won by BRM driver Graham Hill after he started from fourth position. John Surtees finished second for the Ferrari team and Brabham driver Jo Siffert came in third.

Graham Hill padded his tenuous lead in the 1964 Drivers’ Championship over John Surtees and Jim Clark by bringing his BRM home first at The Glen for the second straight year. Surtees was second for Ferrari, 30.5 seconds back.

The Ferrari team brought four cars for John Surtees and Lorenzo Bandini, but they were not in the usual “flaming red” that the race program advertised. Enzo Ferrari had surrendered his entrant’s license in a dispute at Monza, so the cars were entered by Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team and were painted in North American racing blue and white. The only entrant missing from the 20 who were invited was American A. J. Foyt, who was offered a works BRM drive for the race, but decided against it.

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Only the 10 fastest cars in qualifying were allowed to start the race, leaving a number of the more unusual entrants on the sidelines.

The Ferraris were in a class of their own, dominating the race, with Lorenzo Bandini and Willy Mairesse enjoying a head to head duel for much of the race, lapping the entire field. The win went to Mairesse with Bandini right behind. In the race for the others, Englishman Keith Greene was making a go of it in the Climax-powered Gilby. He finished ahead of Italy’s Carlo Maria Abate in the Porsche entered by Scuderia Reppublica de Venezia.

1962 Naples Grand Prix – Race details
Date: 20 May 1962
Official name: XX Gran Premio di Napoli
Location: Posillipo Circuit, Posillipo, Naples
Course: Permanent racing facility
Course length: 2.491 km (1.548 mi)
Distance: 60 laps, 149.444 km (92.86 mi)

Pole position: Lorenzo Bandini, Ferrari
Time: 1:18.7

Fastest lap
Willy Mairesse, Ferrari
Lorenzo Bandini, Ferrari
Time: 1:17.7

Podium
Willy Mairesse, Ferrari
Lorenzo Bandini, Ferrari
Keith Greene, Gilby-Climax

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—– see video above —

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