No hard feelings

You don’t have to be a big connoisseur of motorsport to figure out that despite the apparent comradery, sincere hugs in the podium, and hearty laughs at press briefings, there is a lot of competition in the sport. There always was, there always will be. Super inflated egos, good doses of money, media exposure, sponsors, adrenaline, fame, beautiful women, all mixed with nationalism and short careers are explosive elements.

Each teammate is really just another Formula 1 opponent. That's why there is so much antipathy among drivers in the top category of motorsport, specially now that racing is no longer as deadly as in yesteryear - danger actually enabled comradery. However, whether you like it or not, one less colleague means an open opportunity.

Here's the scenario. A driver risks his own life to save the driver who involuntarily ruined his Formula 1 career.

I'm not inventing things, it happened.

In 1973 Ferrari was going through one of its worst seasons. Despite winning two races in the World Championship of Makes, in Formula 1 the team went from bad to worse. Its car, which in 1972 was  competitive, became a disaster in updated guise. In addition, there was the serious political situation. Ah, Ferrari politics!!! Mauro Forghieri, the excellent Scuderia engineer was removed from the team earlier that year. Some say he asked to leave, others say he was kicked out. The fact is that Caliri, and the other engineers did not handle things well in 73, and during the course of the year the Cavallino team collapsed.

Jacky Ickx, the team's top driver for four years, left before the end of the season. And for the first time in many years, Ferrari was absent from several GPs.

Meanwhile, Arturo Merzario persevered, testing the F1 cars and prototypes in Maranello. He had lunch with the Commendatore from time to time, and actualy persuaded him to bring Forghieri back. Arturo also suggested bringing back Clay Regazzoni. Little by little, a good version of the B3 was developed, the version that would be used in 1974.

In the middle of the year, Marlboro was already quite displeased with BRM, and stated that it would not renew the sponsorship, which was eventually invested in McLaren. Also unhappy was Clay Regazzoni, who had pole in the first race of the season at Buenos Aires, leading it for a while, but who had completely lost confidence in the team towards the middle of the season. As Ickx moved away from Ferrari, Clay worked on his return to the team for 1974.

The obvious thing would be to keep Merzario. Among other things, he contributed greatly to the development of the B3, plus the Commendatore actually liked him. Meanwhile, Caliri had been furious with Arturo since the 1000 km of Nurburgring when Arturo failed to comply with team orders and diced with Ickx for the lead, after the Matra-Simcas dropped out. Caliri, who angrily extracted Merzario from the car when Arturo finally heeded to pit orders, was one of those who wanted the Italian out of the team. The Merzario hate-club eventually convinced Lucca di Montezemolo, the new boss, that Arturo should be kicked out.

Many names were considered. Jean-Pierre Jarier, who was the rage in F2 that year, Chris Amon, former team driver, even the names of Brazilians Pace and Emerson were considered. In the end, through Regazzoni’s lobbying, Ferrari ended up opting for his former BRM team mate Niki Lauda, ​​rejecting  Arturo.

The Italian had no choice but to go to the weak Iso-Marlboro team, thus ending any possibility of a top flight F1 career once and for all.

The rest is history. The B3 became an excellent car, and Ferrari narrowly missed the 1974 championship. Lauda was the fastest driver of the year, and in 1975 became the first Ferrari champion since 1964.

1976 - the Nurburgring is the scenario once more. After driving an excellent GP of England with March, at one point reaching fourth position, Arturo Merzario loses the place due to lack of sponsorship. The world of F1 is small. The same Jacky Ickx with whom Merzario had his issues between 1973 and 1975  left the Williams team, dejected, after the British Grand Prix. Frank did not hesitate, and despite financial issues with Merzario in 1975 that led the Italian to leave the team and almost seize Williams property in Monza, Frank rehired Arturo.

Merzario and Lauda recently

Williams's car, a former Hesketh, was a piece of crap. It was no wonder that Ickx left the team. But Merzario, above all, liked to race and be a part of the scene, so much that he raced through his 60s! And there he was, at the same Nurburgring that caused his Ferrari dismissal.

Trying to save a current teammate, as Arturo did in 1971, when Ignazio Giunti perished in an accident in Buenos Aires, is one thing. Risking life and limb to save the driver who helped sink his F1 career at Ferrari, altogether another. And this is exactly what brave Arturo did. With the help of Brett Lunger, Guy Edwards and Harald Ertl, Merzario plunged into the flames of Lauda's burning No. 1 Ferrari, which could explode at any moment, and helped take the Austrian out of the car in time to save his life. Remember that Lauda was a front runner when he crashed, and many people saw the accident AND DID NOT STOP!

Lauda survived, and that same year, he reached out to Arturo to give him a present, a gold Rolex watch. Arturo refused to accept, only received the gift upon insistence of the engineer Carlo Chiti who was also present.

No hard feelings, Arturo and Niki built a beautiful friendship that persists to this day. Recently, they were together in the Nordschleife, cementing this friendship on the basis of the courage and kindness of a great human being, despite his small frame. Niki would still win many other GPs and two championships, while Merzario's F1 career only went downhill from there. It was also the end of the Nordschleife in F1, much to Denis Jenkinson’s dislike.

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March private entries

March was present in F-1 in three distinct times, the first of which lasted from 1970-1977. During that initial period, March was the major provider of chassis to privateers. In fact, in its very first season, March provided chassis to several teams, in addition to running a 2-car works team. The most important privateer team that year was Tyrrell, which fielded cars for current champion Jackie Stewart, Servoz-Gavin and Cevert. And Tyrrell was indeed the last privateer team to have won a Grand Prix, the Spanish GP of 1970. In addition to Tyrrell, Andy Granatelli (STP) fielded a March 701 for Mario Andretti, who raced in a few events, finishing a best 3rd place. Colin Crabbe/Antique Automobiles also fielded a 701 for Ronnie Peterson, and Hubert Hahne also bought a 701. The latter became very flustered when he could not get the car up to competitive speed to qualify for the German GP, claiming March provided him a defective car. When Ronnie Peterson drove his car and immediately got it up to a relatively competitive pace, a despondent Hahne quit racing.

For 1971, the main March privateer was Frank Williams, who fielded a 711 for Henri Pescarolo. Henri scored a few points, but most importantly, posted the fastest lap at the Italian Grand Prix, which for many years stood as the fastest racing lap in a Grand Prix. Jean Max also drove a Williams March 711 in France. Francois Mazet drove a Jo Siffert entered March 701 in France, Skip Barber drove a Gene Mason entered March 711 in Holland and the North American races, and Mike Beutler was entered in a March 711 sponsored by his stockbroker friends Clarke-Mordaunt-Guthrie, in a few races. Shell Arnold entered a March 701 for Jean Pierre Jarier in Italy.
Frank Williams again fielded Marches in 1972, a 721 for Pescarolo and a 711 for Pace. The debuting Brazilian was the only one to score points in the team. Beuttler again drove a 721 in several races, while the Eifelland team entered a modified March 721 for Rolf Stommelen. The unusual bodywork car is sometimes referred as an Eifelland. Skip Barber again fielded his 711 in the USA and Canadian Grand Prix.

Mike Beuttler was again sponsored by his stockbroker friends (plus Durlacher), quitting F-1 at the end of the year. The most competitive March 731 privateer was unquestionably James Hunt, entered by Hesketh, in a car engineered by Harvey Posthlethwaite. While the works team scored no points, Hunt got a couple of podiums, coming very close to victory in the USA, scoring a fastest lap as well. Team Pierre Robert entered a 731 for Reine Wissel in Sweden, while LEC Refrigeration entered a 731 for David Purley in a few races.

Hesketh entered the March in the first two races of the year, eventually fielding the proprietary Hesketh in 1974. Mike Wilds failed to qualify a Dempster International 731 in England. Although the entry lists were overly subscribed for many 1974 races, there were fewer March privateer appearances than in previous years.



In 1975 it was much the same. In fact, the only privateer March to be fielded that year was a 751 entered by Penske for Mark Donohue. Penske was having problems with his own chassis, and the competitive March (at least in Brambilla’s hands) appeared a good benchmark to learn more about F-1. Donohue raced it only in England and Germany, scoring points in Silverstone, then was killed in Austria.

For 1976 March had two works teams with a total of four drivers for many races. Peterson was back in the team, but both he and Stuck were nominally entered by Theodore Racing in Long Beach. Basically, there were no private March entries in 1976, although Karl Oppitzhauser attempted to field one in the Austrian GP, but his entry was refused.

This was more than made up for in 1977, when a flood of 761’s appeared outside the works team. Arturo Merzario raced an example under the Team Merzario banner, managing to qualify it 14th out of 32 in Belgium, which was the highlight of the year. Brett Lunger was entered by Chesterfield Racing in a few races, eventually changing to a McLaren M23. After losing his team to Walter Wolf, Frank Williams entered a 761 for Patrick Neve from the Spanish GP on, managing a 7th in Italy, the closest a March came to scoring that year. RAM Racing entered 761s for Boy Hayje, Mikko Kozarowitsky Andy Sutcliffe and Michael Bleekemolen, without setting the world on fire. Brian Henton entered a 761 under British Formula 1 racing for himself and Bernard de Dryver.

At the end of the year, March discontinued its Formula 1 operations until 1982.

INTERSERIE EARLY YEARS 1970-1975

By Carlos de Paula


Several European championships emerged during the early seventies, many of which did not survive many years, including the European GT Championship and European 2 liter championship. The Interseries was not a FIA championship, and maybe because of that reason, survived until the early 2000s, although in the latter guise it was but a shadow of its former self.

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Leo Kinnunen

EUROPEAN 2 LITER CHAMPIONSHIP

By Carlos De Paula

By 1969, there were quite a few 2 liter sports cars around in Europe to warrant a separate championship. These cars normally competed in the World Championship of Makes, with no chance of outright victory, so competitors welcomed the chance of actually winning races, rather than classes.

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