Felice
Bonetto

Felice Bonetto was born on 9 June 1903 in Manerbio, Italy. He started out in motorcycle road racing and switched to cars in 1931. At the age of 28 he took part in the Bobbio-Penice in a Bugatti. In 1933 he finished third in the Gran Premio di Monza in an Alfa Romeo 8C 2600. After the Second World War he returned to racing in 1946 with a small Cisitalia.

He made his World Championship debut at the 1950 Swiss Grand Prix, shortly before his 47th birthday. In several Grands Prix he entered his own Maserati 4CLT under the name Scuderia Milano. In 1950 he started two races and finished 19th in the standings. In 1951 he drove for the Alfa Romeo works team, started four races and ended the season eighth. He took third place in the Italian Grand Prix, sharing the car with Giuseppe Farina. In 1952 he started two races for Maserati. Before that he had moved to sports cars, and he only returned to Formula One at the end of the year. In 1953 he contested seven races for Maserati and was ninth in the championship. At the Dutch Grand Prix he took his second third place, this time in a car shared with José Froilán González. In total he made 15 starts and reached the podium twice, without a win.

Known as "il Pirata", Bonetto was also active in sports car racing. In 1949 he was runner-up in the Mille Miglia in a Ferrari, behind Clemente Biondetti. In 1952 he won the Targa Florio for Scuderia Lancia. In 1953 he came third in the Mille Miglia and won the Grande Premio do Jubileu at Monsanto.

Bonetto died on 21 November 1953 in an accident at the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico while leading the race. His Lancia team-mates Juan Manuel Fangio, Piero Taruffi and Eugenio Castellotti went on to take the first three places.

Source: Wikipedia, “Felice Bonetto”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.