Luigi Villoresi

Luigi Villoresi

Nation:	Italy
Automobile world championship
First start:	Monaco Grand Prix 1950
Last start:	1956 Italian Grand Prix
Constructors
1950–1953 Scuderia Ferrari  · 1954 Officine Alfieri Maserati - Scuderia Lancia · 1955 Lancia · 1956 Scuderia Centro Sud - Luigi Piotti - Officine Alfieri Maserati
statistics
World Cup balance:	World Cup fifth ( 1951 , 1953 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 31 - - 1
World Cup points :	49
Podiums :	8th
Leadership laps :	2 over 28.8 km

Luigi "Gigi" Villoresi (born May 16, 1909 in Milan ; † August 24, 1997 there ) was an Italian racing driver .

Career

Commitment to Maserati

Even before the Second World War , Luigi Villoresi was known beyond the national borders of his homeland as a successful racing driver for monopostos and sports cars . The racing enthusiast father supported the careers of his sons - his younger brother Emilio was also a racing driver. Villoresi began motorsport in 1931, and in 1937 he bought a Maserati privately . In 1938 the Maserati factory team signed him. Luigi Villoresi developed into a top driver in the following years and achieved many victories in the lower-displacement Voiturette class.

After the Second World War he continued his sporting career at Maserati. With the Grand Prix de Nice in the spring of 1946 , he won the first ever international race of the post-war period. With numerous other victories up to 1949 , Villoresi was one of the most successful drivers of this era and won the Italian championship twice in 1946 and 1947 on a Maserati . However, he never succeeded in winning one of the official International Grands Prix  - the so-called Grandes Épreuves  . During this time he developed a close friendship with the aspiring young driver Alberto Ascari , with whom he moved to Scuderia Ferrari in 1949 .

With Ascari at Ferrari

From 1950 to 1953 Luigi Villoresi was under contract with Ferrari. In his second season he showed consistency with three third places and one fourth place. In the following year he also took several third places. He finished his most successful season in 1953 with 17 world championship points in fifth place. That year he finished second at the Grands Prix of Argentina and Belgium and won the Mille Miglia .

Switch to Lancia

Although Ascari had become world champion in 1953 before Juan Manuel Fangio , who drove a Maserati , contract negotiations between him and Enzo Ferrari failed . Because "Ciccio" insisted on the commitment of Villoresi, who, as a good second driver, could expect a contract extension. Since the Ferrari racing team had two other very good drivers in the form of Giuseppe Farina and Mike Hawthorn and the team was very large, Enzo Ferrari refused the younger Ascari's request. As a result, Ascari and Villoresi signed together because of their close friendship with the Formula 1 debutant Lancia , which at the beginning of the 1954 season, however, had not yet provided a finished vehicle.

For this reason, both drivers sporadically drove a Maserati to take part in the 1954 World Cup. The season was dominated by Fangio and the Mercedes team. Villoresi finished fifth on a Maserati.

1955

Two weeks before the accident at the 24 Hours of Le Mans , Alberto Ascari had a fatal accident during a test drive in Monza . Villoresi was badly affected by the death of his friend and announced his retirement from racing a year later. Likewise ended Gianni Lancia the short career of the Lancia works team and gave his six race cars including spare parts to Ferrari.

Trivia

In 1950, Villoresi and his driver colleague Alberto Ascari played a key role in persuading Enzo Ferrari to give motorboat racing driver Achille Castoldi an engine from the Ferrari 375 F1 for his Arno XI project , with which Castoldi set a world record that is still valid today .

statistics

Grand Prix results before 1950

season	team	dare	1	2	3	4th	Points	position
1938	Officine A. Maserati	Maserati 8CTF					30th	26th
						DNF
1939	Officine A. Maserati	Maserati 8CTF					30th	28.
					DNF
1947	Scuderia Ambrosiana	Maserati 4CL
			6th		DNF	DNF
1948	Scuderia Ambrosiana
		Maserati 4CLT	5
		Maserati 4CLT / 48		3	7th	2
1949
	Scuderia Ambrosiana	Maserati 4CLT / 48	DNF
	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 125 GPC		2	2
		Ferrari 125 F1				DNF

Legend
colour	meaning		EM points
gold	victory		1
silver	2nd place		2
bronze	3rd place		3
green	Classified, covered more than 75% of the race distance		4th
blue	not entitled to points, covered between 50% and 75% of the race distance		5
violet	not eligible for points, covered between 25% and 50% of the race distance		6th
red	not eligible for points, covered less than 25% of the race distance		7th
colour	abbreviation	meaning	EM points
black	DSQ	disqualified	8th
White	DNS	did not start
	DNA	did not arrive
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1950	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 125F1	Ferrari 1.5 V12s	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1951	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375F1	Ferrari 4.5 V12	7th	-	-	3	-	-	15 (18)	5.
1952	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 500	Ferrari 2.0 L4	2	-	-	2	-	-	8th	8th.
1953	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 500	Ferrari 2.0 L4	8th	-	2	1	-	1	17th	5.
1954	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	3	-	-	-	-	-	2	20th
	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D50	Lancia 2.5 V8	1	-	-	-	-	-
1955	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D50	Lancia 2.5 V8	2	-	-	-	-	-	2	20th
1956	Scuderia Centro Sud	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-	2	22nd
	Luigi Piotti	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	3	-	-	-	-	-
	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-
total				31	-	2	6th	-	1	46 (49)

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9
1950
		DNF		DNF	6th	DNS
1951
	DNF		3	3	3	4th	4th	DNF
1952
							3	3
1953
	2		DNF	2	6th	DNF	8th	6th	3
1954
				5	DNF	DNS		DNF	DNF
1955
	DNF	5		DNA			DNS
1956
				5	DNF	6th	DNF	DNF

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	placement	Failure reason
1952	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 250S Berlinetta Vignale	Alberto Ascari	failure	Clutch damage
1953	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 340MM Berlinetta Pininfarina	Alberto Ascari	failure	Clutch damage

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1954	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D24	Alberto Ascari	failure	Brakes

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 340MM Ferrari 375MM	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
				DNF	DNF	DNF
1954	Lancia	Lancia D24 Lancia D25	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
				DNF			DNF
1955	Maserati	Fiat 600 Maserati 300S	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
					273			DNF
1956	Monte Carlo Sport Maserati	Osca MT4 Maserati 300S	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
					DNF	DNF	DNF

literature

• Alessandro Silva: Back on Track - Racing in the 1940s , Fondazione Negri, Brescia 2019, ISBN 88-89108-40-6 (English).

Web links

Commons : Luigi Villoresi  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Luigi Villoresi, Italy. www.racingsportscars.com, accessed on May 24, 2015 . 
• Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: Luigi "Gigi" Villoresi (I). www.kolumbus.fi, April 26, 2015, accessed on May 24, 2015 (English). 
• Luigi Villoresi on gpracing.net192.com ( Memento from April 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Luigi Villoresi in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Gigi Villoresi. www.motorsportmemorial.org, accessed on May 15, 2020 (English). 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mathias Brunner: Crazy: racing boat with Formula 1 engine from Ferrari. SPEEDWEEK, August 19, 2019, accessed on January 12, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Shared car with Ascari
3. ↑ Shared car with Nuvolari
4. ↑ Unsure if it is a Grande Épreuve is
5. ↑ www.gilcodesign.com (accessed January 21, 2020)
6. ↑ cf. Back on track - Racing in the 1940s. Retrieved February 10, 2020 .