Bruno Giacomelli

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bruno Giacomelli
150
Nationality  Flag of Italy Italian
Formula One World Championship career
Active years 1977 - 1983, 1990
Teams McLaren, Alfa Romeo, Toleman, Life
Races 82 (69 starts)
Championships 0
Wins 0
Podium finishes    1
Career points 14
Pole positions 1
Fastest laps 0
First race 1977 Italian Grand Prix
Last race 1990 Spanish Grand Prix

Bruno Giacomelli (born September 10, 1952) is a former racing driver from Italy.

He won one of the two 1976 British Formula Three Championships and the 1978 Formula Two championship. He participated in 82 Formula One grands prix, debuting on September 11, 1977. He achieved 1 podium, and scored a total of 14 championship points.

Contents

[edit] Formula Two and Formula Three

Giacomelli led from start to finish in a March Engineering Toyota in the 1976 Monaco Formula Three Monaco Grand Prix support race. His average speed was 74.84 miles per hour.[1] Giacomelli retired from the Formula Two Pau Grand Prix in May 1977, after his car made contact with one driven by Jacques Laffitte.[2] However he managed to score three F2 wins in 1977, at Vallelunga, Mugello and Donington Park and finished fifth in the championship. Giacomelli dominated the following season, winning eight of the 12 races on his way to the title and beating runner up Marc Surer by 29 points. Giacomelli retained his Formula Two points lead with a third place finish in the Mugello Grand Prix at Florence, Italy, in May 1978. The race was won by Derek Daly in a Chevron Cars Ltd entry.[3] At the 1978 Grand Prix de Rouen Giacomelli solidified his lead in the European Driver's Championship for the Formula Two division. He drove a March to victory after starting from the pole.[4]

[edit] Formula One

Giacomelli made his first foray into F1 driving a handful of races for the McLaren team in 1977 and 1978, with a best finish of seventh in the 1978 British Grand Prix. After winning the European F2 title, he switched to Alfa Romeo for their return to building F1 cars in 1979. Alfa only entered their 177 and 179 cars in a handful of events that year, and Giacomelli could only achieve a best of 17th place in the 1979 French Grand Prix. However the following year the team looked more promising. Giacomelli earned a surprise 6th qualifying position for Alfa Romeo at Brands Hatch for the 1980 British Grand Prix.[5] Giacomelli posted a third place qualifying time for the 1980 Italian Grand Prix at Imola. Three of his six mechanics sustained injuries on the Friday before the race, when their helicopter crashed en route to the track.[6] He won the pole position for the 1980 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, New York in his Alfa Romeo. Giacomelli improved on his opening day time by 1.25 seconds, with a time of 1 minute 33.29 seconds over the 3.37 mile track.[7] However despite these flashes of speed the car was severely unreliable - Giacomelli only managed to finish three of the season's fourteen races, although two of his finishes were fifth places at the season-opening 1980 Argentine Grand Prix and the 1980 German Grand Prix, thus netting him four points and placing him 16th in the drivers' championship. In 1981 the car was somewhat more reliable, with Giacomelli being a classified finisher in eight of the season's 15 races - however he struggled to achieve good results until the end of the year, with a fourth and a third in the season-ending Canadian and Las Vegas Grands Prix respectively - the latter was Giacomelli's only podium finish in F1, and he achieved his best ever championship finish by ending up 15th in the drivers' standings. For 1982 Alfa introduced their new Alfa Romeo 182 to replace the ageing 179, however the new chassis proved to be unreliable in the first half of the season. In the second half it was reliable enough to allow Giacomelli to finish all but two of the races, however the year only yielded one points finish for him with a fifth in Germany.Giacomelli was eliminated at the start of the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder when his Alfa Romeo collided with the two ATS cars of Eliseo Salazar and Manfred Winkelhock.[8] Alfa recruited Mauro Baldi to partner Andrea de Cesaris for the 1983 Formula One season and Giacomelli joined Toleman. Giacomelli was outperformed by his team-mate Derek Warwick, though he did manage to pick up a final F1 point at the 1983 European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch.

[edit] CART

He made 11 starts in CART in 1984 and 1985, 10 of which were for Patrick Racing. His best finish was a 5th place on the Meadowlands street course in 1985. He attempted but failed to qualify for the 1984 Indianapolis 500.

After his time in CART, Giacomelli drifted away from top line racing. However, in 1989 he re-emerged as an occasional test driver for the March Leyton House team, and in 1990 he attempted a full season with the Life team. Featuring an outdated chassis and a terrible (though innovative) W12 engine, the Life team was a disaster and Giacomelli failed to make it beyond pre-qualifying.

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 WDC Points
1977 Team McLaren McLaren Ford ARG BRA RSA USW ESP MON BEL SWE FRA GBR GER AUT NED ITA
Ret
USA CAN JPN - 0
1978 Team McLaren McLaren Ford ARG BRA RSA USW MON BEL
8
ESP SWE FRA
Ret
GBR
7
GER AUT NED
Ret
ITA
14
USA CAN 23rd 0
1979 Autodelta Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo ARG BRA RSA USW ESP BEL
Ret
MON FRA
17
GBR GER AUT NED ITA
Ret
CAN USA
Ret
31st 0
1980 Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo ARG
5
BRA
13
RSA
Ret
USW
Ret
BEL
Ret
MON
Ret
FRA
Ret
GBR
Ret
GER
5
AUT
Ret
NED
Ret
ITA
Ret
CAN
Ret
USA
Ret
16th 4
1981 Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo USW
Ret
BRA
NC
ARG
10
SMR
Ret
BEL
9
MON
Ret
ESP
10
FRA
15
GBR
Ret
GER
15
AUT
Ret
NED
Ret
ITA
8
CAN
4
LVS
3
15th 7
1982 Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo RSA
11
BRA
Ret
USW
Ret
SMR
Ret
BEL
Ret
MON
Ret
USE
Ret
CAN
Ret
NED
11
GBR
7
FRA
9
GER
5
AUT
Ret
SUI
12
ITA
Ret
LVS
10
22nd 2
1983 Toleman Toleman Hart BRA
Ret
USW
Ret
FRA
13
SMR
Ret
MON
DNQ
BEL
8
USE
9
CAN
Ret
GBR
Ret
GER
Ret
AUT
Ret
NED
13
ITA
7
EUR
6
RSA
Ret
19th 1
1990 Life Life Life USA BRA SMR
DNPQ
MON
DNPQ
CAN
DNPQ
MEX
DNPQ
FRA
DNPQ
GBR
DNPQ
GER
DNPQ
HUN
DNPQ
BEL
DNPQ
ITA
DNPQ
- 0
Life Life Judd POR
DNPQ
ESP
DNPQ
JPN AUS
Sporting positions
Preceded by
None
British Formula Three Championship
BRDC Series Champion

1976
Succeeded by
Stephen South
Preceded by
René Arnoux
European Formula Two Champion
1978
Succeeded by
Marc Surer


[edit] References

  1. ^ Auto Racing, Syracuse Herald Journal, May 30, 1976, Page 72.
  2. ^ G. Prix Won By Arnoux, Victoria, Texas Advocate, May 31, 1977, Page 13
  3. ^ Auto Racing, Syracuse Herald Journal, May 29, 1978, Page 21.
  4. ^ Sports Briefs, Syracuse Herald Journal, June 19, 1978, Page 25.
  5. ^ French teams dominate, Syracuse Herald Journal, July 13, 1980, Page 46.
  6. ^ Andretti May Drive for a New Team, Syracuse Post Standard, Page 15.
  7. ^ Formula Ones Go crazy at the Glen, Syracuse Herald-American, October 5, 1980, Page D13.
  8. ^ Watson Wins Grand Prix, Syracuse Post Standard, May 10, 1982, Page 25.