Arturo Merzario
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 Italy
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| Automobile world championship | |||||||||
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| First start: | Great Britain Grand Prix 1972 | ||||||||
| Last start: | 1979 US Grand Prix West | ||||||||
| Constructors | |||||||||
| 1972–1973 Ferrari 1974–1975 Williams 1976 March , Wolf Racing 1977–1979 Merzario | |||||||||
| statistics | |||||||||
| World Cup balance: | World Cup twelfth ( 1973 ) | ||||||||
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| World Cup points : | 11 | ||||||||
| Podiums : | - | ||||||||
| Leadership laps : | - | ||||||||
Arturo Merzario (born March 11, 1943 in Civenna (CO) ) is a former Italian racing driver . He drove sports car races and from 1972 to 1979 in Formula 1 .
Career
In 1969 Arturo Merzario won the European Hill Climb Championship for sports cars on an Abarth 2000S .
He got his start in Formula 1 in 1972 at Ferrari . After two unsuccessful years, he moved to the Williams team. One of the reasons is likely to have been the behavior of those responsible for Ferrari during the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring in 1973 . In this race, many of his competitors gradually fell out for victory. When he was second behind his team-mate Jacky Ickx , the then race director Giacomo Caliri asked the two drivers to take care of their cars. Merzario ignored the instruction and passed Ickx after a few laps. On the next lap he was asked to go into the pits. Merzario ignored this instruction too. After his refueling stop, Carlos Pace took over the car and, as instructed, stayed a tenth of a second behind the winner Ickx. During the victory celebration that followed, Merzario was already on the way home. The Ferrari Formula 1 team was desolate in 1973 and stayed away at two races, whereupon Ickx also left.
His next move in Formula 1 led Merzario to March in 1976 , although the season here was also rather moderate. Arturo Merzario will not be forgotten for his role in the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring , where Niki Lauda had his spectacular accident. Merzario pulled the unconscious and seriously injured Lauda out of the burning Ferrari with the help of Brett Lunger , Guy Edwards and Harald Ertl . In 1977 he founded his own Formula 1 racing team, Team Merzario . This ambitious, perhaps also somewhat naive, project was doomed to failure from the start. The team lacked know-how and money; in every way the project was characterized by improvisation.
In 1977 Merzario initially used a March 761B . A replica of this car, called the Merzario A1 / 01 , was created for the 1978 Formula 1 season . In addition, the well-known March 761B received a new body; it was subsequently referred to as A1 / 02 and remained in operation until spring 1979. For the 1979 Formula 1 season , a Merzario A3 was initially built ; This was the chassis of the A1 / 01, which was equipped with a new body and, without really mastering this technology, took over some ideas from the wing car sector. Instead of perfecting this concept, Merzario produced another car in the course of 1979, the A4 , which was nothing more than a Kauhsen WK5 of the recently failed Kauhsen team, slightly revised by Giampaolo Dallara .
From 1980 to 1984 Arturo Merzario competed with his own team in the Formula 2 European Championship and mainly used self-constructed cars. These constructions were also unsuccessful. In addition, customer vehicles from March Engineering were repeatedly reported. Arturo Merzario's team was no longer involved in the transition from Formula 2 to Formula 3000 .
Merzario is still active and took part in VLN races at the Nürburgring in 2008 .
Quote
- We didn't fail in Formula 1 because our team structure was too small, but because we were far too inexperienced and unprofessional in terms of technology. I can still remember the 1978 German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring, when we completely dismantled the transmission after training and then didn't know how to assemble it. With a little more experience we could certainly have survived and kept up a little longer!
statistics
Statistics in the automobile world championship
Single results
| season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14th | 15th | 16 | 17th |
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| 1972 |
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| 6th | 12 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1973 |
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| 9 | 4th | 4th | DNF | 7th | 7th | DNF | 15th | 16 | |||||||||
| 1974 |
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| DNF | DNF | 6th | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNS | DNF | 9 | DNF | DNF | DNF | 4th | DNF | DNF | |||
| 1975 |
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| NC | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNQ | DNF | 11 | |||||||||||
| 1976 |
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| DNQ | DNF | DNF | DNQ | 14th | 9 | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNS | DNF | DNF | DNF | ||||
| 1977 |
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| DNF | DNQ | 14th | DNF | DNF | DNQ | DNF | DNQ | ||||||||||
| 1978 |
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| 1979 |
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| DNF | DNQ | DNQ | DNF | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ |
| Legend | ||
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| colour | abbreviation | meaning |
| gold | - | victory |
| silver | - | 2nd place |
| bronze | - | 3rd place |
| green | - | Placement in the points |
| blue | - | Classified outside the point ranks |
| violet | DNF | Race not finished (did not finish) |
| NC | not classified | |
| red | DNQ | did not qualify |
| DNPQ | failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify) | |
| black | DSQ | disqualified |
| White | DNS | not at the start (did not start) |
| WD | withdrawn | |
| Light Blue | PO | only participated in the training (practiced only) |
| TD | Friday test driver | |
| without | DNP | did not participate in the training (did not practice) |
| INJ | injured or sick | |
| EX | excluded | |
| DNA | did not arrive | |
| C. | Race canceled | |
| no participation in the World Cup | ||
| other | P / bold | Pole position |
| SR / italic | Fastest race lap | |
| * | not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered |
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| () | Streak results | |
| underlined | Leader in the overall standings | |
Le Mans results
| year | team | vehicle | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
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| 1970 |
Ferrari SEFAC Spa
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Ferrari 512S |
 Clay Regazzoni
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failure | accident |
| 1973 |
Ferrari SEFAC Spa |
Ferrari 312PB |
.svg){kind=small} Carlos Pace
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Rank 2 |
Sebring results
| year | team | vehicle | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
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| 1970 |
Ferrari SPA SEFAC
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Ferrari 512S Spyder |
Mario Andretti
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failure | Gearbox damage |
Individual results in the sports car world championship
.svg){kind=small}
literature
- Steve Small: Grand Prix Who's Who, 3rd Edition . Travel Publishing, London 2000, ISBN 1-902007-46-8
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Merzario, Arturo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian Formula 1 racing driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 11, 1943 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Civenna |