Giorgio Scarlatti (2 October 1921 – 26 July 1990) was a racing driver from Italy.
He participated in 15 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 13 May 1956.
Scarlatti’s best season in Formula One was as a works Maserati driver in 1957, when he finished sixth in the Pescara Grand Prix, narrowly missing out on the points-scoring positions when he was overtaken in the latter stages by Stuart Lewis-Evans. He later scored his only championship point when Harry Schell took over the Italian’s Maserati 250F during the Italian Grand Prix and finished fifth. Info from Wiki
Giorgio Scarlatti: 1958 Formula One Season By Jeremy McMullen
By the mid-1950s, Giorgio Scarlatti star was on the rise in the sportscar ranks as his steady driving style would earn him a number of top results in very difficult races. That reputation would help the privateer earn a ride with the factory Maserati team for the 1957 season. Results would be strong. However, with Maserati’s withdrawal at the end of the season, Scarlatti would be left with just one proposition—going it alone.
Giorgio Scarlatti was born in late 1921 in Rome, Italy. He would be in his early twenties was the Second World War was really just beginning. This would steal some years from his life. However, when the war came to an end, he wouldn’t take too long figuring out what he wanted to do with his time and energy as he would take a Cisitalia and would enter the Coppa della Toscana in 1950—one of his earliest races.
The results would not come right away. But, in 1954, Scarlatti would come through to finish 2nd in class in the Giro di Sicilia in early April of that year. It would be his first major result and it would be just the beginning of a career that would really begin to heat up come 1955 and 1956.
Class victories in races like the Mille Miglia and the Targa Florio would earn him a place within the factory Maserati team in Formula One. Scarlatti would actually make his first appearance in Formula One in 1956 as a privateer entry driving an old Ferrari 500. Unfortunately, he would not qualify in his first race, which was intended to be the Monaco Grand Prix.
However, Scarlatti would earn a ride with Scuderia Centro Sud at the German Grand Prix later that year. And, while he would make it into that race, his Ferrari 500 would again let him down and he would be forced to retire.
Nevertheless, his talents and success in sportscars would be more than enough to earn him a place with Officine Alfieri Maserati for 1957. Following an early retirement in the Monaco Grand Prix, his first effort with the team, he would go on a streak finishing each of his three remaining races. At the German Grand Prix he would come away 10th. He would quickly improve with a 6th place result at Pescara. Then, at the Italian Grand Prix at the end of the year, he and Harry Schell would combine to earn a 5th place result—his first World Championship points.
Unfortunately for Scarlatti, he, like many others, would be left with helmet in hand after Maserati’s decision to withdraw from motorsport. Mercedes-Benz had done this a couple of years earlier but there were factory efforts, like Maserati, ready to offer drivers rides. However, the options after Maserati bowed out were fewer in number and increasingly British.
Scarlatti was a known quantity in sportscars. Unfortunately, what was known about him was that he was a solid driver lacking outright speed. This wasn’t such a liability in endurance sportscar racing where a steady and reliable pace was as important as going as fast as possible. But, in Formula One, lacking speed was a death knell.
Therefore, it was not at all surprising that Scarlatti would be left on his own heading into the 1958 season. He was certainly a fantastic driver. His results in races like the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio and the Giro di Sicilia were undisputable. But his best result of 5th place in a shared drive with Harry Schell, while his Maserati teammate Fangio was going on to win the World Championship, was also undeniable.
Thankfully for Scarlatti, even though Maserati pulled out of Formula One as a factory effort, they still supplied cars and parts to customers throughout the 1958 season. This meant Scarlatti could get his hands on a Maserati 250F easily enough.
In early 1958, there were a couple of Maserati 250Fs available for Giorgio to purchase. There was one in particular that seemed ideal for Scarlatti if he was to make a go of Formula One by himself again. Back in 1956, he had used a much older Ferrari 500 to make his first forays into Formula One. The car was too outdated to give him much of a shot. He wasn’t about to go down that road again, and, thankfully, he would not have to.
There was a 250F that would catch Scarlatti’s eye. Not only was it a newer 250F, it was also a rather successful one. In fact, one could say it was a legendary car that should not have been able to race again. The reason for this is simple. It was chassis 2529. It was the same chassis in which Fangio had earned victory in the Argentine and French Grand Prix. However, it was also the same chassis that delivered the historic and legendary German Grand Prix for Fangio. This is the same car that reset the lap record around the Nurburgring lap after lap in an effort to haul in the two leading Ferraris. It would be the same chassis that not only delivered the win, but the fifth, and final, World Championship to Fangio. This was a museum piece. And it would now be in Scarlatti’s hands.
It is highly doubtful Giorgio had an illusions concerning the car; thinking that just because he drove a car Fangio had driven and had achieved so much success that he would do the same. However, what certainly had to be on the fore of his mind was the simple fact it was a newer Maserati 250F, a proven one on top of that. This is just what he needed it order to go it alone. He needed a fast and proven car to help his chances.
Armed with his legendary Maserati, Scarlatti would look toward the start of his 1958 Formula One campaign. He had already started his sportscar season, which would include a 10th place result in the infamous Gran Premio de Cuba. But while his sportscar season had already gotten underway, it wouldn’t be until the middle of April that his single-seater campaign would begin.
That first race of the season would come on the 13th of April and would come near his native Rome. Though Scarlatti would be in South America at the start of the 1958 season, his Formula One season would begin just across the small stretch of the Mediterranean from Italy. The race was the 8th Gran Premio di Siracusa.
The Syracuse Grand Prix would take place just outside the ancient city amongst the rolling countryside. The circuit would be comprised of public roads and streets. It would be a fast circuit with average speeds at the time reaching upwards of 100mph per lap.
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