Emilio Zapico

Emilio Rodríguez Zapico (27 May 1944 in León, Castile and León, Spain – 6 August 1996 in Huete, Castile-La Mancha, Spain), was a Spanish racing driver.
He entered one Formula One Grand Prix, the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix, with the then-struggling Williams team, but failed to qualify. The Williams FW04 that Zapico used was already a year old, and it was later used by Brian McGuire.

He later returned to Touring Cars in the 1980s before retiring. Zapico was killed in an aircraft accident, piloting his ultralight in Huete, Spain, on 6 August 1996. Info from Wiki

Bio by Antonio Vasques
Emilio Rodríguez Zapico was spanish pilot who tried the adventure of being able to compete in F1. It was the times where it was possible to get run with own means. Zapico was a pilot with great experience both in rally and in the circuits.

On the occasion of 1976 Spanish Grand Prix, he had face a project to be able to run in F1. It was a very difficult economic time but he obtained the support of Mapfre to rent a Williams FW04 with Ford engine of 1975. If a car was uncompetitive the previous year, it is expected that the next year will be much less.

Registered as a Mapfre-Williams team, he tried to qualify for the Spanish Grand Prix on the weekend of May 2, 1976 at the Jarama Circuit the same race where Emilio de Villota started his career in F1. Unfortunately, Williams’ poor competitiveness did not allow him to qualify to take the start on Sunday. Zapico ends the session in 27rd position, one ahead of his compatriot.
After this adventure, Zapico did not return to participate in the F1 Championship, but continued competing until the middle of the Eighties.

Emilio Zapico died in an aviation accident in 1996, when he was flying over Huete (Cuenca) with his ultralight.

Before Formula One

In 2003, with the introduction of Friday testing on F1 weekends, Minardi boss Paul Stoddart caused a stir by suggesting that he was contemplating putting well-funded local drivers in a third car for the test session, thereby raising a few sponsorship dollars and the profile of his team. Whilst some in pit lane may have thought this desperate or amateurish, there was at least one other team owner who could have empathised, for he had done a similar thing himself back in the 1970s – Sir Frank Williams. Hailing from Léon, Spain, Emilio Rodriguez Zapico was a capable sports car and touring car driver who had a one-off Formula One entry in his home Grand Prix in 1976. Our thanks to Stephen Herbert who provided us with his sports car results, and to Danish reader Lars Krone for compiling his touring car results for us. The first we know of Zapico is that in 1972, in the Jarama round of the European Touring Car Championship, he co-drove an Alfa 2000 GTAm with E. Montero, but from 11th the car retired with engine problems.

1973 saw Zapico make a more concerted effort on the ETCC in a Ford Escort RS1600 for the Broadspeed and Scuderia Brescia Corse teams, sharing the car with Rafael Barrios, and also with José de Uriarte at the Spa 24hrs. In 6 starts, Emilio came 5th in the Tourist Trophy at Silverstone and 10th at Mantorp Park, but retired at Spa with starter failure. That year, he also competed in the 400km European Sportscar Championship event at Montjuich Park, where he drove a Chevron B23 Ford for the Promoto team. Incidentally, in that race Promoto also ran two other cars for Barrios and de Uriarte. But whereas de Uriarte came 8th, Zapico and Barrios both retired. In 1974, Emilio concentrated mainly on sports car racing, entering the World Championship for Makes round at Spa, but the March 74S BMW he shared with Alan Stubbs was only 31st fastest and did not qualify. In an Interserie race at Silverstone, he drove a March 74S Ford for Paulenco Racing, but gearbox failure meant he was the very first retirement.

There were also three more entries in the European Sportscar Championship that year. At Paul Ricard, he was classified last in a Paulenco Chevron B23 Ford, but in a March at Hockenheim for the Preis der Nationen, he did not make the grid. Then, with local knowledge on his side at Jarama, he qualified a Lola T294 Ford entered by Martin Raymond, in a brilliant 5th behind Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Gérard Larrousse, Jean Ragnotti and Alain Serpaggi, only to spin off after 42 laps with brake trouble. From here, the Zapico trail goes a little bit cold. In 1975, he made a one-off appearance in the ETCC, sharing the championship-winning Faltz-Alpina BMW CSL at Jarama with Alain Peltier (the champion that year) and Siegfried Müller Sr., coming a fabulous 4th overall in the four-hour race, showing that he was capable of holding his own against the best touring car drivers of the day. We then have no results for him in 1976 … oh, except for when he turned up in the Formula One paddock!

Formula One

In 1976, the Williams team was nothing like the Williams of today. A struggling Frank Williams had struck a deal earlier in the year (which later turned very sour) with Walter Wolf. In a year of hopeless instability, a mediocre car, and poor results, it was perhaps local knowledge that earned Zapico the ride at Jarama for the Spanish GP. In so doing, Emilio became one of nine pilots to drive the rather ordinary Williams Cosworth machines during that 1976 season. Indeed, Zapico was entered into the Spanish GP under the guise of Mapfre-Williams. Mapfre was a giant Spanish agricultural and industrial insurance company, and perhaps one of Emilio’s personal sponsors. Considering that there were two other Wolf-Williams entries already for Michel Leclere and Jacky Ickx, maybe this was also Frank’s way of breaking out of his unhappy partnership with Wolf. Not to mention a way of earning a few extra sponsorship dollars for his bereft-of-funding team.

Sadly, Zapico didn’t cover himself in glory, even when you consider that his FW04 was a machine a generation older than his Wolf Racing teammates’ FW05s. Unable (by 0.70secs) to wrench 24th (and last) place on the grid from gritty Australian Larry Perkins’ Boro, he joined Brett Lunger, Loris Kessel, Ingo Hoffmann, Harald Ertl and Emilio de Villota in non-qualification. The race, incidentally, was won by James Hunt, with Niki Lauda in second. Jochen Mass set the fastest lap of the race. After this single attempt, Zapico was then never heard of in F1 thereafter. The FW04 that Zapico used was not raced again until the next year when an Australian from Sydney, Bruce McGuire used the Williams (despite the fact it was 2 years old) to try and qualify as a private entrant in the 1977 British Grand Prix. He did not manage to pre-qualify. Sadly, McGuire was later killed in an accident while racing a modified version of the very same car at a national meeting at Brands Hatch.

After Formula One

After this, Zapico disappeared from the international motor racing scene, save for another one-off appearance in the 1977 ETCC round at Jarama, where with E. Ortiz he steered a Chrysler 180 to 8th overall. But in late 1983, he made a comeback when he joined the Autolodi team for the last three rounds of the ETCC: the Spa 24hrs, the Silverstone Tourist Trophy, and the round at Zolder. He drove an Alfa GTV with Rinaldo Drovandi, and they were also joined by Gianfranco Brancatelli at Spa. In those three outings, Zapico came 6th, 14th and 9th overall respectively, but won his class in all three. This was followed by six more starts in the Autolodi Alfa in 1984, sharing five times with Drovandi and once with Marco Micangeli. With a best overall result of 10th at Enna, there were also three class wins at Monza, Enna and the Osterreichring. However, he retired from the Donington round, and we are unsure of his results at Vallelunga and the Nurburgring.

One of our Russian readers, Alexey Rogachev, has alerted us to the fact that in 1984 Zapico drove a Ralt RT3 Alfa Romeo in European F3. Considering that he would have been 40 at the time, this was some feat! Lars Krone informs us that his best result was 10th at Jarama in the final round, and perhaps this, like several of his other efforts in other categories, was another one-off drive. 1985, though, saw Zapico then make four more starts in the ETCC, this time in a BMW 635CSi. At Monza he drove with Micangeli and Luigi Taverna, become coming 3rd in Austria with Micangeli. 9th at the Nurburgring was followed by a strong 5th with Maurizio Micangeli at Estoril. After that, now into his forties, Zapico drifted away from the international racing scene once again to pursue other interests. But sadly, Richard Jenkins has informed us that Emilio unfortunately passed away in August 1996 following a road accident in his native Spain.

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