1975 World Sportscar Championship, A SPECTACULAR SEASON

Words Arturo Merzario

Photography Centro Documentazione Alfa Romeo

The cowboy racing driver goes back in time half a century, telling the story of the glorious World Championship when Carlo Chiti's Alfa Romeo won with him at the wheel of the 33TT12. A story triggered a couple of years earlier by an incredible series of events that took place in Maranello.

To explain how I ended up at Alfa Romeo, we need to go back to 1969, when I signed a four-year contract with Ferrari to work on both Formula 1 and prototype cars. Mauro Forghieri was technical director—a brilliant engineer, but by late 1972 we were struggling. The F1 car we were testing, the 312 B3, earned the nickname Spazzaneve (snowplough) due to its odd front design. It was clearly uncompetitive. Fiat, which had taken control of Ferrari, decided to make sweeping changes.

Forghieri was pushed aside, and Sandro Colombo came in to lead a new technical team. He decided to replace Ferrari’s traditional steel-tube chassis with a British-made monocoque from TC Prototypes. Although modern in theory, the result was a disaster. The car lacked rigidity, flexed dangerously under load, and was difficult to maintain. We soon realized it couldn’t be fixed.

I remember Enzo Ferrari's painful acknowledgment that “this is not a winning car.” It was then that I started to consider my future. With the project falling apart and Ferrari in turmoil, I left before my contract expired. Not long after, I was contacted by Alfa Romeo. That moment marked the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in my career.

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