Mertsario (Formula 1 team)

1977

The team was founded in 1977 by Arturo Merzario , a rider who previously played for Ferrari , Williams and March . Charismatic Italian could not find a place for himself next year in the factory teams, and decided to establish his own. For performances was purchased car March 761B . According to some sources, the car was the last March 751 , which Vittorio Brambilla used , and he only had a body from the 761B . Merzario supplied him with the standard for those years combination of the Cosworth engine and the Hewland gearbox , painted the car in bright red color and began performances.

At the first stage for the team in Spain, it was possible to qualify in 21st place, in the second behind the factory “Marcha”, but it was not possible to reach the finish line. In Monaco almost managed to get to the start, it did not have less than a second in qualifying. Finally, at the Grand Prix of Belgium, he still managed to get to the finish line at a distant 14th place. As time has shown, it was the best performance for the team both in this and in subsequent seasons. Toward the end of the 1977 championship, the results began to deteriorate, and at the Italian Grand Prix, Merzario announced the cessation of speeches before the start of the next season, which he planned to hold on the chassis of his own design.

1978

At the first stage in Argentina, the team demonstrated a slightly humpy A1 chassis, both ideologically and constructively based on the same 761B model. The base of the team was located not far from Milan , but Gianfranco Palazzoli became the manager. The sponsor was the Marlboro tobacco company.

Reliance on the proven design served the team a good service. Mertsario qualified 20th, ahead of Didier Pironi , and kept on this place until he came down. However, in the future, it was often not possible to break through to the start, and sometimes the qualification did not suffice literally hundredths of a second to pass the sieve. In Brazil, Merzario generally showed the same time to the hundredths with Keegan from Surtees , but still didn’t hit the start, as the Englishman showed their time earlier. In the same races, where it was possible to pass at the start, let down some technical malfunction.

The first and only time for the entire season it was possible to finish only at the eighth stage in Sweden , but the backlog was too large and the car did not make it to the finish classification. Failures did not upset the team, and to the stage in France, the car was redone and received the name A1B . This did not bring much improvement. In Austria , the team brought a second copy of the chassis with an A1 index, but if the first car was a completely new design based on old designs, then the second one was again the same old, tested 761B car with converted aerodynamics and some new details. Despite almost four years of age, he allowed to achieve the best results. At the stage in Italy, Mertsario used it, and on the first chassis, the team only once in history put out the second pilot. They became Alberto Colombo , who had previously noted two non-completed qualifications for the ATS team. This time he was unable to pass even prequalification.

Thus, for the season of sixteen races, the team managed to start only in eight. However, for the next season the team was going to prepare the next news.

1979

At the first three stages of the new season, the team put out the old chassis (that is, in fact, all the same March 761B ). The car, named index A2 , received a completely redesigned body of a somewhat angular form, painted in black and yellow colors. At the first stage in Argentina, Merzario managed to qualify for a decent 22nd place, ahead of Lauda and Arnu , but flew out and seriously injured the nose of the car, trying to avoid the starting dam. At the second and third stages, the qualification was not overcome. But by the middle of March, the team had prepared a ground effect car for the extra-race “Race of Champions” in Brands Hatch . Actually, due to the limited budget, only the hull was new, and constructively this was again the old A1 chassis, which the team used in the first half of the previous season. This design received the index A3 .

The “Race of Champions” was postponed for a month because of the snow, and Merzario decided to test the car on the highway in Fiorano before the trip to the USA , after which many problems were found once again. For a start, the car turned out to be as much as 30 kilograms heavier than the previous one, due to the fact that, in order to save money, it was made of steel and aluminum, instead of titanium and magnesium. The ground effect was not implemented properly, mainly due to the obsolescence of the chassis itself. Despite a lot of problems in qualifying in Long Beach , including a broken engine, an oil leak and a completely collapsing suspension, Arturo was able to get through to the start. For safety reasons, he used A1B in the race, but on the 13th lap he was again driven by a motor.

The team spent the stages in Spain and Belgium on the verge of qualifying, and in Zolder Arturo drove a lot of circles in training, eventually overdid it, flew out and broke his hand.

To the next stage in Monaco , the Kauhsen team refused to speak. Despite the fact that they had even worse results than Mertsario, Art decided to seize the moment and bought their property for spare parts, and at the same time grabbed another pilot to replace himself - Gianfranco Brancatelli . As one would expect, an inexperienced Italian did not succeed without even going through prequalification.

To the stage in France Merzario recovered, but the qualification did not pass. At Silverstone, the team demonstrated a very strange solution: under the name of the A4 Merzario, they put out the newly purchased Kauhsen WK 004 , converted with the help of Gianpaolo Dallara . The purpose of this action is not entirely clear, since Kausen was much weaker than Merzario’s own cars, not to mention other participants, and even the efforts of such a master like Dallar could not help here. In the future, this car qualify and failed. At the end of the season, Art still managed to go to the start of the race and even finish, but it was an odd race in Imola, and he finished last. By the beginning of the next racing season, due to lack of funding, the team refused to develop a new A5 car and retrained to compete in Formula 2 .