Mauro Baldi (born 31 January, 1954, in Reggio Emilia) is an Italian former Formula One driver who raced for the Arrows, Alfa Romeo and Spirit teams.
He started his career in rallying in 1972 and turned to circuit racing in 1975 with the Italian Renault 5 Cup. By 1980 he had become a top Formula 3 driver, winning the Monaco F3 Grand Prix and the 1981 European Formula 3 Championship with eight victories. In 1982 he signed to drive for Arrows before moving to Alfa Romeo in 1983, scoring a fifth place in Zandvoort. When Benetton became Alfa Romeo’s team sponsor in 1984, Baldi lost his drive, and joined the underfunded Spirit team until 1985.
After retiring from Formula One he went to enjoy a successful career in sports car racing, driving for the works Martini-Lancia team in 1984 and 1985. In 1986, he switched to a Porsche 956 from Richard Lloyd Racing’s outfit, returning to a works drive in 1988 with the Sauber-Mercedes team, with whom Baldi won the 1990 FIA World Sports Prototype Championship for Drivers, sharing the car with Jean-Louis Schlesser. In 1991 and 1992 he was a driver for Peugeot. He had a brief return to F1, doing most of the test driving for the Modena Lambo project.
Returning to sports cars, he won the Le Mans 24 Hours race in 1994, sharing the “road-going” Dauer 962 Le Mans (a modified Porsche 962) with Yannick Dalmas and Hurley Haywood. He also won the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring, both in 1998 with Arie Luyendyk and Didier Theys. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in Reggio Emilia, Italy, on the 31st January 1954, Mauro Baldi raced in F1 with Arrows, Alfa Romeo and Spirit though achieved great success in sports cars by winning the Triple Crown in Endurance racing.
After competing in rallying from 1972 to 1975 he turned to circuit racing in the Italian Renault 5 Cup Series and was third in 1976, taking a victory and five podiums from the 11 races. Continuing with the Renault 5 Cup, he was a double champion in 1977, taking three wins and seven podiums in the Italian Series plus two wins and four podiums in the European series, on his way to both titles. He then moved into Italian Formula 3 with a Ralt RT1-Toyota and took victory at Varano at the end of April over Siegfried Stohr’s Trivellato Racing Chevron B43. The results were reversed soon after at Misano when he came second to Stohr and in two European rounds he had a third place podium finish at the season’s final race at Vallelunga and was seventh in the final standings. 1979 saw him continue in both championships and alongside the Ralt he alternated with a March 793. There was one victory in the Italian series and he finished third in the final standings but though there were no wins in European rounds he posted fastest lap at one race plus had three podiums. He was third at Vallelunga in the opening round in March, fourth at Mugello, fifth at Enna and Misano, while his best results came with two second places at Monza races (to Mike Thackwell and Piercarlo Ghinzani’s March 793s) and then victory at Vallelunga in early October. In 1980 he joined Hugues de Chaunac’s ORECA team and was fourth in the first race at the Nurburgring with the Martini MK31. However though he started the early races with Renault power he switched to Toyota engines and the results started to come. He went on to score victories at Zandvoort, Misano and Jarama and dominated the Monaco support race from pole position, winning ahead of Michele Alborto and JL Schlesser. Other results included third at La Chartre and Mugello, fifth at Magny Cours and Kassel-Calden, seventh at Osterreichring and fourth in the final round at Zolder and his 45 points saw him fourth in the standings, behind Michele Alboreto, Thierry Boutsen and Corrado Fabi. September that year also saw a Procar BMW M1 drive with BMW Italia at the season’s final race at Imola though he did not finish. Moving on from ORECA to the Euroracing team he dominated in 1981, winning nine races through the season and the combination of a March 813, Alfa Romeo engine and Michelin tyres proved superior. The victories started with the opening round at Vallelunga and he went on to win at Ostterreichring, Zolder, Zandvoort, Silverstone, Knutstorp, Croix en Ternois, Misano and Imola. Alongside this were fifth places at the Nurburgring, sixth at Donington and La Chatre plus second place podiums at Magny-Cours, Silverstone and Jarama.
He tested for the Alfa Romeo and Toleman F1 teams during the winter but when he made his debut in the World Championship in 1982 it was with the Arrows team. It would prove to be a highly competitive season in which eleven drivers won through the sixteen races though his first race at Kyalami was a strange introduction to F1. Strike action from the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association nearly saw the first race in South Africa cancelled and at one point most of the drivers locked themselves in a hotel conference room overnight before the race finally took place. Racing the team’s Cosworth powered A4 he failed to qualify there though in the next race, the Brazilian GP at Jacarepagua, he started nineteenth and finished tenth. The following races saw non qualification at Long Beach and Monaco, plus retirements in Belgium and Detroit and he did not appear at San Marino as Arrows were one of the teams that boycotted the race (only 14 cars were entered). However he then had three consecutive finishes and took eighth in Canada, sixth at Zandvoort (after overtaking both P.Tambay and M.Alboreto on the last lap), then ninth in the British GP. He added another sixth place result at Austria in August while in the final two races he had a one-off race in an A5 at Monza and took twelfth though was back in the A4 at Las Vegas, where he finished eleventh.
In 1983 he moved to the Marlboro Alfa Romeo team alongside Andrea de Cesaris but it would be a disappointing season for him and there were retirements in the first three races though he finished tenth at San Marino and came home sixth at Monaco. Unfortunately the remainder of the year saw a number of non-finishes and in the races completed he was twelfth in America, tenth in Canada and seventh in Great Britain but did achieve his best ever F1 result in Zandvoort with fifth place. Mauro then joined the underfunded Spirit team and was nominated as the squad’s sole driver in their Hart powered 101. The car was built during the summer of 1983 and was intended to run a Honda 1.5l V6 turbo engine but when the deal never materialised the team had to adapt its car to take a Hart engine. After contesting the first six rounds, and taking eighth places at Kyalami and San Marino, Huub Rothengatter took over his seat from the Canadian GP onwards but he was able to return for the season’s final two races at the Nurburgring and Estoril, where he was eighth and fifteenth. He was back in F1 in 1985 with the Spirit squad but only did 3 races with them, unfortunately retiring with mechanical issues in Brazil and Portugal and an accident at Imola. This was his last season in F1 though he would enjoy a successful career in sports car racing, although he had already experienced the this type of racing alongside his F1 drives.
In 1982 he participated in several races with Giampiero Moretti in sports prototypes though they didn’t qualify their March 82G for the Monza 1000km. The duo switched to a Porsche 935 for the other races and took seventh with the Momo car at the Silverstone 6 Hours (and first in GTX class). They achieved a similar success with seventh (and first in Group 5) at the Spa 1000km, then were twelfth at the 1000km Mugello and fifth in the Kyalami 9 Hours.
During 1984 he contested a number of 1000km races in Martini Racing’s Lancia LC2, finishing third and fourth with Paolo Barilla at Monza and Silverstone and seventh at Brands Hatch with Pierluigi Martini and Bob Wollek. The season saw a debut at Le Mans, though he, P.Barilla and Hans Heyer retired after 275 laps with mechanical issues and in his final drive that year he and P.Martini were ninth in Jolly Club’s car. 1985 continued with Martini Racing’s LC2 alongside Bob Wollek and strong results came with fourth at Mugello and Hockenheim though when joined by Andrea de Cesaris they finished third at Brands Hatch. Returning to Le Mans, he was teamed with Henri Pescarolo and finished seventh this time, one place behind their teammates in the other Lancia. A highlight came at Spa in September with his first victory, alongside B.Wollek and Ricardo Patrese but any joy in this first international success was overshadowed as Stefan Bellof had tragically been killed during the race. Besides the Lancia drives, he and B.Wollek had two outings in the IMSA GTP Championship and finished third at Pocono and second in Columbus with Bayside Disposal Racing’s Porsche 962.
The following year saw a move to Richard Lloyd Racing and he started with a fourth place in the Liqui Moly Porsche 956 at a Nurburgring Supercup event. After a ninth place result with the car at Le Mans (with Pryce Cobb and Rob Dyson) he took second place at the Nurburgring with Klaus Niedzwiedz then victory with B.Wollek at Brands Hatch by four laps over Joest Racing’s 956. Switching to touring cars in R.A.S Sport’s Volvo 240 he competed in several events, including the Spa 24 Hours, and his best results were seventh and fifth at Jarama and Estoril alongside Per Gunnar Andersson. Richard Lloyd’s team replaced their 956 with a 962 for the 1987 season but after finishing eighth with Jonathan Palmer in the 360km Jarama there were retirements at 1000km rounds at Jerez, Monza and Silverstone. However, he was impressive in June at the Norisring in winning the 200 Mile race with J.Palmer plus racing alone at the same meeting he also won a Supercup event. He and Johnny Dumfries came home second at Brands Hatch while in three final races he and J.Palmer were fifth at the Nurburgring 1000km, though retired at Spa, and he and Mike Thackwell closed off the season with a third at Fuji. The results earned them fifth in the Teams’ Championship and Mauro finished joint eighth in the Drivers Championship. There was a return to the Spa 24 Hours event in August, this time in a BMW M3, though he, Gianfranco Brancatelli and Johnny Cecotto did not finish and he was back in Japan in November to race a Rover Vitesse and Toyota Supra in a World Touring Car Championship round at Fuji, alongside Taku Akaike and Eje Elgh. At the end of that month, he and Geoff Lees teamed for an All Japan Sports Prototype Championship round at Fuji though the Tom’s Toyota 87C retired with engine problems.
Now an established sports car driver, for 1988 he ran a double programme, competing with Busby Racing’s Porsche 962C in North America and with the Sauber Mercedes C9 in the World Sportscar Championship. In its first season in 1987 the Sauber C9 had not enjoyed a lot of success though the car’s speed potential was made clear when Johnny Dumfries set a lap record at Le Mans before retiring with gearbox failure.
Mike Thackwell also took pole position at Spa and Jo Schlesser won the final race of the year, the non-championship Nurburgring Supercup. Mauro’s first race in 1988 was in the 962 in an IMSA event, the Daytona 24 Hours, and would prove a memorable race.
He was teamed with B.Wollek and Brian Redman in a BF Goodrich sponsored car and they finished second to the Tom Walkinshaw Racing-prepared Jaguar XJR-9. Despite having never raced at Daytona, Mauro claimed pole position at lmin 38.917sec and his average of 129 mph was only fractionally slower than that set two years earlier by Sarel van der Merwe in a Chevrolet (Lola) Corvette GTP. Jan Lammers, who had experience of the track, recorded the second best time of 1min 39.362sec but after seeing the scraped paintwork on his Jaguar, where he had brushed the banking’s concrete retaining wall, he declared “Thank God I didn’t have to lift off.” While Brian Redman was in the car he was put off the road by a slower car and the damage to the nose panel supports meant that the Porsche required frequent repairing and finished the race wearing its fifth front end. The fact that the car lasted so long, and posed such a threat to the Jaguars for 23 hours, surprised onlookers and sheer determination kept the team going. Brian had a rear tyre blow (while braking from 210mph past the pits) after touching a Jaguar on the banking, and did a full lap showering sparks from the rim. Later, while running behind the pace car he crossed the grass at relatively low speed, with the nose panel waving in the wind, and headed for the pits. Mauro climbed on board, exhorting “C’mon, let’s go, let’s go” as more tape was applied but on his first lap he also had a trip over the grass. Unfortunately in the last hour the driver’s door finally blew away and they had to concede victory to the M.Brundle/R.Boesel/J.Nielsen Jaguar. Further outings with the 962 came at Miami and Palm Beach though their best results were fourth and fifth at Watkins Glen and Mid-Ohio, then third at Columbus in October. Racing for Sauber, he scored his first win in the opening round at Jerez, sharing with Jean-Louis Schlesser and Jochen Mass. He followed this with podiums at Jarama, Monza, Silverstone, Brands Hatch, Sandown (plus racing alone in a Supercup event at Diepholz), fourth at Brno, and victory with Stefan Johansson at the Spa 1000km and the results saw J.Schlesser, Mauro and J.Mass finish second, third and fifth in the driver’s championship. Sauber dominated in 1989 and the silver cars were victorious in seven out of eight races, with Mauro winning three times. Unfortunately he sustained injuries in a nasty crash in the first race at Daytona in a Momo/Gebhardt Porsche, caused by hydraulic fluid leaking from a rear caliper. He suffered a broken ankle and though it could have been much worse it jeopardised the start of his season with the Sauber Mercedes team. The first WWSPC race was at Suzuka in early April though after having his broken bones pinned the doctors forecast him to be in plaster for two months. He not only returned at Suzuka but went on to take victory with JL.Schlesser and in the following month he and Kenny Acheson finished third at Dijon. In further pairings with K.Acheson they were fifth at Jarama, second at Nurburgring and Donington and had victories at Brands Hatch and Spa. At Le Mans the M.Baldi/K.Acheson/G.Brancatelli C9 recorded a speed of 400 km/h (248 mph) on the Mulsanne Straight during qualifying. Despite this, the sister car of JL.Schlesser/JP.Jabouille/A.Cudini qualified on pole though at the end of 24 Hours it was the J.Mass/M.Reuter/S.Dickens Sauber which took the flag, followed by Mauro’s car. In the season’s final classification, he was in third place behind teammates JL.Schlesser and J.Mass. 1990 would be his final season with Sauber but the year started in America with a one off outing in a BF Goodrich/Miller Nissan GTP ZX-T at Daytona with Kevin Cogan and John Paul Jr. Back with Sauber, he was reunited with JL Schlesser and the team were running a Mercedes-Benz C11 though the C9 had a final outing at Suzuka’s opening round and took the victory. The C11 was actually present at Suzuka but did not race as the team had to revert to the older car on race day after the new car suffered a crash during practice. The C11 raced at the second round at Monza and Mauro and Jochen Mass qualified 1–2, with Mauro almost two seconds clear of Mercedes’ nearest competitors and they finished first and second. After the wins at Suzuka and Monza, the C11 won all but one race through the rest of the season, easily taking the 1990 team’s championship, with Mauro taking four consecutive victories at Dijon, Nurburgring, Donington and Montreal. The only blemishes on an almost perfect season came at Silverstone, when the car suffered a rare engine failure while leading and they were disqualified at Mexico for using more than the allowed amount of fuel. Although the team had triumphed at Le Mans in the previous year, they chose not to defend the title this year as the race was not part of that year’s World Sports-Prototype Championship schedule. Speaking about the C11, he rated it as “probably the best prototype I ever drove..only one of the cars from my career that I ever wanted to own. The C11 was the first car that was really enjoyable to drive after I left Formula 1. It gave you the same feeling as an F1 car. You could really drive it.” The car inspired such confidence that he took Eau Rouge flat on the way to pole position for the Spa race. During this period he had a brief involvement in F1, when he test drove the Modena-‘Lambo’ car in late 1990. Mercedes withdrew from endurance racing at the end of the season and he then spent the next two years with Peugeot. He had a victorious opening race in 1991, winning at Suzuka with Philippe Alliot in the 905 though there were no other wins and his best results were second at Magny Cours and Mexico City. His return to Le Mans would be a frustrating one as he, P.Alliot and Jean-Pierre Jabouille, retired after just 22 laps and at season’s end he was third in the championship. Continuing with P.Alliot for his second season, they took victories at Donington and Magny-Cours, plus a podium at Suzuka, and there was another third place finish in the Championship. They were joined again at Le Mans by JP Jabouille though after the previous year’s early retirement on this occasion brought the car home home in third place. His only outing in the 905 in 1993 came when the trio returned to Le Mans one more time, with them again finishing third and his only other race that year was in a Peugeot 405 Mi 16 in an Italian Super Touring Car Championship round at Enna, finishing sixth.
He returned to sports car racing in America in 1994, competing with Euromotorsport’s Ferrari 333 SP in IMSA Championship rounds at Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen and Lime Rock and while in America he had a one-off appearance in August in the Indy Car World Series, driving for Payton/Coyne Racing at Mid-Ohio. Back in Europe, after coming close to success at Le Mans with second in 1989 and third in 1992 and 1993 he finally took the top podium step. Sharing the winning Dauer 962LM with Yannick Dalmas and Hurley Haywood they took the chequered flag by a lap from the second placed Toyota, closely followed by the other Dauer. Continuing racing a Ferrari 333SP in America over the following two seasons for Scandia, he took victory with Fermin Velez at Halifax and podiums at Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen, Mosport plus third when running solo at Phoenix. He came close to victory in the following season’s Sebring 12 Hours when racing alongside Andy Evans and Michele Alboreto. There was a return to European racing in 1997 with Konrad Motorsports and JB Racing Porsche 911 GT1s, plus several outings with the car in America and at Suzuka, though there were no wins or podiums.
Then came two impressive additions to his sports car CV at the start of 1998, first taking the Daytona 24 Hours in the 333 SP with team owner Giampiero Moretti, Didier Theys and Arie Luyendyk. This was followed by triumph at the Sebring 12 Hours with G.Moretti and D.Theys and in doing so Mauro joined the select list of drivers who had taken the Triple Crown of endurance racing. In June he took another class podium at Le Mans, finishing fourteenth overall and third in LMP1 plus had a victory and second place at Watkins Glen and Homestead. In his only non-Ferrari outing he raced at the Vallelunga 6 Hours with Franz Konrad and Battistino Pregliasco in Konrad Racing’s Porsche 911 GT2. Continuing with the Ferrari over the next few years, in 1999 he contested several different championships, the US Road Racing Championship, American Le Mans Series and Sports Racing World Cup. He took a victory with Laurent Redon at Spa and podiums at Barcelona, Monza, Pergusa with the JB Giesse Team and second in Doran Racing’s car at Road Atlanta with D.Theys. Unfortunately at Le Mans he, Jerome Policand and Christian Pescatori retired after 71 laps due to gearbox failure.
Following this came several seasons for the Doran team in America plus with the R&M team in Europe. His best results with the 333 SP came with wins at Homestead and Road America (with Didier Theys and Fredy Lienhard) while racing R&M’s Riley & Scott Mk111 with Gary Formato in Sports Racing World Cup rounds they took a win at Monza plus second and third at Barcelona and Brno. June that year saw his last participation at Le Mans, running alongside John Nielsen and Klaus Graf in Team Den Bla Avis’s Panoz LMP1 Roadster, though they were not classified in the final standings. In 2001 and 2002 he contested the Grand-Am Rolex Series and the FIA Sportscar Championship. In his first year, teamed with D.Theys and F.Lienhard his best results were two wins for Lista Doreen at Watkins Glen and Road America plus podiums at Lime Rock, Mid Ohio and Watkins Glen. In a change from the Ferrari, at the start of the year the team used a Crawford SSCSK in the Daytona test and three races and he finished third in the 250 Mile Homestead race. In European outings results were not as strong and there were retirements at Monza, Spa, Nurburgring (with Ivan Capelli and Alex Caffi) and their finishes brought seventh at Mondello Park, ninth at Magny-Cours and Donington and third at Brno. February 2002 saw him take the Daytona 24 Hour for a second time, in a Dallara SP1, together with D.Theys, F.Lienhard and Max Papis. He and D.Theys followed this with victory in their following race, the Homestead 250 Mile, though the only other strong finish came in September with second at a Virginia 500 Mile event. Racing the Judd powered R&M SR01 in Europe he and Vincenzo Sospiri were fifth at Estoril and took three third placed positions at Brno, Magny Cours and Spa.
In what would be his last season of racing, he started 2003 with eleventh at Daytona, alongside Justin Keen, Eric van de Poele and Ryan Hampton in Ferri Competition’s Ferrari 360 Modena. There was a gap of four months until his next outing in June when he was fourth at Monza in the SR01 with Filippo Francioni and Ezio Mazza while his final official race would come back in Canada at the ALMS Mosport round. Mosport saw him racing the Ferri Competizione/Ferrari Maserati of Ontario 360 though the team had had only 10 days to get ready for the race. At one point they were running second in their class although they were hampered by a long pit stop and they eventually finished sixteenth overall and seventh in class. Mauro then wound down his career at the non-championship 6 hours of Vallelunga in November in a Simpson Ferrari F40 with Fabio Montani and Richard Jones though they retired from the race.
