Arturo Merzario

Arturo Merzario

Arturo Merzario in 1978.
Born	11 March 1943
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Italian
Active years	1972-1979
Teams	Ferrari, Iso-Marlboro, Williams, Fittipaldi, March, Wolf-Williams, Shadow, Merzario
Entries	85 (57 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	11
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1972 British Grand Prix
Last entry	1979 United States Grand Prix

Arturo Francesco "Little Art" Merzario (born 11 March 1943 in Civenna, Como) (real name Arturio - error on name registration - sometimes used on his helmet) is a racing driver from Italy. He participated in 85 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 15 July 1972. He scored 11 championship points.

Racing career

Formula One

Merzario began his career with works Fiat Abarths in GT racing and European mountain-climb events.^[1] In 1969 he won the Mugello Grand Prix in a 2-litre Abarth ahead of a field which included Nino Vaccarella and Andrea de Adamich. This brought him a drive with the Ferrari sportscar team for 1970.^[1]

Merzario made his Formula One debut in 1972, finishing in sixth place in the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch.^[2] He also participated in sports car racing, winning the Spa 1000 km, the Targa Florio and the Rand 9 Hour races and was European two-litre Champion for Abarth. After a difficult year with Ferrari in 1973, he moved to Williams and finished third in a non-Championship race in Brazil, but the Championship seasons of 1974 and 1975 proved largely unsuccessful. However, he finished fourth in his home Grand Prix at Monza in 1974. Merzario quit during the 1975 season to return to sports cars with Alfa Romeo, winning four races plus the Targa Florio again, although he returned briefly with Copersucar at Monza finishing eleventh.^[1][2]

Merzario returned to Formula One in 1976, initially with the works March team which was sponsored by Ovoro. After a run of disappointing results and disgruntled with his situation,^[1] he moved to Wolf, replacing Jacky Ickx but again there were no decent results.

When Merzario could no longer find a drive with established teams, he set up his own Merzario team in 1977 which struggled in Formula One for three years, initially with March 761B, cars before building his own chassis, from 1978^[1] and later moving down to Formula Two. In three seasons the team was only classified on one occasion — at the 1977 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder when Merzario was officially placed fourteenth. He had a one-off drive with Shadow in the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix at the Osterreichring but a good drive led to retirement again and was overshadowed by the first Formula One career win of teammate Alan Jones.^[1] Merzario continued with his own Chassis for two seasons but results were very poor with the team not qualifying on the majority of occasions and retirng from the race when it did start.^[2] The Merzario M1-BMW fared no better in Formula Two in 1980^[1] but Merzario continued to race sports cars with some success after his works Formula One career finished.^[1]

Merzario is perhaps most renowned for being one of the drivers, along with Guy Edwards, Brett Lunger and Harald Ertl who saved Niki Lauda from his burning car during the 1976 German Grand Prix. In a recent interview with BBC Radio 5 linked to the release of Rush, Niki Lauda stated that "..there was a guy called Arturo Merzario who jumped into the fire and alone pulled me out of the wreckage so I survived... so he really saved my life there because a couple of seconds more I would have never made it."

In his time in Formula One in the 1970s he was often photographed wearing a cowboy hat with sponsorship patches from Marlboro.

Merzario was still active in sports car racing well into his sixties, driving mostly in an Italian prototype series.

Sports cars and other competitions

Merzario with class SR2 Centenari M1-Alfa Romeo in 1997 FIA Sportscar Championship in Donington.

Merzario began his career with Abarth in GT racing and mountain climbs.^[1] and also won the Sardinia Rally in 1963 in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta. He had several class wins throughout the 1960s and also was victorious in the Mugello Grand Prix in 1969, leading to a Ferrari sports car drive. In 1970 he was third in the 24 hours of Daytona and fourth in the 1000 Kilometres of Monza using a Ferrari 512S. Further wins followed in 1971 at Imola and Vallelunga for Ferrari and Abarth respectively.

In 1972, Merzario won the 1000 Kilometres of Spa (with Brian Redman) in a Ferrari 312PB, won the Targa Florio alongside Sandro Munari and made his Formula One World Championship debut that year. In 1973, Merzario took second places in the 1000 Kilometres of Nurburgring and at Le Mans. Merzario also won the Targa Florio in 1975 with an Alfa Romeo 33 and his career continued in sports cars and GT racing into the 1990s winning the 1985 Italian Prototype Championship and later racing successfully with a Centenari M1.

Racing record

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1970	SpA Ferrari SEFAC	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari 512S	S 5.0	38	DNF	DNF
1973	SpA Ferrari SEFAC	Carlos Pace	Ferrari 312PB	S 3.0	349	2nd	2nd

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Pos.	Pts
1971	Racing Team IRIS	Tecno TF/70	Cosworth FVA	HOC Ret	THR	NÜR	JAR DNQ	PAL	ROU DNQ	MAN	TUL	ALB	VAL	VAL				NC	0
1974	Osella Squadra Corse	Osella PA2	BMW	BAR	HOC	PAU	SAL	HOC	MUG	KAR	PER	HOC	VAL Ret					NC	0
1975	Osella Squadra Corse	Osella FA2	BMW	EST	THR	HOC	NÜR	PAU	HOC	SAL	ROU	MUG	PER	SIL Ret	ZOL	NOG	VAL Ret	NC	0
1976	Willi Kauhsen Racing Team	March 762	Hart	HOC	THR	VAL	SAL	PAU	HOC	ROU	MUG	PER DNS	EST	NOG				NC	0
	Osella Squadra Corse	Osella FA2	BMW												HOC DNQ
1977	Fred Opert Racing	Chevron B40	Hart	SIL	THR	HOC	NÜR	VAL	PAU	MUG	ROU	NOG	PER	MIS Ret	EST	DON		NC	0
1978	ICI Chevron Cars	Chevron B42	Hart	THR	HOC	NÜR	PAU	MUG 6	VAL	ROU	DON	NOG	PER	MIS 5	HOC			NC	0^‡
1980	Merzario Team Srl	Merzario M1	BMW	THR Ret	HOC Ret	NÜR Ret	VAL	PAU 9	SIL Ret	ZOL	MUG 16	ZAN 17	PER DNS	MIS	HOC Ret			27th	0
1981	Astra Team Merzario Srl	Merzario M1	BMW	SIL DNQ	HOC	THR DNS									MAN Ret			NC	0
		March 812					NÜR Ret	VAL	MUG	PAU	PER	SPA	DON	MIS

^‡ Merzario was a graded driver and therefore ineligible to score championship points.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
1972	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 312B2	Ferrari Flat-12	ARG	RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	FRA	GBR 6	GER 12	AUT	ITA	CAN	USA						20th	1
1973	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 312B2	Ferrari Flat-12	ARG 9	BRA 4	RSA 4	ESP	BEL													12th	6
		Ferrari 312B3							MON Ret	SWE	FRA 7	GBR	NED	GER	AUT 7	ITA Ret	CAN 15	USA 16
1974	Frank Williams Racing Cars	Iso-Marlboro FW	Cosworth V8	ARG Ret	BRA Ret	RSA 6	ESP Ret	BEL Ret	MON Ret	SWE DNS	NED Ret	FRA 9	GBR Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	ITA 4	CAN Ret	USA Ret			17th	4
1975	Frank Williams Racing Cars	Williams FW03	Cosworth V8	ARG NC	BRA Ret	RSA Ret		MON DNQ	BEL Ret	SWE	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT						NC	0
		Williams FW04					ESP Ret
	Fittpaldi-Copersucar	Fittipaldi FD03														ITA 11	USA
1976	Ovoro March	March 761	Cosworth V8	BRA	RSA	USW DNQ	ESP Ret	BEL Ret	MON DNQ	SWE 14	FRA 9	GBR Ret									NC	0
	Wolf-Williams Racing	Wolf-Williams FW05											GER Ret	AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA DNS	CAN Ret	USA Ret	JPN Ret
1977	Team Merzario	March 761B	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	ESP Ret	MON DNQ	BEL 14	SWE	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER DNQ		NED DNQ	ITA	USA	CAN	JPN	NC	0
	Shadow Racing	Shadow DN8													AUT Ret
1978	Team Merzario	Merzario A1	Cosworth V8	ARG Ret	BRA DNQ	RSA Ret	USW Ret	MON DNPQ	BEL DNPQ	ESP DNQ	SWE NC	FRA DNQ	GBR Ret	GER DNQ	AUT DNQ	NED Ret	ITA Ret	USA Ret	CAN DNQ		NC	0
1979	Team Merzario	Merzario A1B	Cosworth V8	ARG Ret	BRA DNQ	RSA DNQ	USW Ret														NC	0
		Merzario A2						ESP DNQ	BEL DNQ	MON	FRA DNQ
		Merzario A4										GBR DNQ	GER DNQ	AUT DNQ	NED DNQ	ITA DNQ	CAN DNQ	USA DNQ

References

1. Small, Steve (1994). The Guinness Complete Grand Prix Who's Who. Guinness. p. 252. ISBN 0851127029.
2. Small, Steve (1994). The Guinness Complete Grand Prix Who's Who. Guinness. p. 253. ISBN 0851127029.