Miguel Ángel Guerra (born 31 August 1953 in Buenos Aires) is a former racing driver from Argentina.
He participated in four Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 15 March 1981. He qualified for only one of these, the 1981 San Marino Grand Prix, in which his Osella was hit by the March of Eliseo Salazar on the first lap. Guerra’s car hit a wall, and he suffered a broken wrist and ankle. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in Buenos Aires on August 31st 1953, Miguel started racing at the age of 18. Under the guidance of Renault importer and tuner Osvaldo Antelo, he contested his first Argentine Formula 4 race in 1971 in Nueve de Julio. He passed a number of cars in at one corner though the stewards alleged he had passed them under yellow flags! However, he became a regular with his Crispi-Renault in Argentine Formula 4 and in his first full season in 1972 he finished second in the championship. In the following season he again finished second though went on to dominate the championship, taking the Argentine F4 titles in 1974 and 1975.
In 1974, Miguel had also competed in the Argentine Formula 2 Championship and finished second. In 1975, alongside taking his second F4 title, he also won his first Formula 2 championship. His performances improving, he would take the championship again in 1976 and 1977 and during this time had also begun to drive in the Argentine Formula 1 series. The Formula 1 Mecanica Argentina was a series for F1 single-seaters with 3-to-4-litre engines. The championship was a very competitive one and Miguel made his debut racing a Berta in 197, scoring three victories and seven podiums in nine races.
He then decided to move to Europe and after finding sponsorship, set off on a plane to Italy. With few connections, he began looking for a drive and this came with Scuderia Emiliani, a small Italian team making their first appearance in F3. May 1978 saw him on the grid at Imola for the European F3 Championship with a Wolf-Toyota, and after qualifying fourth in his heat he finished fifth. In the final, he started ninth and bought the car home in seventh place, behind eventual champion Jan Lammers.
Two drivers he beat (G.Bagnara and M.Micangeli) were driving for Scuderia Everest, owned by Giancarlo Minardi and, impressed by his performance on a track he had never driven before, he offered Miguel a drive for the rest of the season. Soon after he made his European F2 debut at Mugello in a Scuderia Everest Chevron-BMW and finished sixteenth of twenty three finishers. During the season Miguel was promoted to lead driver after E.de Angelis left the team and he later had a seventh place finish at Donington. Late in the year he also competed in a race in Buenos Aires, where he finished seventh.
His Donington performance led to an invitation to Maranello to discuss engine development and during a meeting with Enzo Ferrari, Miguel jokingly asked about the chance of testing a Ferrari in the future. Enzo reportedly replied, “You never know…”
Staying with the team, who were using a March chassis for 1979 (occasionally joined by C.Regazzoni, G.Brancatelli and F.Ponti) the performance gains saw him qualify in the top ten at Silverstone. Starting from sixth in Hockenheim, he finished an excellent third (behind K.Rosberg and R.Dougall) and further results included fourth and sixth place finishes at Thruxton and Pau.
Giancarlo Minardi’s partnership with Fiat dealer Piero Mancini (who would later create Motori Moderni) led to sufficient backing for Scuderia Everest to become a manufacturer in its own right. The first Minardi was BMW powered and proved to be reliable (four retirements in 16 starts) and Miguel himself proved consistent, finishing nine of eleven races.
Before this he had done testing for Osella who were preparing for a return to Formula Two and then graduated to F1 in 1980. In 1981 Osella prepared a second entry, but E.Cheever had signed for Tyrrell, so, following on from his Formula Two tests Miguel was suggested to race alongside Beppe Gabbiani. By February, a deal had been secured but unfortunately, due to time restraints, he only had the time to carry out a straight-line shakedown at a Turin airfield before the cars travelled to the first race at Long Beach. By the time he arrived for his debut GP, he had not yet turned a corner in anger and did not qualify.
The next race was Brazil but frustratingly the team team only sent one engineer to the race (who allegedly stayed in his hotel room from Saturday onwards due to the heat). Unsurprisingly, he never qualified though hopes were high for his home race in Argentina. Despite qualifying ahead of his team mate, they never qualified and in a later interview with Motor Sport Magazine, he recalled “In those days you needed good ground effects, and Osella and I simply could not get the best out of the FA1B in this respect.” Then came the San Marino Grand Prix and the team had installed a hydro-pneumatic suspension system. However, the race scrutineers were against these systems, with Lotus being banned from the weekend and posted observers around the track to report unusual ride heights. They eventually allowed the systems and in qualifying they were ahead of ATS and Toleman and Miguel was ready to make his first start. At the start, all the drivers got away cleanly but at Tamburello, Eliseo Salazar made contact with him and his car went head-on into the wall. After being released from the wreckage he spent the night at Enzo Osella’s home then went to the hospital where it was found he had a double fracture of his left ankle. Fortunately surgery was not required for his injuries and he was expected to return to the cockpit for the French Grand Prix but it never happened. Osella signed Jean-Pierre Jarier as a replacement and Miguel did not return to Formula One.
After his rehabilitation, he tested for Minardi’s F2 team again (their drivers being Johnny Cecotto and Michele Alboreto) and he had a drive late in the year at Misano. He qualified 16th, ahead of teammates Cecotto and Farnetti, and went on to finish thirteenth.
He continued looking for drives in Europe after his recovery, but his sponsorship budget was much reduced due to a worsening economic crisis in Argentina. Finding there were only a few part-time F2 drives available, he returned to Argentina and resumed his Formula 2 racing. Racing a Berta-Renault, he took four podiums, a strong victory at Concordia, plus three fastest laps but this was the final season of Argentine F2. A new continental series was created, Codasur, and in the two exhibition races held in 1982. Miguel won the first one in Taruma, Brazil. He did not compete in the first few races of this championship but after testing a new Berta-Renault, was on the grid for the following race in Rafaela. He scored two podiums in his first four races and finished the season with victory and fastest lap in Buenos Aires. Although he only competed half of the races, he finished sixth and the following season, he took wins in Rafaela and San Juan on his way to second place.
Continuing in Codasur in 1985 with his UFO-sponsored Berta-Renault, he scored four podiums but his improved performances in the following year saw victories at Florianópolis and Buenos Aires. Threre were also three other podiums and he was third in the championship. In 1987 Formula 3 Sudamericana was created in 1987, and after taking a second place in the season’s final race at Villa Carlos Paz, he decided to end his open-wheel career.
After previously contesting some Argentine TC2000 touring car series, from 1988 he decided to race in TC2000. Racing a Renault Fuego, he had a third place on his debut and went on to score two more podiums that year plus won in Balcarce. In 1989, there were victories in San Jorge and Pigue, and a number of podiums, and he regularly finished well. He was second in the final race in Mendoza which gave him the TC2000 title. Miguel continued in TC2000 for several more years and after racing Renaults, switched to Ford and Volkswagen in 1991. There was a fourth place finish in 1991 and a race win, but he changed to a Peugeot and returned to form in 1996, achieving two pole positions, two wins and four podiums.
He competed in 1997’s South American Super Touring Championship, racing for Ford, Chevrolet and Honda, then signed to race INI Competicion team’s Chevrolet Vectra. In the following year he set up his own team, with a Peugeot, and there were numerous top ten finishes and a victory in Olavarría. During the 1990s he had won invitational races in the Turismo Carretera series so he moved into the series in 2000 and had podiums in Olavarría and Buenos Aires with a Chevrolet Nova.
He continued to race into 2001 but then decided to end his career and after retiring, became vice-president of the Top Race championship (an Argentine touring car championship) in 2004. The series saw a change to become Top Race V6 in 2005 and two junior categories were formed, and he remained vice-president until retirement in 2014. Miguel’s son Lucas Ariel won the Top Race Series in 2014 and competes in Top Race V6.
Miguel still occasionally competes in races for veteran drivers and in 2016 attended the Minardi Day in Imola; he was the first to drive a Minardi in F2. He declared it a very special day for him and enjoyed meeting people that had not seen in a long time, sharing the day with Giovanni Lavaggi, Pier Luigi Martíni, Gianni Morbidelli, Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli and Tarso Marques among others. It was also a very special feeling to have shared it with his son Lucas.
