Bruno Giacomelli

Bruno Giacomelli
Giacomelli in 1982
Born	(1952-09-10) 10 September 1952 Poncarale, Brescia, Italy
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Italian
Active years	1977–1983, 1990
Teams	McLaren, Alfa Romeo, Toleman, Life
Entries	82 (69 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	1
Career points	14
Pole positions	1
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1977 Italian Grand Prix
Last entry	1990 Spanish Grand Prix
World Sportscar Championship career
Years active	1985–1990
Teams	Porsche, Lancia, RLR, Spice
Starts	22
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	1
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	1988–1990
Teams	Porsche, RLR
Best finish	9th (1988)
Class wins	0

Bruno Giacomelli (Italian pronunciation: [ˈbruno dʒakoˈmɛlli]; born 10 September 1952) is an Italian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between 1977 and 1990.

Giacomelli won one of the two 1976 British Formula 3 Championships and the 1978 Formula Two championship. From 1977 to 1983, Giacomelli participated in 82 Formula One Grands Prix for McLaren, Alfa Romeo and Toleman, debuting at the 1977 Italian Grand Prix. He achieved one podium, and scored a total of 14 championship points. He returned to Formula One in 1990 with Life, infamously failing to qualify in each of his 12 attempts driving the F190, prior to the team's withdrawal after the Spanish Grand Prix.

Early career

Giacomelli began his career in Formula Italia, which he won in 1975. In 1976, he graduated to Formula Three where he competed with March and finished runner up in his first season, to Rupert Keegan, in the B.A.R.C Championship and won the B.R.D.C. title. He also led from start to finish in a March-Toyota in the 1976 Monaco Grand Prix Formula Three support race. His average speed was 74.84 miles per hour.

Giacomelli moved into Formula Two in 1977, working in close association with Robin Herd and the March factory. He retired from the Formula Two Pau Grand Prix in May 1977, after his car made contact with one driven by Jacques Laffite. However, he managed to score three F2 wins in 1977 (at Vallelunga, Mugello and Donington Park) and finished fifth in the championship. He also made his Formula One World Championship debut in 1977 in a third works McLaren M23-Cosworth at the 1977 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, retiring with an engine problem which caused him to spin off.

Giacomelli dominated the following F2 season. Apart from a third-place finish in the Mugello Grand Prix in May 1978 and a second-place in Vallelunga, Giacomelli won eight of the twelve races and won the title, beating the runner up Marc Surer by 29 points. Giacomelli became the first Italian to win the European Formula Two Championship.

Formula One

After his sole F1 race in 1977, Giacomelli entered five races in 1978 for McLaren, when his Formula Two commitments allowed. He achieved his best finish, of seventh place, 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.

Giacomelli driving for Alfa Romeo at the 1979 Belgian Grand Prix.

However, the following year the team looked more promising. Giacomelli earned a surprise 6th place qualifying position for Alfa Romeo at Brands Hatch for the 1980 British Grand Prix. 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. 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. However, despite these flashes of speed Giacomelli only managed to finish three of the season's fourteen races due to crashes or mechanical breakdowns; 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 Caesars Palace 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. Alfa recruited Mauro Baldi to partner Andrea de Cesaris for the 1983 Formula One season and Giacomelli joined Toleman. Giacomelli was outperformed by his teammate Derek Warwick, though he did manage to pick up a final F1 point at the 1983 European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch.

Giacomelli was the test driver for the Leyton House March team in 1988 and 1989, as well as in 1990 in its Leyton House incarnation. He was offered a test driver position with McLaren for 1990 but turned it down.

In 1990, Giacomelli returned to F1 with the Life outfit, taking over from Gary Brabham (who left the team two races into the season). The car, saddled with an ineffectual and fragile W12 engine, struggled to get within 20 seconds of the pole time at many circuits and Giacomelli failed to even get out of pre-qualifying at any of the 12 Grands Prix he contested with the team. At the Portuguese Grand Prix the team reverted to a more conventional Judd V8 engine, but the car had not been adapted for the new engine and the team were unable to properly fit the engine cover, leading to them pulling out of the event without completing a single lap. When Giacomelli was able to drive the Judd-powered car in Spain he found himself 18 seconds off the pace despite the new engine. With money in short supply and few hopes of improving their desperately noncompetitive package the team folded before the final two races of the season, ending Giacomelli's F1 career.

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.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
1974	Formula Italia		?	1	?	?	?	0	NC
1975	Formula Italia	Cevenini	?	5	?	?	?	45	1st
1976	BARC BP Super Visco British Formula Three	March Engineering	12	5	5	4	9	71	2nd
	BRDC Shellsport British Formula Three		5	2	5	?	5	79	1st
	FIA European Formula 3 Championship		1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1977	European Formula Two	AFMP Euroracing / March Engineering	13	3	3	3	3	32	4th
	CASC Formula Atlantic	Ecurie Canada	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Formula One	Marlboro Team McLaren	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1978	European Formula Two	Polifac BMW Junior Team	12	8	8	6	10	78	1st
	Formula One	Marlboro Team McLaren	5	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Japanese Formula Two		1	0	1	1	0	0	NC
1979	BMW M1 Procar Championship	Osella Squadra Corse	8	0	0	0	1	6	19th
	Formula One	Autodelta	4	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1980	Formula One	Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo	14	0	1	0	0	4	16th
1981	Formula One	Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo	15	0	0	0	1	7	15th
1982	Formula One	Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo	16	0	0	0	0	2	22nd
1983	Formula One	Candy Toleman Motorsport	14	0	0	0	0	1	19th
1984	CART PPG Indy Car World Series	Theodore Racing	1	0	0	0	0	5	32nd
		Patrick Racing	1	0	0	0	0
1985	CART PPG Indy Car World Series	Patrick Racing	9	0	0	0	0	32	19th
	World Sportscar Championship	Porsche Kremer Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC‡
1986	World Sportscar Championship	Sponsor Guest Team	2	0	0	0	0	10	44th
		Porsche Kremer Racing	2	0	0	0	0
1987	World Touring Car Championship	Pro Team Italia/Imberti	5	0	0	0	0	42	31st
	World Sportscar Championship	Britten – Lloyd Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
		Mussato Action Car	1	0	0	0	0
1988	World Sportscar Championship	Porsche Kremer Racing	4	0	0	0	0	20	37th
	All-Japan Sports Prototype Championship	Leyton House Racing	2	1	0	0	1	30	10th
	24 Hours of Le Mans	Kenwood Kremer Racing	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	9th
1989	World Sportscar Championship	Mussato Action Car	4	0	0	0	0	0	NC
		Porsche Kremer Racing	2	0	0	0	0
	24 Hours of Le Mans		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
1990	World Sportscar Championship	Spice Engineering	3	0	0	0	1	6	17th
	24 Hours of Le Mans	Richard Lloyd Racing	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	11th
	All-Japan Sports Prototype Championship	Davey Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Formula One	Life Racing Engines	0	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1995	BPR Global GT Series	Freisinger Motorsport	3	0	0	0	0	15	115th

^‡ Not eligible for Championship points.

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Pos.	Pts
1977	AFMP Euroracing	March 772	Hart	SIL Ret	THR Ret	HOC Ret	NÜR 6										4th	32
	March Engineering	March 772P	BMW					VAL 1	PAU Ret	MUG 1	ROU Ret	NOG 4	PER 7	MIS 10	EST 14
		March 782														DON 1
1978	Polifac BMW Junior Team	March 782	BMW	THR 1	HOC 1	NÜR Ret	PAU 1	MUG 3	VAL 2	ROU 1	DON Ret	NOG 1	PER 1	MIS 1	HOC 1		1st	78

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Pts
1977	Marlboro Team McLaren	McLaren M23	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	ESP	MON	BEL	SWE	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA Ret	USA	CAN	JPN	NC	0
1978	Marlboro Team McLaren	McLaren M26	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	MON	BEL 8	ESP	SWE	FRA Ret	GBR 7	GER	AUT	NED Ret	ITA 14	USA	CAN		NC	0
1979	Autodelta	Alfa Romeo 177	Alfa Romeo 115-12 3.0 F12	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	ESP	BEL Ret	MON	FRA 17	GBR	GER	AUT	NED						NC	0
		Alfa Romeo 179	Alfa Romeo 1260 3.0 V12													ITA Ret	CAN	USA Ret
1980	Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 179	Alfa Romeo 1260 3.0 V12	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	Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 179C	Alfa Romeo 1260 3.0 V12	USW Ret	BRA NC	ARG 10	SMR Ret	BEL 9	MON Ret	ESP 10						ITA 8	CAN 4	CPL 3			15th	7
		Alfa Romeo 179B									FRA 15	GBR Ret	GER 15	AUT Ret	NED Ret
1982	Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 179D	Alfa Romeo 1260 3.0 V12	RSA 11																	22nd	2
		Alfa Romeo 182			BRA Ret	USW Ret	SMR Ret	BEL Ret	MON Ret	DET Ret	CAN Ret	NED 11	GBR 7	FRA 9	GER 5	AUT Ret	SUI 12	ITA Ret	CPL 10
1983	Candy Toleman Motorsport	Toleman TG183B	Hart 415T 1.5 L4t	BRA Ret	USW Ret	FRA 13	SMR Ret	MON DNQ	BEL 8	DET 9	CAN Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	NED 13	ITA 7	EUR 6	RSA Ret			19th	1
1990	Life Racing Engines	Life F190	Life F35 3.5 W12	USA	BRA	SMR DNPQ	MON DNPQ	CAN DNPQ	MEX DNPQ	FRA DNPQ	GBR DNPQ	GER DNPQ	HUN DNPQ	BEL DNPQ	ITA DNPQ						NC	0
			Judd CV 3.5 V8													POR DNPQ	ESP DNPQ	JPN	AUS

Complete BMW M1 Procar results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pos.	Pts
1979	Osella Squadra Corse	BMW M1	ZOL Ret	MON Ret	DIJ 10	SIL Ret	HOC 8	ÖST 9	ZAN	MNZ Ret	19th	6

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos.	Pts
1987	Pro Team Italia	Maserati Biturbo	MNZ 17	JAR DNS	DIJ Ret	NÜR Ret	SPA	BRN 24	SIL	BAT	CLD	WEL	FUJ	31st	43

American Open-Wheel racing

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

CART PPG Indy Car World Series

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Pos.	Pts	Ref
1984	Theodore Racing	Theodore T83	Cosworth DFX V8t	LBH 27	PHX DNS															32nd	5
		Theodore T84				INDY DNQ	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	MCH	ROA	POC	MDO	SAN	MCH	PHX
	Patrick Racing	March 84C																LAG 8	CPL
1985	Patrick Racing	March 85C	Cosworth DFX V8t	LBH 18	INDY	MIL	POR 10	MEA 5	CLE 10	MCH	ROA 22	POC	MDO 6	SAN 16	MCH	LAG 6	PHX	MIA 14		19th	32

Complete World Endurance/World Sports Protype Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Class	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos.	Pts
1985	Porsche Kremer Racing	C1	Porsche 956B	MUG	MNZ 8	SIL	LMS	HOC	MOS	SPA	BRH	FUJ	SHA		NC	0‡
1986	Sponsor Guest Team	C1	Lancia LC2	MNZ	SIL	LMS	NOR Ret	BRH Ret	JER	NÜR					44th	10
	Porsche Kremer Racing		Porsche 962C								SPA 12	FUJ 4
1987	Britten – Lloyd Racing	C1	Porsche 962C GTi	JAR	JER	MNZ Ret	SIL	LMS							NC	0
	Mussato Action Car		Lancia LC2						NOR DSQ	BRH	NÜR	SPA	FUJ
1988	Porsche Kremer Racing	C1	Porsche 962C	JER	JAR	MNZ 6	SIL								37th	20
			Porsche 962-CK6					LMS 9	BRN	BRH	NÜR 10	SPA	FUJ 16	SAN
1989	Porsche Kremer Racing	C1	Porsche 962-CK6	SUZ Ret	DIJ 18	JAR									NC	0
	Mussato Action Car		Lancia LC2				BRH Ret	NÜR NC	DON Ret	SPA DSQ	MEX Ret
1990	Spice Engineering	C	Spice SE90C	SUZ Ret		SIL 3	SPA	DIJ	NÜR	DON 5	CGV	MEX			17th	6
	Team Lee-Davey		Porsche 962C		MNZ DSQ

^‡ Not eligible for Championship points

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1988	Kenwood Kremer Racing	Kunimitsu Takahashi Hideki Okada	Porsche 962CK6	C1	370	9th	9th
1989	Porsche Kremer Racing	Kunimitsu Takahashi Giovanni Lavaggi	Porsche 962C	C1	303	DNF	DNF
1990	Richard Lloyd Racing	John Watson Allen Berg	Porsche 962C	C1	335	11th	11th
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