A winner on his first start

Giancarlo Baghetti won the 1961 French Grand Prix in a privately entered Ferrari on his World Championship debut, a feat unmatched since 1950.

Giancarlo Baghetti was born in Milan, Italy, on December 25, 1934. He began racing at 23 in production cars and moved into Formula Junior in 1958. In 1961 the Federazione Italiana Scuderie Automobilistiche, a group of Italian private teams, chose him to drive its Ferrari 156, a car run outside the works team.

The results came at once. Baghetti won his first two Formula 1 races, the non championship Syracuse and Naples Grands Prix. Then, at the 1961 French Grand Prix at Reims, his first World Championship start, he won again, holding off Dan Gurney's Porsche at the finish. No driver since the opening championship season of 1950 has won on his World Championship debut. Later that year he set fastest lap at the Italian Grand Prix and won the non championship Coppa Italia.

That was the peak. Ferrari signed him for 1962, and he finished fourth at the Dutch Grand Prix and fifth at Monza, but he never again reached the podium. He drove for the new ATS team in 1963 and for Scuderia Centro Sud, running BRM cars, in 1964, then made single appearances at the Italian Grand Prix for Brabham in 1965, Ferrari in 1966 and Lotus in 1967.

His final start was the 1967 Italian Grand Prix. Our record shows 21 starts, 1 win, 1 fastest lap and 1 podium across seven seasons. Away from Formula 1 he won the 1000cc class of the European Touring Car Championship with Abarth in 1966. Baghetti died in 1995.

0 world titles, 1 wins, 0 pole positions, 21 starts.

Teams

Victories

• French Grand Prix 1961