Bruno Giacomelli

Bruno Giacomelli

Nation:	Italy
Automobile / Formula 1 world championship
First start:	1977 Italian Grand Prix
Last start:	1983 Grand Prix of South Africa
Constructors
1977–1978 McLaren  • 1979–1982 Alfa Romeo  • 1983 Toleman  • 1990 Life Racing
statistics
World Cup balance:	WM-15. ( 1981 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 69 - 1 -
World Cup points :	14th
Podiums :	1
Leadership laps :	31 over 168.5 km

Bruno Giacomelli (born September 10, 1952 in Borgo Poncarale ) is a former Italian racing driver . He started in Formula 1 between 1977 and 1990 .

Beginnings

In 1976 Giacomelli was the only Italian driver to date to win the British Formula 3 Championship . When he won the Formula 2 European Championship on a March - BMW , he was the most popular racing driver in his home country.

Started his career at McLaren

Thanks to generous sponsorship money from the tobacco company Philip Morris Companies Inc. , Giacomelli got into the cockpit of a third works McLaren during the 1977 Formula 1 season , one day after his birthday at the home race in Monza , which was possible at the time by the regulations . McLaren provided the reigning world champion with James Hunt at this point , but this year's World Cup was won by Niki Lauda in a Ferrari . Giacomelli's mission was unobtrusive. He stayed with McLaren in 1978 and drove five races for the team, which was clearly outstripped by the competition and finished 8th in the Constructors' World Championship with 15 points.

Change to Alfa Romeo

For the sixth race of the 1979 season, Giacomelli moved to Alfa Romeo with a lucrative contract . Although Alfa had the comeback after a year of several tests on the company's track for the first time since 1965 a completely own vehicle available, but the heavy duty 180-degree 12-cylinder engine carried over from the previous year and the chassis was not up to current ground effect principle. Therefore, it was proof of Giacomelli's class that he was able to qualify for a 14th place on the grid. Frequent defects and over-motivated driving style, which should compensate for the weaknesses of the vehicle, often left both him and his teammate Vittorio Brambilla stranded off the track. As a result, neither driver scored points for the team.

Bruno Giacomelli in the Alfa Romeo 177 at the 1979 Belgian Grand Prix

In the 1980 season seemed to be on at Alfa. Talented drivers like Patrick Depailler and later Andrea de Cesaris were supposed to bring the team forward. Depailler's test work in particular was promising - but Depailler had a fatal accident during test drives for the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring . The cause of the accident was probably the unpredictability of the wing cars of the time. Before that, Giacomelli had secured the first rating points with fifth place in the opening race in Buenos Aires . Despite the shock of the death of Depailler, popular with all drivers, Giacomelli was able to repeat fifth place at the Hockenheimring and even achieve pole position in the final race in Watkins Glen . In the race, however, the unreliable engine went on strike.

For the next season , Carlo Chiti , the racing director of Alfa Romeo, signed Mario Andretti , who was dissatisfied with Lotus , as a team-mate of Bruno Giacomelli. Amazingly, Giacomelli was able to leave the higher rated Andretti behind with seven to three points. Fourth place in the race in Canada and third place in the " Parking Lot Grand Prix " in Las Vegas even allowed him to climb onto the podium for the first and only time.

In the following year , however, the boisterous de Cesaris surpassed him. Giacomelli's fifth place at Hockenheim was not enough for his employer after the younger driver finished third at the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix .

End of the career

Giacomelli switched to Toleman - Hart for the following year 1983, which Nelson Piquet saw as the first turbo world champion on Brabham - BMW , while Giacomelli was able to achieve a championship point one last time at Brands Hatch . Since his teammate Derek Warwick had also left him behind, he announced his retirement from racing.

Inglorious comeback

Completely surprisingly, Giacomelli competed in the premiere of the uncompetitive Formula 1 team Life Racing seven years later in Monaco . However, he did not succeed in bringing the underperforming Life L190 beyond pre-qualification. Because designer Gianni Marelli simply took the chassis of a Formula 1 prototype from First Racing that had never materialized and put in an extremely complicated W12 cylinder in-house design that - according to Giacomelli - set at least 250  hp less in motion than that of the other racing cars. Even when Marelli replaced the exotic engine with a unit from Judd at the end of the year , the car did not get beyond the pre-qualification. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Formula 1, the automobile magazine sport auto named the red “Life” probably the worst monoposto of all time.

Giacomelli still watches all races in Italy with great interest. When, after Ayrton Senna's fatal accident in Imola in 1994 , some former drivers were also present at the meetings of the newly formed drivers' union in Monza to introduce their own safety considerations, Christian Fittipaldi wanted him brusquely with the words "What is he doing here!" crowd the room. Giacomelli's former teammate Andrea de Cesaris was just able to prevent the affront .

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Round	Points	WM-Pos.
1977	Marlboro Team McLaren	McLaren M23	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1978	Marlboro Team McLaren	McLaren M26	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1979	Autodelta	Alfa Romeo 177 Alfa Romeo 179	Alfa Romeo 3.0 F12 Alfa Romeo 3.0 V12	4th	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1980	Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 179	Alfa Romeo 3.0 V12	14th	-	-	-	1	-	4th	16.
1981	Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 179B / 179C	Alfa Romeo 3.0 V12	15th	-	-	1	-	-	7th	15th
1982	Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 179D Alfa Romeo 182	Alfa Romeo 3.0 V12	16	-	-	-	-	-	2	22nd
1983	Candy Toleman Motorsport	Toleman TG183B	Hard 1.5 L4 turbo	15th	-	-	-	-	-	1	19th
1990	Life Racing	Life F190	Life 3.5 W12 Judd 3.5 V8	12	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
total				82	0	0	0	1	0	14th

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th
1977
														DNF
1978
						8th			DNF	7th			DNF	14th
1979
						DNF		17th					DNF		DNF
1980
	5	13	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	5	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF
1981
	DNF	NC	10	DNF	9	DNF	10	15th	DNF	15th	DNF	DNF	8th	4th	3
1982
	11	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	11	7th	9	5	DNF	12	DNF	10
1983
	DNF	DNF	13	DNF	DNQ	8th	9	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	13	7th	6th	DNF
1990
			DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ

Legend
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
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1988	Kenwood Kremer Racing	Porsche 962C	Kunimitsu Takahashi	Hideki Okada	Rank 9
1989	Porsche Kremer Racing	Porsche 962C	Kunimitsu Takahashi	Giovanni Lavaggi	failure	Fire
1990	Richard Lloyd Racing	Porsche 962C	John Watson	Allen mountain	Rank 11

Web links

Commons : Bruno Giacomelli  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• F1 career data of Bruno Giacomelli ( Memento from January 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive )