Arturo Merzario Goes It Alone

Unable to find a seat with an established team, Arturo Merzario ran his own cars for three seasons with very little reward.

Arturo Merzario, who had raced for Ferrari, Williams and March, set up his own team in 1977 when no established outfit would hire him. He began with a March, and his fourteenth place at the Belgian Grand Prix that year was the only time a car from his team was classified at the finish of a World Championship race.

For 1978 he joined forces with the Swiss entrant Guglielmo Bellasi and built the Merzario A1, a conventional Cosworth powered car closely based on the March. Alberto Colombo also drove for the team. Across 1978 and 1979 the Merzario cars started 10 Grands Prix but failed to qualify far more often, and the team's final entry was the 1979 United States Grand Prix.

Drivers

• Arturo Merzario
• Alberto Colombo