Strange idea, Arturo!

Arturo Merzario, the Italian driver with the Marlboro cowboy hat, presents his Merzario A2-Cosworth at the beginning of 1979, surrounded by his very young crew, the Merzario Team. (photo above).

Merzario, a former Ferrari, Williams and March driver, formed his own Formula One team in 1977 when he failed to find a drive with one of the established teams. He initially entered a March 761B with a best result of 14th place at the 1977 Belgian Grand Prix.

In 1979, the Merzario A2, designed by… Merzario himself (!) and Simon Hadfield, was actually an A1 modified into a ground-effect single-seater. Only one example was built. The A2 was first seen in Merzario’s hands at the 1979 US Grand Prix West in Long Beach, but it didn’t start due to a broken suspension.

A2 made her official debut in Spain, but Merzario, 26th in practice, did not qualify. At the next race in Belgium, the Italian suffered a major crash during practice and broke his arm… 

For Monaco, it was thus Gianfranco Brancatelli who tried, in vain, to qualify. Merzario was back in action for the French Grand Prix, but was two seconds slower than the second-to-last driver and did not qualify. The A2 was seen one last time in Austria, but Arturo damaged it during practice… and did not take part in the race. 

Merzario then had the strange idea of ​​buying the Kauhsen team and its single-seater, a car even less competitive than the Merzario… Holy Arturo!