Our new puzzle: Racing Rarities – It just didn’t work

Mostly drawn from the archives of our photo partners XPB and Grand Prix Photo, every week from Tuesday we present a little piece of motorsport history. Tell us who you can recognise (Example: Jo Siffert, Monza, 1970) and join in the guessing game for the honour of it – there’s nothing to be won. Send your answer to: mathias.brunner@speedweek.com. The closing date for entries is midnight on Sunday of the current week.

Entry is free of charge. The competition is open to anyone aged 18 or over. Employees of the participating companies are excluded. The decision is final.

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For the new puzzle: a driver and a car – two big names in Formula 1 – but they’ve never been paired together, nor has the country of this circuit been matched with the name of the World Championship race.

Our clue for the final task was: The driver shouldn’t be a problem (after all, his name is on the car), and the car manufacturer shouldn’t pose any difficulties for our puzzle-solvers either. This time, we want to know: Where and when was this photo taken, and why was the car driven in this configuration?

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Answer: Arturo Merzario lost the rear wing of his Ferrari 312 B3 during the 1973 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. Naturally, the balance was completely off, the car was oversteering terribly, so the Italian brought his car into the pits and asked the mechanics to remove the front wing. Naturally, the car wasn’t particularly fast without the wings, but the brave Arturo managed to bring it home in 16th place, four laps behind the winner, Ronnie Peterson in his Lotus.

Arturo Merzario mit seinem Ferrari 312 B3 in Watkins Glen (USA) 1973

Foto: Grand Prix Photo

The race was overshadowed by the fatal accident involving Tyrrell driver François Cevert during qualifying. Following this tragedy, Tyrrell star Jackie Stewart did not start the Grand Prix, thus missing out on his 100th World Championship race – a sad backdrop to the retirement of the three-time Formula 1 champion.

Back to Merzario: the Formula 1 statistics do Arturo an injustice. The northern Italian, born on 11 March 1943 in Civenna near Como, is credited with 57 Formula 1 starts, but the timing was never right for the wiry man with the big cowboy hat – not even when Merzario was a Ferrari works driver.

For the world’s most famous racing team, he managed two fourth-place finishes in 1973 in Brazil and Argentina, in the tried-and-tested 312 B2. From Monaco onwards, the B3 was deployed, and Arturo struggled with it just as much as team leader Jacky Ickx. The first version of this car was – sorry, dear Tifosi – a bit of a dud.

The little Italian’s greatest feat: in 1976 at the Nürburgring, Arturo Merzario, together with a few fellow drivers and marshals, rescued Niki Lauda from the flames, thereby becoming world-famous.

Merzario pottered about in Formula 1 until 1979, for years in clunky homemade cars that often left fans wondering – how on earth can that bloke see over the steering wheel?

The chain-smoker secured his greatest victories in sports cars: He triumphed on some of the world’s most challenging circuits, such as Spa-Francorchamps (the old layout) and the Targa Florio (twice: in 1972 with Ferrari and in 1975 with Alfa Romeo).

Now 83 years old, Merzario still competes in historic racing car events such as those at Goodwood, and remains impossible to miss with his gleaming white hat and his endearing, crinkled face.

When Ferrari rolled out the red carpet in front of Milan Cathedral in September 2019 to celebrate 90 years of racing, Merzario was greeted by fans like a pop star. Arturo was visibly moved.

In fact, it’s a miracle that he’s even made it to the age of 70. He has lost many of his fellow drivers, which was hardly surprising given the condition of the race tracks back then, as he explained during the Ennstal Classic. “The things alongside the roads, such as trees and the like, were the most dangerous. But the racing drivers were able to adapt to them relatively well. After all, motor racing began on public roads.”

“Then came circuits like the Nürburgring and Monza. Dangerous in their own right, but the drivers could live with the risk. What they couldn’t live with, however, was the risk posed by the technology. The worst thing was the machinery, because if your suspension broke, you stood virtually no chance. The biggest problem was mechanical failure, because that’s what caused most of the fatal accidents among racers.”

“I was never afraid of death; when it’s over, it’s over. What scared me far more was the thought that I might end up disabled.”

Today’s sport makes little impression on Merzario: “I don’t think today’s technicians and engineers are incredible geniuses. They have a budget of millions and almost unlimited funds and resources at their disposal. Back then, the technicians and engineers built racing cars from simple materials and pipes. That’s what made it dangerous, because they kept breaking down. That’s a crucial difference compared to today. Nowadays, you go into a laboratory and test the parts a thousand times. We didn’t have that. Instead of a wind tunnel, we’d hang woollen threads from the car and test it at an airfield.”

A modern Grand Prix car doesn’t appeal to Arturo. “I still drive old Formula 1 cars, like at Goodwood. But I wouldn’t get into a new car. The adrenaline rush and the determination to master a race track and this beast – that’s the key difference compared to today’s Formula 1.”

Speaking about his 80th birthday and the new decade of his life, Merzario said: “Well, I do want to reach 100.”