Gianfranco Brancatelli

Nationality:	Italian	Races Entered:	3
Date of Birth:	18 January, 1950	DNQ/DNPQ:	3
Teams:	Kauhsen (1979) Marzario (1979)	Best Result:	DNQ (27th overall) Jarama, 1979

BIOGRAPHY

Before Formula One

OK, hands up. Who's heard of an F1 team called Kauhsen? More to the point, name the driver who was behind the wheel in their two pathetic little attempts to qualify for a Grand Prix. What chance that more than a handful out there can tell you that that poor soul was none other than Gianfranco Brancatelli, an Italian hailing from Turin? In 1973, Brancatelli started off his career in Formula Abarth in Italy, and he became the national champion the next year. He then moved up into Italian F3 in 1975, losing out on the title to Luciano Pavesi by 33 points to 32.

The same year he came joint 10th in the European F3 championship, which was won by Australian Larry Perkins. Brancatelli scored 6 points in his March 753 Novamotor. Making a full assault on the latter in 1976, driving a Scuderia Everest March 763 with a Toyota Novamotor engine, he scored two wins at Mantorp and Vallelunga against the likes of Riccardo Patrese and Piercarlo Ghinzani. Also recording two 2nd places at Croix-en-Ternois and Kassel-Calden, with 36 points, Brancatelli eventually came 3rd behind equal-winners Patrese and Corry Anderson, who had both scored 52.

For 1977, he joined Giancarlo Minardi's team for Formula 2, using Ralt RT1 chassis with a Dino Ferrari engine, but things turned sour very quickly, a 4th place at Rouen the best he could manage. With only 3 points he was equal 17th in the championship. He started off 1978 in the same team, but very soon became disillusioned. Looking for something else to do, he did a European Sportscar Championship race at Monza in a Lola T286 Ford, but retired from a clutch failure after only 11 laps having started 2nd on the grid. He then got an opportunity to race the rest of the F2 season in a March/BMW, but failed to score any points.

Formula One

The late-1970s were of course the period of the kit-car, when many ambitious team bosses sought to use Ford DFV 3.0 litre V8 engines in the back of kit chassis. Willi Kauhsen was no exception, and Brancatelli was signed to drive the German's WK004 car in the newly-formed team, ingeniously titled Kauhsen. But right from the outset it was clear the effort was a disaster. At the Spanish GP at Jarama, round 5 of the 1979 season, Brancatelli was the by far the slowest of the 27 entrants. His time of 1:23.24 was 8.74 seconds slower than Jacques Laffite's Ligier on pole. Furthermore, he was 2.78 seconds behind Arturo Merzario who was 26th, and 3.94 behind Derek Daly's Ensign in 25th, neither of whom qualified either. Not an auspicious beginning.

The situation was even worse at Zolder for the Belgian GP. There, with a modified WK005, the Italian was 13.35 seconds behind Laffite, once again on pole. He was 6.65 seconds behind Daly, 8.56 behind Merzario and 8.79 behind Patrick Tambay's McLaren, all of whom failed to qualify. It goes without saying that he was bottom of the 28-entrant pile. But it was also in this practice session that Merzario, in his position of driver/manager of his own imaginatively named Merzario team, crashed his equally diabolical car badly, and broke his arm. As a result, Merzario had to sit out the Monaco GP.

What's more, his Merzario team swallowed up the now-doomed Kauhsen project (one of the least impressive team buy-outs in F1 history), and they took on Brancatelli for the race at the principality to drive the A3 chassis. But for Gianfranco this would be an even worse meet than the previous ones. He failed to record a time, and as a result he is entered in the record books as having failed to pre-qualify. This was despite the fact that there were only 25 entrants for the race, but such was the lack of space that the organisers had to eliminate the slowest cars early in the piece. And who better to eliminate than someone who couldn't enter a time? Anyway, Merzario returned for the French GP, and that was that for Brancatelli's F1 career.

After Formula One

Having found the single-seater scene too hard to crack, Brancatelli took to racing with a roof over his head to good effect. By Le Mans of 1979, he had found himself a drive in Carlo Pietromarchi's sports car team, sharing a De Tomaso Pantera with Pietromarchi and Maurizio Micangeli. The combination was also meant to participate in the 6hr race at Brands Hatch, but failed to do so. For the next few years, Gianfranco then established himself as one of the best exponents of touring car racing in Europe. In 1982-3 he began to race touring cars for Alfa Romeo, recording his first win at the Salzburgring.

In 1984 he joined the legendary Eggenberger Motorsports stable, and driving a BMW was 3rd in the European Touring Car Championship, before walking off with the crown the next year driving an Eggenberger Volvo 240 Turbo. This included a rousing victory at Anderstorp with Thomas Lindström, plus a win in the Macau F3 support race, where he held off none other than Gerhard Berger. 1985 had also seen Brancatelli return to sports cars, joining the Cheetah Automobiles Switzerland team to drive a Cheetah G604 Aston Martin. He teamed up with Bernard de Dryver, but retired at both Mugello and Monza. But before the year was out, he had joined forces with Tom Walkinshaw, and drove a TWR Jaguar XJR-6 in the final round of the World Sportscar Championship at Shah Alam in Malaysia, alongside Jan Lammers.

Staying with TWR in 1986 gave Brancatelli the chance to drive both Walkinshaw's Group A Jaguars in touring car racing, and also the Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-6s in the WSC. But teaming up with the likes of Jean-Louis Schlesser, Win Percy, Eddie Cheever and Derek Warwick, it would prove to be a tough year in the WSC for Gianfranco, his best being 6th at Brands Hatch with Cheever. For 1987, he left TWR and firstly joined Brun Motorsports in sports cars. With Oscar Larrauri and Massimo Sigala, he came 2nd in the Daytona 24hr race in a Porsche 962, and with Sigala recorded some solid results in the WSC. But for the World Touring Car Championship, Brancatelli returned to the works BMW stable, driving a BMW M3, coming 5th in the ETCC with 3 wins.

This included a trip down to Australia for the Bathurst 1000, sharing his car with Venezuelan Johnny Cecotto. They were up as high as 3rd before a rainstorm hit and Cecotto slammed the wall at infamous Reid Park. But the pair struggled home, finishing 9th after a late puncture, but were promoted to 7th when the Eggenberger Sierras were disqualified. With the gradual demise of larger-scale touring car championships in favour of local ones, in 1988 Brancatelli drove an Alfa 75 for the Jolly Club team in the Italian Touring Car Championship and, not surprisingly, took the title. He also raced at Daytona again, once more with Brun, Larrauri and Sigala, but they could not repeat their 1987 result.

Ever the journeyman, in 1989 Brancatelli moved again to the German Touring Car Championship, but he could only manage 9th in his Ford Sierra RS500. In the same type of car he won the Spa 24hr classic and was third in the Nurburgring 24hr race. In a Sauber-Mercedes C9 he was also 2nd at Le Mans with Mauro Baldi and Kenny Acheson. After such success in 24-hour events, Bathurst must have seemed a breeze in a Mark Petch Peanut Slab Sierra shared with Robbie Francevic, but his car was out early after losing a wheel, despite being in contention. Towards the end of 1989, he also joined Francevic for the end-of-year endurance races in New Zealand, and was battling for the lead with Tony Longhurst early on at the tight Wellington street circuit before crashing whilst lapping backmarkers.

1990 turned out to be a bit of a downer. In sports cars, he firstly drove at Suzuka in an Alba AR20 Subaru with Marco Brand, but was then picked up by the works Nissan team to drive in the WSC in a Nissan R90CK, with the likes of Mark Blundell, Julian Bailey and Acheson again, with his best results two 4ths at Donington and Mexico City. With 6 points, he was 19th overall. Continuing his fantastically unstable career, he then returned to Italian tourers in an Alfa in 1991, with only a single win at Misano. And to top things off, in 1992-3 apparently - and don't ask us to explain this - he took to two wheels and raced in Italian superbikes in 1992-3, riding a Ducati 888. Certainly a versatile motorsport practitioner, our Gianfranco!

After that he made the move east to Malaysia, where he has since been driving in the Malaysian Super Touring Championship, starting in 1994-5 when he drove an ex-BTCC Toyota Carina. In 1995, he also returned to the Daytona 24hr race, where he teamed up with Elton Julian, Massimo Sigala and Fabrizio Barbazza in a Euromotorsports Ferrari 333SP. But Alex Bassi tells us a conceivably apocryphal story that in the middle of the night Gianfranco was fired when he couldn't start the engine properly, and the team wasted precious time trying to push-start him. A little bit drastic, don't you think?

In 1996-7, in Malaysia he joined Team Petronas, driving a Ford Mondeo with engineering input from Rudi Eggenberger once more, winning at least 6 races in those two years. But 1997 also saw Team Petronas make forays into the Australian Super Touring championship, where Brancatelli was unfortunately less than successful. In 1997 he went to Daytona once again with fellow Italian Renato Mastropietro and Swiss drivers Luigino Pagotto and Charles Margueron, driving a Porsche 911. Completing 387 laps they were classified 45th. The last we have heard of Brancatelli is in 1999, where he was still driving for Team Petronas, this time in the Johor Super Saloon Race Series, taking a win in a Mazda RX-7 at Pasir Gudang.

CAREER SUMMARY

Before Formula One
1973	• Began racing in Italian Formula Abarth
1974	• Formula Abarth, 1st overall.
1975	• Italian F3, 2nd overall, 32 points. • European F3, =10th overall, 6 points in a March 753 Novamotor.
1976	• European F3, 3rd overall, 36 points, 2 wins in a Scuderia Everest March 763 Toyota Novamotor
1977	• Formula 2, =17th overall, 3 points in a Minardi Ralt RT1 Ferrari.
1978	• Formula 2 driving for Minardi, and in a March BMW. • European Sportscar Championship, 1 race in a Lola T286 Ford.
Formula One
1979	• Kauhsen WK004/WK005 Cosworth, 2 entries, 2 DNQs. • Merzario A3 Cosworth, 1 entry, 1 DNPQ.
After Formula One
1979	• Le Mans 24hrs in a Pietromarchi De Tomaso Pantera with Pietromarchi and Micangeli.
1982-83	• Began racing touring cars for Alfa Romeo.
1984	• European Touring Car Championship, 3rd overall in an Eggenberger BMW.
1985	• European Touring Car Championship, 1st overall in an Eggenberger Volvo 240 Turbo. • Macau Guia race, 1st place. • World Sportscar Championship, 2 races in a Cheetah G604 Aston Martin.
1986	• European Touring Car Championship in a TWR Jaguar XJS. • World Sportscar Championship in a TWR Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-6.
1987	• World Touring Car Championship in a works BMW M3. • World Sportscar Championship, =25th overall, 20 points in a Brun Porsche 962S. • Daytona 24hrs, 2nd place in a Brun Porsche 962S with Larrauri and Sigala.
1988	• Italian Touring Car Championship, 1st overall in a Jolly Club Alfa Romeo 75. • Daytona 24hrs with Larrauri and Sigala.
1989	• German Touring Car Championship, 9th overall in a Ford Sierra RS500. • Spa 24hrs, 1st place. • Nurburgring 24hrs, 3rd place. • Le Mans 24hrs, 2nd place in a Sauber Mercedes C9 with Baldi and Acheson. • Bathurst 1000 in a Mark Petch Ford Sierra RS500 with Francevic. • NZ Endurance series in a Mark Petch Ford Sierra RS500 with Francevic.
1990	• World Sportscar Championship, 19th overall, 6 points in an Alba AR20 Subaru and works Nissan R90CK.
1991	• Italian Touring Car Championship, 1 win in an Alfa Romeo.
1992-3	• Italian Superbikes on a Ducati 888.
1994	• Malaysian Super Touring Championship in a Toyota Carina.
1995	• Malaysian Super Touring Championship in a Toyota Carina. • Daytona 24hrs in a Euromotorsports Ferrari 333SP with Julian, Sigala and Barbazza.
1996	• Malaysian Super Touring Championship in a Team Petronas Ford Mondeo.
1997	• Malaysian Super Touring Championship in a Team Petronas Ford Mondeo. • Australian Super Touring Championship in a Team Petronas Ford Mondeo. • Daytona 24hrs in a Porsche 911.
1999	• Johor Super Saloon Race Series, 1 win in a Team Petronas Mazda RX-7.

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