Arturo
Merzario

Arturo Merzario was born on 11 March 1943 in Civenna, Italy. He started out as a test driver for Fiat Abarth and raced in GT events and hill climbs. In 1963 he won the Sardinia Rally in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta. His victory in the 1969 Mugello Grand Prix earned him a place in the Ferrari sports car team for 1970. In 1972 he won the Spa 1000 km, the Targa Florio and the Rand 9 Hour race, and took the European two-litre title with Abarth.

That same year he made his Formula One debut with Ferrari. In his first race, the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, he finished sixth and scored points straight away. In 1973 he drove for Ferrari alongside Jacky Ickx, finishing fourth in both Brazil and South Africa, and ended the championship twelfth. Ferrari reshaped its team for 1974, and Merzario moved to Williams. He finished the championship seventeenth. In 1975 he drove for Fittipaldi and Frank Williams Racing Cars and came eleventh in the Copersucar at the Italian Grand Prix. He also raced sports cars for Alfa Romeo that year and won the Targa Florio again.

In 1976 he drove in Formula One first for March and then for Wolf-Williams. At the German Grand Prix he stopped after Niki Lauda's serious crash. Together with Guy Edwards, Brett Lunger and Harald Ertl, he helped pull Lauda from the burning car. Six weeks later, at the Italian Grand Prix, Lauda gave him his gold wristwatch in gratitude.

In 1977 Merzario set up his own team, which began with March 761B chassis and used cars of its own design from 1978. In the 1977 season he also made a single appearance for Shadow at the Austrian Grand Prix. His own team often failed to qualify and was classified only once, in Belgium in 1977, where he finished fourteenth. In total he made 57 starts from 85 entries, without a podium finish. In 1980 his team competed in Formula Two, while he himself carried on racing sports cars and won the Italian Prototype Championship in 1985.

Source: Wikipedia, “Arturo Merzario”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.