Born in Mariano Comense (Como, Italy), September, 7 ,1959, passionate about engines since he was a child, Guido raced for 7 years with karts, winning two Italian Champion titles and a European one, which made him being noticed also by the automotive world. At the end of the ’70s, Guido was suddenly called by the Pastorino’s Team of F.3 and within a week he obtained the license, he tried driving the car only once in Misano and on the following Saturday he managed to set a record that is still unbeaten: he hit the pole position at his debut, in Varano dei Melegari.
As it rained that day, Guido turned out to be nicknamed “the magician of the rain” or, rather, of the water. This will be the turning point but it comes from far away: since his adolescence, he has become accustomed to the waters of the lake.
In fact, tired of his poor academic results, his father decided he had to learn a job during the summer; at the age of 14 he was sent as an apprentice to the shipyard of Angelo Molinari, Renato’s father, a pilot and one of Guido’s idols.
Instead of representing hard work, the yard becomes a kind of dream playground.
There on the lake, with Molinari’s blessing, Guido learns everything about boats and when he can try them, he “flies” on the water honing his skills as a driver.
Passion becomes a destiny and to the expert eye of Angelo and Renato, the talent is immediately revealed: Guido is an ace of speed and his class cannot but bring him at the top of the world powerboating in a very short time.
He made his debut in F. 4 with a Molinari boat and won the “100 Miglia del Lario”, then he approached the F. 3 and, despite a flood of accidents, he won the 6 Hours of Paris where he attracted everybody’s attention. Later on, he won the F. 3000 Italian championship, which is similar to the GP Formula, where he actually made his debut shortly afterwards, although the results arrived very slowly, specially due to the excess of heat and safety.
Cappellini earned the nickname of “Crashellini” because of the number of accidents he collected. Not only looping but also scary crashes (like the one on the Bristol docks in 1988 when the boat literally pulverized) or, at best, the fusion of the engine usually when he was leading the race.
The whole world of powerboating, however, knew him as “majestic Clydesdale”: it would have been enough for him to better dose the accelerator. From the beginning, Guido Cappellini created his team, which would then follow him throughout his career and continues the adventure in the Inshore World Campionship even today.
Two of them are his primary schoolmates: Attilio Donzelli and Giacomino Curti, both wizards of telemetry and mechanics, one is a cousin: Cappellini.
His lifelong friend Donzelli is a kind of alter ego: Guido is the driver on the boat, Attilio on the backstage is always his radioman and the head of the tight-knit team.
The countless successes in his career projected him to the first place of the GP victories: in the book of all times, he won 62, by far distancing the runner-up, Scott Gillman with 23!
In March 2017, Guido Cappellini entered the “Hall of fame” of Motonautica, in the Principality of Monaco, the only Italian driver to have this honor. Among the awards obtained by F1 driver Inshore, Guido also boasts the “Collare d’Oro” for sporting merit, conferred by the Coni in 1999, after the victory of his fifth world title.
Moreover, it holds the world speed record on water, regularly approved by the FIM; 256.26 Km per hour, established on Lake Iseo in 2005.
After his withdrawal from F1 in 2010, Cappellini dedicated himself to Offshore, racing in Class 1 with 74 GSG Design Ceramic Team and then with Polyform Team, paired with Giampaolo Montavoci: when they first attended it they came out to be number four in the World, climbing the podium 5 times; the following year they reached the fifth position.
