Sandro Munari

Alessandro Munari (27 March 1940 – 27 February 2026), also nicknamed Il Drago, was an Italian motor racing and rally driver.

Biography Alessandro Munari was born in Cavarzere, in the Veneto region, on 27 March 1940. He began rallying in 1965 and won the Italian Rally Championship in 1967 and 1969, adding the European Rally Championship title in 1973 driving a Lancia Fulvia Coupé 1.6 HF. In 1972, he won the Targa Florio sports car endurance race, partnering Arturo Merzario in a works Ferrari 312PB. Also in 1972, Munari claimed his first major rally victory, winning the Monte Carlo Rally in a works Lancia Fulvia.

Munari was to become strongly associated with another of Lancia's rally icons – the Lancia Stratos HF. The partnership between the Italian car and the driver scooped a further Monte Carlo Rally hat-trick in the mid-1970s, among a total of seven World Rally Championship victories. Munari also won the 1977 FIA Cup for Rally Drivers title. Later in his career, he competed with a Fiat 131 Abarth, finishing third at the 1978 Tour de Corse and sixth at the 1980 Rallye Côte d'Ivoire. His last WRC appearances were at the Safari Rally, which he contested from 1981 to 1984, but retired each time.

Munari died on 27 February 2026, at the age of 85.