Arturo Merzario

Arturo Francesco "Art" MerzarioTemplate:Efn (born 11 March 1943) is an Italian racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from Template:F1 to Template:F1.

Merzario competed in Formula One for Ferrari, Frank Williams, Fittipaldi, March, Wolf–Williams and Shadow, before founding his eponymous team in Template:F1: Merzario. He participated in 85 Grands Prix, scoring 11 championship points.

Racing career

Merzario began his career as a test driver with works Fiat Abarths, subsequently participating to GT racing and European mountain-climb events.<ref name="ReferenceA">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1969 he won the Mugello Grand Prix in a 2-litre Abarth ahead of a field which included Nino Vaccarella and Andrea de Adamich. This brought him a drive with the Ferrari sportscar team for 1970. In 1972, he won the Spa 1000 km, the Targa Florio and the Rand 9 Hour races and was also European two-litre Champion for Abarth.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Formula One

Merzario made his Formula One debut in 1972, and became one of the few drivers to score points at their first race by finishing in sixth place in the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch.<ref name="ReferenceB">Template:Cite book</ref> He was the last driver whose debut team was Ferrari until Oliver Bearman in the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. In 1973 Ferrari confirmed him for the whole season alongside Jacky Ickx. Merzario had a promising start with the old 312B2, finishing fourth in Brazil and South Africa. However, Ferrari's evolved car, the 312B3, proved to be a disappointment, and both he and Ickx struggled for the rest of the season. Deeply disappointed with the way the season had unfolded, Enzo Ferrari decided to change the whole team for the 1974 season, and Merzario moved to Williams. After finishing third in a non-Championship race in Brazil, Merzario scored points at Monza and in South Africa. However, the Williams cars were largely uncompetitive, and in 1975, after a one-off with the Copersucar at Monza, where he finished eleventh,<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="ReferenceB"/> Merzario returned to sports cars with Alfa Romeo — winning four races plus the Targa Florio again.

Merzario returned to Formula One full-time in 1976, initially with the works March. After a run of disappointing results — and disgruntled with his situation<ref name="ReferenceA"/> — he moved to Wolf, who had just merged his team with Frank Williams Racing Cars, replacing Jacky Ickx; but, again, there were no decent results. During the 1976 German Grand Prix, Niki Lauda crashed heavily; Merzario was one of the drivers, along with Guy Edwards, Brett Lunger and Harald Ertl who stopped to help, effectively pulling Lauda out of the burning car. 37 years later, in an interview with BBC Radio 5 linked to the release of Rush, Lauda stated that "Merzario jumped into the fire and, alone, pulled me out of the wreckage so I survived… he really saved my life there, because a couple of seconds more I would have never made it."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Six weeks later after the incident, at the Italian Grand Prix, Lauda returned to race again and presented his gold Rolex wristwatch to Merzario in gratitude for saving his life.

In 1977, Merzario was able to raise enough sponsors to set up his own Merzario team. The organization struggled in modern Formula One for three years, initially with March 761B cars. From 1978, Merzario began building cars of his own design<ref name="ReferenceA"/> and the team would eventually move down to Formula Two. In three seasons, the team was only classified on one occasion — at the 1977 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder — when Merzario was officially placed fourteenth. During the season, he accepted a one-off drive with Shadow in the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix at the Österreichring, but a good drive led to retirement again.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Merzario continued with his own chassis for two seasons, but results were very poor; the team's cars did not qualify on the majority of occasions, and often retired from the races they did start.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> The Merzario M1-BMW fared no better in Formula Two in 1980<ref name="ReferenceA"/> but Merzario continued to race sports cars with some success after his works Formula One career finished.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

During his time in Formula One, Merzario was often photographed wearing a cowboy hat with sponsorship patches from Marlboro. This became his signature look, and Merzario still wears the hat.

Sports cars and other competitions

Merzario with class SR2 Centenari M1-Alfa Romeo in 1997 FIA Sportscar Championship in Donington.

Merzario began his career with Abarth in GT racing and mountain climbs;<ref name="ReferenceA"/> he also won the Sardinia Rally in 1963 in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta. He had several class wins throughout the 1960s; his victory in the Mugello Grand Prix of 1969 led to a Ferrari sports car drive. In 1970, he was third in the 24 hours of Daytona and fourth in the 1000 Kilometres of Monza using a Ferrari 512 S. Further wins followed in 1971 at Imola and Vallelunga for Ferrari and Abarth, respectively.

In 1972, Merzario won the 1000 Kilometres of Spa with Brian Redman in a Ferrari 312 PB, won the Targa Florio alongside Sandro Munari, and made his Formula One World Championship debut. In 1973, Merzario took second places in the 1000 Kilometres of Nürburgring and at Le Mans. Merzario also won the Targa Florio in 1975 with an Alfa Romeo T33, and his career continued in sports cars and GT racing into the 1990s; he won the 1985 Italian Prototype Championship, and later campaigned successfully with a Centenari M1.

Merzario was still active in sports car racing well into his sixties, driving mostly in an Italian prototype series.

Racing record

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Template:Tooltip	Template:Tooltip
1970	Template:Flagicon SpA Ferrari SEFAC	Template:Flagicon Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari 512 S	S 5.0	38	DNF	DNF
1973	Template:Flagicon SpA Ferrari SEFAC	Template:Flagicon Carlos Pace	Ferrari 312 PB	S 3.0	349	2nd	2nd
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Complete European Formula Two Championship results

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Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Template:Tooltip	Pts
Template:F2	Racing Team IRIS	Tecno TF70	Cosworth FVA	HOC Template:Small	THR	NÜR	JAR Template:Small	PAL	ROU Template:Small	MAN	TUL	ALB	VLL	VLL				NC	0
Template:F2	Osella Squadra Corse	Osella PA2	BMW	BAR	HOC	PAU	SAL	HOC	MUG	KAR	PER	HOC	VLL Template:Small					NC	0
Template:F2	Osella Squadra Corse	Osella FA2	BMW	EST	THR	HOC	NÜR	PAU	HOC	SAL	ROU	MUG	PER	SIL Template:Small	ZOL	NOG	VLL Template:Small	NC	0
Template:F2	Willi Kauhsen Racing Team	March 762	Hart	HOC	THR	VLL	SAL	PAU	HOC	ROU	MUG	PER Template:Small	EST	NOG				NC	0
	Osella Squadra Corse	Osella FA2	BMW												HOC Template:Small
Template:F2	Fred Opert Racing	Chevron B40	Hart	SIL	THR	HOC	NÜR	VLL	PAU	MUG	ROU	NOG	PER	MIS Template:Small	EST	DON		NC	0
Template:F2	ICI Chevron Cars	Chevron B42	Hart	THR	HOC	NÜR	PAU	MUG Template:Small	VLL	ROU	DON	NOG	PER	MIS Template:Small	HOC			18th	3
Template:F2	Merzario Team Srl	Merzario M1	BMW	THR Template:Small	HOC Template:Small	NÜR Template:Small	VLL	PAU Template:Small	SIL Template:Small	ZOL	MUG Template:Small	ZAN Template:Small	PER Template:Small	MIS	HOC Template:Small			27th	0
Template:F2	Astra Team Merzario Srl	Merzario M1	BMW	SIL Template:Small	HOC	THR Template:Small									MAN Template:Small			NC	0
		March 812					NÜR Template:Small	VLL	MUG	PAU	PER	SPA	DON	MIS
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Complete Formula One World Championship results

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Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Template:Tooltip	Pts
1972	Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	Ferrari 312B2	Ferrari 001/1 3.0 F12	ARG	RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	FRA	GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small	AUT	ITA	CAN	USA						20th	1
1973	Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	Ferrari 312B2	Ferrari 001/1 3.0 F12	ARG Template:Small	BRA Template:Small	RSA Template:Small	ESP	BEL													12th	6
		Ferrari 312B3	Ferrari 001/11 3.0 F12						MON Template:Small	SWE	FRA Template:Small	GBR	NED	GER	AUT Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	CAN Template:Small	USA Template:Small
1974	Frank Williams Racing Cars	Iso–Marlboro FW	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG Template:Small	BRA Template:Small	RSA Template:Small	ESP Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	MON Template:Small	SWE Template:Small	NED Template:Small	FRA Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small	AUT Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	CAN Template:Small	USA Template:Small			17th	4
1975	Frank Williams Racing Cars	Williams FW03	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG Template:Small	BRA Template:Small	RSA Template:Small		MON Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	SWE	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT						NC	0
		Williams FW04					ESP Template:Small
	Copersucar-Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi FD03														ITA Template:Small	USA
1976	Ovoro Team March	March 761	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	BRA	RSA	USW Template:Small	ESP Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	MON Template:Small	SWE Template:Small	FRA Template:Small	GBR Template:Small									NC	0
	Walter Wolf Racing	Wolf–Williams FW05											GER Template:Small	AUT Template:Small	NED Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	CAN Template:Small	USA Template:Small	JPN Template:Small
1977	Team Merzario	March 761B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	ESP Template:Small	MON Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	SWE	FRA Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small		NED Template:Small	ITA	USA	CAN	JPN	NC	0
	Shadow Racing Team	Shadow DN8													AUT Template:Small
1978	Team Merzario	Merzario A1	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG Template:Small	BRA Template:Small	RSA Template:Small	USW Template:Small	MON Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	ESP Template:Small	SWE Template:Small	FRA Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small	AUT Template:Small	NED Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	USA Template:Small	CAN Template:Small		NC	0
1979	Team Merzario	Merzario A1B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG Template:Small	BRA Template:Small	RSA Template:Small	USW Template:Small														NC	0
		Merzario A2						ESP Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	MON	FRA Template:Small			AUT Template:Small
		Merzario A4										GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small		NED Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	CAN Template:Small	USA Template:Small
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Formula One Non-Championship results

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Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3
1974	Frank Williams Racing Cars	Iso–Marlboro FW	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	PRE Template:Small	ROC	INT
1975	Frank Williams Racing Cars	Iso–Marlboro FW03	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ROC Template:Small	INT Template:Small	SUI
1979	Team Merzario	Merzario A4	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ROC	GNM	DIN Template:Small
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