Piero Taruffi

Piero Taruffi

Nation:	Italy
Automobile world championship
First start:	1950 Italian Grand Prix
Last start:	1956 Italian Grand Prix
Constructors
1950  Alfa Romeo SpA  1951–1955  Scuderia Ferrari  1955  Daimler Benz AG  1956  Officine Alfieri Maserati  1956  Vanderwell Products Ltd.
statistics
World Cup balance:	World Cup third ( 1952 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 18th 1 - 1
World Cup points :	41
Podiums :	5
Leadership laps :	46 over 334 km

Piero Taruffi (born October 12, 1906 in Albano Laziale , † January 12, 1988 in Rome ) was an Italian designer , Formula 1 , sports car and motorcycle racer, and motorcycle and sports car world record holder.

Career

Beginnings in motorsport

Taruffi used his engineering knowledge for decades to advance the Gilera motorcycle team technically and in terms of driving. He started his racing career on two wheels in the early 1920s, only to contest the first car race in a Fiat in 1923 .

He took part in the Mille Miglia for the first time in 1930 and three years later took third place in this sports car race. However, it was only enough to win at the end of his career.

In 1932 won Taruffi on the Pista del Littorio in Rome on one of the Scuderia Ferrari used Norton the motorcycle championship in the 500 cc class.

In 1937 Taruffi set the world speed record for motorcycles at the time on a Gilera Rondine with 274.181  km / h over the so-called "flying kilometer". In the 1950s he achieved various world records with the Tarf .

formula 1

At the Automobile World Championship in 1950 , Taruffi was seen at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo Tipo 158 at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza . In the following year - before Alfa Romeo withdrew from the world championship  - Taruffi switched to competitor Ferrari and took second place behind Juan Manuel Fangio in an Alfa Romeo Tipo 159 at the Swiss Grand Prix . Thanks to other good placements, he was sixth in the final ranking.

The 1952 automobile world championship was his best year. At the Grand Prix of Switzerland reached Taruffi his only victory. He benefited from the absence of Alberto Ascaris , who competed at the Indianapolis 500 , as well as the failure of Giuseppe Farinas . Taruffi also scored points in the other races and achieved third place in the World Championship with 22 points.

After signing a contract with Lancia in 1954 to contest sports car races with this brand , Taruffi only sporadically contested a few Formula 1 races for Mercedes , Maserati and Vanwall before completely retiring from monoposto racing in 1956 .

Sports car career and author

Taruffi won the Carrera Panamericana in 1951 during his time at Ferrari .

Taruffi did not regret his move to Lancia, as he won both the Targa Florio and the Giro di Sicilia in 1954 , and won the latter race in 1955.

In 1957 Taruffi won the last Mille Miglia . He then ended his racing career at the age of 51 and finally retired from racing.

In 1958 he wrote the book “Tecnica e pratica della guida automobilistica da corsa”.

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

Grand Prix victories

• 1952:  Switzerland  ( Bremgarten )

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1950	Alfa Romeo SpA	Alfa Romeo Type 158	Alfa Romeo 1.5 L8s	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1951	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375F1	Ferrari 4.5 V12	5	-	1	-	-	-	10	6th
1952	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 500	Ferrari 2.0 L4	6th	1	1	1	-	-	22nd	3.
1954	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 625	Ferrari 2.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1955	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 555 Super Qualo	Ferrari 2.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	6th
	Daimler Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz W196	Mercedes 2.5 L8	2	-	1	-	-	-	9
1956	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Vandervell Products Ltd.	Vanwall VW2	Vanwall 2.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
total				18th	1	3	1	-	-	41

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9
1950
							DNF
1951
	2		DNF			5	5	DNF
1952
	1		DNF	3	2	4th		7th
1954
						6th		DNA
1955
		8th		DNA		4th	2
1956
					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
1953	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D20	Umberto Maglioli	failure	Engine failure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1954	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D24	Robert Manzon		Disqualified
1955	Luigi Chinetti	Ferrari 750 Monza	Harry Schell		Rank 5
1956	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 300S	Jean Behra	Cesare Perdisa	Rank 5
1957	Lindsay Hopkins	Chevrolet Corvette SS	John Fitch		failure	suspension

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Lancia	Lancia D20 Lancia D24	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
				DNF	DNF		DNF		2
1954	Lancia Floyd Clymer	Lancia D24 Ford 6	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
				DNF	DNF		2	34
1955	Luigi Chinetti Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 750 Monza Ferrari 118LM Ferrari 857S	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
				5	DNF		6th
1956	Maserati	Maserati 300S	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
				5	DNF	1	DNF
1957	Lindsay Hopkins Scuderia Ferrari	Chevrolet Corvette SS Ferrari 315S	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
				DNF	1

literature

• Piero Taruffi: the racing driver's style and technique. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1964

Web links

Commons : Piero Taruffi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Kurzbiographie (English)
• Brief statistics with picture ( Memento from March 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Leif Snellman: Pierino "Piero" Antonio Alberto Taruffi (I). www.kolumbus.fi, February 25, 2020, accessed on March 28, 2020 (English). 
• Piero Taruffi. www.24h-en-piste.com, accessed on March 28, 2020 (French). 
• Piero Taruffi in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Le Moto della Scuderia Ferrari 1932–1934. www.modelfoxbrianza.it, December 9, 2005, accessed May 4, 2010 (Italian).