Mauro Bianchi

Mauro Bianchi won the 500 km race at the Nürburgring in 1965 on an Alpine M65

The Alpine A210 of Jean Vinatier and Mauro Bianchi at the Targa Florio in 1967

Mauro Bianchi (born July 31, 1937 in Milan ) is a former Belgian racing driver of Italian origin and the younger brother of Lucien Bianchi . His grandson Jules was also a racing driver.

origin

The two Bianchi brothers were born to a mechanic in Milan. The father worked for Alfa Romeo in the late 1940s . In 1950 the family moved to Belgium, where father Bianchi was hired as a racing mechanic by the Belgian racing driver Johnny Claes . The members of the family later took on Belgian citizenship.

Career

Bianchi began professional motorsport in the late 1950s. He quickly drove both sports car and monoposto races . In the early 1960s he was active in Formula 3 and Formula 2 . He was already a works driver at Alpine . In 1964 he won the Paris Grand Prix in Montlhèry . He competed in monopostor races until 1967, when he concentrated entirely on GT and sports car racing. There was no involvement in Formula 1 . In 1968 he was supposed to be the driver of the Alpine A350 ; but the planned entry of Alpine into the Formula 1 World Championship got stuck in the test stage.

Bianchi celebrated successes in GT and sports car racing. In 1962 he signed a works contract with Abarth and drove strong races with the vehicles of the Italian racing team over the next few years, which was reflected in several victories and podium positions, including in races for the World Sports Car Championship . The greatest success was the overall victory with brother Lucien in the 500 km race at the Nürburgring in 1965 ; However, at that time he was already a works driver at Alpine and won on an M65 .

He competed six times in the 24 Hours of Le Mans , with two 13th places as the best overall results. In 1968 he had a serious accident at night in the Tertre Rouge, in which he sustained serious burns. That accident basically ended his career. The connection between the Bianchi brothers and the Le Mans race is remarkable. While Mauro barely escaped the death of a racing driver in 1968, his brother Lucien won the race with the Mexican Pedro Rodríguez as a partner. When Mauro made his comeback a year later in the pre-tests for the race, his brother had a fatal accident during a training drive. Shortly thereafter, Mauro announced his final retirement from motorsport and years later became a development engineer at Venturi Automobiles .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1962	Abarth Corse & Cie	Fiat-Abarth 700S	Herbert Demetz	failure	Ignition damage
1964	Société des Automobiles Alpine	Alpine M63	Jean Vinatier	not classified
1965	Société des Automobiles Alpine	Alpine M65	Henri Grandsire	failure	Gearbox damage
1966	Société des Automobiles Alpine	Alpine A210	Jean Vinatier	Rank 13
1967	Société des Automobiles Alpine	Alpine A210	Jean Vinatier	Rank 13 and class win
1968	Ecurie Savin-Calberson	Alpine A220	Patrick Depailler	failure	accident

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1963	Abarth Corse	Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero	Hans Herrmann	failure	Engine failure
1964	Automobiles Alpine	Alpine M63	José Rosinski	failure	malfunction
1965	Fong Racing Associates	Ferrari 275P	Willy Mairesse	Rank 23
1968	Societé Alpine	Alpine A211	Henri Grandsire	failure	malfunction

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1962	Abarth	Fiat-Abarth 1000 Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
				5				DNF		DNF	DNF						9
1963	Abarth	Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero Fiat-Abarth 1000 Fiat-Abarth 700 Fiat-Abarth 850TC	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
			DNF	2	DNF				DNF	4th	3				10	18th				DNF	2		DNF
1964	Alpine	Alpine M63 Alpine M64 Alpine A110	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
				DNF	15th				DNF		DNF	20th							DNF			DNF
1965	Fong Racing Associates Alpine	Ferrari 275P Alpine M65 Alpine M64	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
				23					DNF		DNF			DNF	11					1
1966	Alpine	Alpine A210	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
					DNF		10		13					13
1967	Alpine	Alpine A210	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
					DNF	16	DNF		13							DNF
1968	Alpine	Alpine A211 Alpine A210 Alpine A220	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
				DNF		DNF			13		DNF	DNF

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissedre: 24 hours of mans . 1923-1992. 2 volumes. Édition d'Art JB Barthelemy, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

Commons : Mauro Bianchi  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Results at Racing Sports Cars