Franco
Comotti

Gianfranco "Franco" Comotti was born in Brescia in 1906 and grew up in Bergamo. In 1928 he took part in the Italian Grand Prix, driving a Talbot run by Scuderia Materassi. He then dropped out of racing for a time and withdrew his entry for the 1929 Indianapolis 500. He came back in 1931 and won the cyclecar race at Alessandria in a Salmson.

In 1932 he became an official driver for Scuderia Ferrari. In 1934 he won the Grand Prix du Comminges for the team and finished third in that year's Italian Grand Prix, sharing the car with Carlo Felice Trossi. He stayed with Ferrari until the end of 1935. In 1937 he moved to France, where he worked as a test driver for Talbot and acted as reserve driver for its racing team. He won the RAC Tourist Trophy at Donington Park that year. For 1938 he joined Ecurie Bleue and drove a Delahaye, starting the German Grand Prix and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, though he retired early from both.

After the war Comotti tested the new Talbot-Lago T26C and made some Grand Prix starts with it in 1948. In 1950 he was a test driver for Scuderia Milano, and on 3 September he made his Formula One World Championship debut in a Maserati at the Italian Grand Prix. His second and final championship start came at the 1952 French Grand Prix in a Ferrari entered by Scuderia Marzotto. He scored no championship points. In 1962 he was one of the nine founders of the Club international des anciens pilotes de Grand Prix F1.

Source: Wikipedia, “Franco Comotti”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.