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Arturo Merzario
Merzario in 2024
Born	Arturo Francesco Merzario[a] (1943-03-11)11 March 1943 (age 82) Civenna,Como,Kingdom of Italy
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Italian
Active years	1972–1979
Teams	Ferrari,Frank Williams,Fittipaldi,March,Wolf–Williams,Merzario,Shadow
Entries	85 (57 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Careerpoints	11
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1972 British Grand Prix
Last entry	1979 United States Grand Prix

Arturo Francesco "Art"Merzario^[a] (born 11 March 1943) is an Italianracing driver andmotorsport executive, who competed inFormula One from1972 to1979.

Merzario competed in Formula One forFerrari,Frank Williams,Fittipaldi,March,Wolf–Williams andShadow, before founding hiseponymous team in1977:Merzario. He participated in 85Grands Prix, scoring 11 championship points.

Merzario began his career as a test driver with worksFiat Abarths, subsequently participating to GT racing and European mountain-climb events.^[1] In 1969 he won theMugello Grand Prix in a 2-litre Abarth ahead of a field which includedNino Vaccarella andAndrea de Adamich. This brought him a drive with theFerrarisportscar team for 1970. In 1972, he won theSpa 1000 km, theTarga Florio and the Rand 9 Hour races and was also European two-litre Champion forAbarth.^[1]

Merzario made his Formula One debut in 1972, and became one of the few drivers to score points at their first race by finishing in sixth place in theBritish Grand Prix atBrands Hatch.^[2] He was the last driver whose debut team was Ferrari untilOliver Bearman in the2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. In 1973 Ferrari confirmed him for the whole season alongsideJacky Ickx. Merzario had a promising start with the old 312B2, finishing fourth in Brazil and South Africa. However, Ferrari's evolved car, the 312B3, proved to be a disappointment, and both he and Ickx struggled for the rest of the season. Deeply disappointed with the way the season had unfolded,Enzo Ferrari decided to change the whole team for the 1974 season, and Merzario moved toWilliams. After finishing third in a non-Championship race in Brazil, Merzario scored points atMonza and in South Africa. However, the Williams cars were largely uncompetitive, and in 1975, after a one-off with theCopersucar atMonza, where he finished eleventh,^[1][2] Merzario returned to sports cars withAlfa Romeo — winning four races plus the Targa Florio again.

Merzario returned to Formula One full-time in 1976, initially with the worksMarch. After a run of disappointing results — and disgruntled with his situation^[1] — he moved toWolf, who had just merged his team with Frank Williams Racing Cars, replacing Jacky Ickx; but, again, there were no decent results.During the1976 German Grand Prix,Niki Lauda crashed heavily; Merzario was one of the drivers, along withGuy Edwards,Brett Lunger andHarald Ertl who stopped to help, effectively pulling Lauda out of the burning car. 37 years later, in an interview withBBC Radio 5 linked to the release ofRush, Lauda stated that "Merzario jumped into the fire and, alone, pulled me out of the wreckage so I survived… he really saved my life there, because a couple of seconds more I would have never made it."^[3] Six weeks later after the incident, at theItalian Grand Prix, Lauda returned to race again and presented his goldRolex wristwatch to Merzario in gratitude for saving his life.

In 1977, Merzario was able to raise enough sponsors to set up his ownMerzario team. The organization struggled in modern Formula One for three years, initially withMarch 761B cars. From 1978, Merzario began building cars of his own design^[1] and the team would eventually move down toFormula Two. In three seasons, the team was only classified on one occasion — at the1977 Belgian Grand Prix atZolder — when Merzario was officially placed fourteenth. During the season, he accepted a one-off drive withShadow in the1977 Austrian Grand Prix at theÖsterreichring, but a good drive led to retirement again.^[1] Merzario continued with his own chassis for two seasons, but results were very poor; the team's cars did not qualify on the majority of occasions, and often retired from the races they did start.^[2] TheMerzario M1-BMW fared no better in Formula Two in 1980^[1] but Merzario continued to racesports cars with some success after his works Formula One career finished.^[1]

During his time in Formula One, Merzario was often photographed wearing a cowboy hat with sponsorship patches from Marlboro. This became his signature look, and Merzario still wears the hat.

Merzario began his career withAbarth in GT racing and mountain climbs;^[1] he also won the Sardinia Rally in 1963 in anAlfa Romeo Giulietta. He had several class wins throughout the 1960s; his victory in theMugello Grand Prix of 1969 led to aFerrarisports car drive. In 1970, he was third in the24 hours of Daytona and fourth in the1000 Kilometres of Monza using aFerrari 512 S. Further wins followed in 1971 atImola andVallelunga for Ferrari and Abarth, respectively.

In 1972, Merzario won the1000 Kilometres of Spa withBrian Redman in aFerrari 312 PB, won theTarga Florio alongsideSandro Munari, and made hisFormula One World Championship debut. In 1973, Merzario took second places in the1000 Kilometres of Nürburgring and atLe Mans. Merzario also won the Targa Florio in 1975 with anAlfa Romeo T33, and his career continued in sports cars and GT racing into the 1990s; he won the 1985 Italian Prototype Championship, and later campaigned successfully with aCentenari M1.

Merzario was still active insports car racing well into his sixties, driving mostly in an Italian prototype series.

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1970	SpA Ferrari SEFAC	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari 512 S	S 5.0	38	DNF	DNF
1973	SpA Ferrari SEFAC	Carlos Pace	Ferrari 312 PB	S 3.0	349	2nd	2nd
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