Paul Madder photography
Arturo Francesco “Art” Merzario (born 11 March 1943 in Civenna, Como) (erroneously registered as Arturio on his birth certificate) is a racing driver from Italy.
He participated in 85 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 15 July 1972. He scored 11 championship points. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Arturo Merzario began his career as a test driver with works Fiat Abarths, subsequently competing in GTs and hillclimbs events during the late 1960s. In 1969 he won the Mugello Grand Prix in a 2-litre Abarth (ahead of drivers including Nino Vaccarella and Andrea de Adamich) and this led to a works Ferrari contract for 1970.
In 1972, he won the Spa 1000 km, the Targa Florio and the Rand 9 Hour races and was also European 2 Litre Sports Car Champion for Abarth, taking victories in the Abarth Osella SE021/72 in the Grand prix de Dijon, the Martini international trophy at Siverstone and the Coppa Citta at Enna-Pergusa. The year would also see him make his Formula One debut for Ferrari at the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. The team called him up to replace an injured Clay Regazzoni and after qualifying ninth he went on to finish sixth, followed by twelfth at the next race, in Germany.
Ferrari signed him for the full season for 1973, alongside Jacky Ickx. He had a promising start, finishing fourth in Brazil and South Africa and later in the season he had seventh place finishes in France and Austria. At that year’s Le Mans race, he and Carlos Pace finished second in a Ferrari 312PB.
For 1974 he joined Frank Williams’ Iso-Marlboro team and took third place in a non-championship race in Brazil and later took points with sixth at Kyalami (where he had qualified third) and fourth in Monza. Competing in endurance racing that year for Alfa Romeo, he (and Mario Andretti) won the Monza 1000Kms in the Alfa Romeo T33TT/12.
He stayed with Williams for 1975 but it would prove to be a disappointing season and also had a one-off drive for Copersucar in Italy, where he finished eleventh. He also returned to race for Alfa Romeo and won the Targa Florio again (with N.Vaccarella) plus had four victories with the Willi Kauhsen Racing Team at Dijon, Monza, the Nurbrugring (all with J.Laffite) and Pergusa (with J.Mass).
His F1 career was rather sporadic during this period, racing an Ovoro March 761 and drives for Walter Wolf Racing in 1976. While driving the Wolf during 1976’s German GP at the Nurburgring, Niki Lauda crashed his Ferrari at high speed, with the car bursting into flames, and Brett Lunger, Harald Ertl. Arturo and Guy Edwards all helped to rescue him from the fire.
In 1977, he raced a March 761B as Team Merzario, his best result being fourteenth at Belgium and there was one race for Shadow in Austria. 1978 and 1979 saw him contest both seasons as Team Merzario but unfortunately there were no points, or finishes, in these two years with his Ford Cosworth powered Merzario A1, A1B, A2 and A4 cars.
Besides his F1 and sports car racing, between 1971 and 1981 there were entries into a number of F2 races, for teams including Racing Team IRIS Techno (1971), Osella (1974, 1975 and 1976), Fred Opert Racing (1977), ICI Chevron Cars (in 1978, achieving his best results in F2, with sixth at Mugello and fifth at Misano). He competed in 1980 and 1981 with his own team, and a ninth at Pau in 1980 was his best result.
Also during 1980 he competed as BMW Italia Team Merzario in the M1 Procar series.
After 1981 he concentrated on team management and ran a March 812-BMW for Piero Necchi, who took third at Mugello and Pau for Team Merzario. Over the years he continued to race in national sports cars and drove in the Porsche Supercup support race at 2006’s Italian GP and there have been regular appearances and drives at historic motor race events.
