Photo: Alexander-93 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (Arturo Merzario, Team Merzario founder) - CROPPED IMAGE: Image credits at the end of the content.
Too many small teams entered F1 in 1970s, and one of the most unforgettable among them was Team Merzario.
We have shared many stories about teams that vanished during the 1970s, and our next focus is the Italian team Merzario. Be sure to check back daily, as there are many more forgotten F1 stories waiting to be told.
Many small teams entered F1 in the 1970s, like Connew, built a car in a small workshop and entered just a single race, and others like Shadow, ATS and Kauhsen, and many other teams, full of ambition but unable to survive.
Arturo Merzario: The Driver Who Refused to Disappear
Merzario was already a familiar figure in the paddock. He was known and respected long before he decided to build his own team.
And he had driven for big teams like Ferrari or Williams, and people remember him for what happened at Nurburgring 1976, when he stopped to help Niki Lauda after the accident.
After helping rescue Niki Lauda, his reputation changed overnight, he was no longer just a driver, he was seen as a hero, that recognition gave him the visibility and support he later relied on to launch his own F1 team.
1977, the phone stopped ringing. No seats. No offers. Faced with this, he made a bold decision, if no team was willing to hire him, he would build his own.
Anecdote: In the early days of Formula One, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, it was not unusual to see drivers create their own teams. Jack Brabham did exactly that, founding his own team and achieving something no one else has ever done, winning the World Championship in a car bearing his own name. Others followed a similar path, including Graham Hill, who near the end of his driving career found himself without a competitive seat and decided to form his own team. Sadly, his project never had the chance to become truly competitive, and it disappeared before it could reach its full potential.
The Birth of an Impossible Project – Team Merzario
Unlike giants like Ferrari, Lotus, or McLaren at the time, Merzario was not a factory filled with hundreds of engineers. It was simply a small workshop, and one man who refused to walk away from F1.
The first thing the team brought race-ready car; the March 761B, not competitive at the time, but it allowed him to stay on the grid.
The best result came at the Belgian GP in 1977, he finished 14th, it was not podium finish, but it would become the best classified in the team’s F1 history.
Even then, Merzario knew survival meant building something of his own!
So you cannot tell the story of Arturo Merzario without mentioning his white cowboy hat, he wore it everywhere, on the grid, in the pits, at ceremonies, and it became his trademark, it reflected his independence and helped attract crucial Marlboro backing, personal sponsorship that kept his small team alive!
Anecdote: Before becoming a racing driver, Arturo Merzario had very different ambitions. In his youth, according to reports, he wanted to become a surgeon.
Building the A1: Courage Meets Reality
For the first time in 1978, they build their own car, the Merzario A1, powered by Ford Cosworth DFV engine.
At the time, that engine was considered one of the best. Meanwhile, other teams had begun introducing more complex solutions, such as Renault’s turbo engines, which would go on to change the course of F1 in the early 1980s.
The A1 was heavily based on older designs, and it showed, the car lacked refinement, and reliability became its greatest enemy.
Mechanical failures followed race after race, the team managed to qualify for several races, which was itself an achievement for such a small operation, but finishing races was another matter entirely.
Out of eight starts that year, seven ended in retirement, each failure was not just mechanical, it was also emotional, each breakdown reminded Merzario of the growing gap between his team and the giants of the sport.
In 1978, Team Merzario was not the only outfit to end the season without a single point. Several other small teams struggled just as much, including Hesketh, Theodore, ATS, and Martini. It made survival even harder because at that time only the first six finishers were awarded points, leaving very little room for underfunded teams to break through.
F1 Evolves Faster Than Team Merzario Could
By 1979, F1 was entering a technological revolution, ground effect of Lotus for example, they unlocked massive performance gains by shaping airflow under the car.
Merzario knew he had to follow his path, the team introduced the A2, its own attempt at a ground effect car.
But creating ground effect machines required precise engineering, wind tunnel testing, and resources Merzario simply did not have.
Merzario A2 never truly worked, it struggled to produce enough downforce and was not fast enough to compete.
Desperate to improve, he purchased the remains of another failed team, Kauhsen (the German team of Willi Kauhsen).
With help from respected engineer Giampaolo Dallara, he rebuilt the chassis into a new car, the A4.
It was a last gamble, and it failed completely, the A4 did not qualify for a single race.
Anecdote: Merzario used a former Kauhsen chassis (a car that was not competitive and a good one after all, Kauhsen was not competitive in F1 after all) repainted in his own colors. Even with help from Giampaolo Dallara, the car was often five to ten seconds off the pace and ultimately failed to qualify.
Fighting Without Resources
The biggest challenge for the team was money, F1 was becoming more expensive every year.
Big teams had sponsors, factories, and Merzario had a small workshop, and limited funding.
While competitors developed lighter, more advanced chassis, the Italian team was forced to use their heavier materials.
However, Merzario was not just the driver, he was the founder, manager of the team, and sometimes even involved in design decisions.
Personal Setbacks and the Final Struggle
Things became even harder in 1979, Merzario suffered a broken arm during the Belgian GP weekend, and it was a cruel blow at a time when the team needed him most.
No good results, no proper funding, and without competitive car, the dream was fading.
By the end of the season, their journey was effectively over, in total, the team entered 38 Grand Prix but started only 14.
They scored no championship points, their best result remained that distant 14th place finish from 1977, so after all, zero points, no podiums, that’s not what Arturo had envisioned.
The Quiet of Team Merzario
After leaving F1, Merzario continued in Formula Two, hoping to rebuild.
There were small moments of promise, including podium finishes with customer cars, but the same problems remained, and limited resources, constant financial pressure made long-term success impossible for them.
The team declared bankrupcy in 1984, the workshop fell silent, and the big dream was over!
Final words about Team Merzario
On paper, Team Merzario was a failure, without points, no wins or championships.
But stats do not tell the full story, they represented something F1 has slowly lost, it represented the era when a determined individual could still try, like Connew Team, Shadow or Kojima.
Arturo Merzario refused to accept that his career was finished, he refused to walk away, he built something with his own hands and faced the giants of F1.
This man did not win, but he tried, and sometimes, in F1, that alone makes a story worth remembering!
FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT:
Photo: Alexander-93 / CC BY-SA 4.0 – CROPPED (Arturo Merzario, Team Merzario founder) Wikimedia Commons
Arturo Merzario, founder of Team Merzario, photographed at Auto Zürich 2024, former F1 driver and team owner.
