“I was planning to go and see him these days, but I didn’t have time. I received the phone call from his son Carlo and he gave me the bad news.” Bruno Giacomelli was very struck by the passing of Giovanni Marelli, the engineer who divided his time between Ferrari and Alfa Romeo before arriving at American racing. Graduated in mechanical engineering at the University of Padua, Marelli left us at the age of 84, after having retired to his home in Bardolino on Lake Garda. For years he had been undergoing three dialysis sessions a week, but no one thought of a sudden end.
“He was an important figure for Alfa Romeo before the arrival of Gerard Ducarouge – continues Giacomelli – we worked side by side in the 1980 season, the first complete one after his return to F1. Together we experienced the growth of a car that at the beginning of the year took second from the best, but which at the end of the season allowed me to score pole position in the Watkins Glen GP. That championship was extraordinary: we had made a huge leap in quality and Gianni had contributed in an important way, as, obviously, Carlo Chiti, the great boss, had done.”
The call to leave Ferrari and join Alfa Romeo in Marelli had come from none other than the president of Biscione, Giuseppe Luraghi, who wanted to strengthen a racing team, Autodelta, which was reaping successes in tourism with the Giulia GTA and GTAm and in Sports Prototypes with the Alfa 33.
“Giovanni was the engineer I worked with – insists Giacomelli – and we had achieved an excellent relationship. He was good at understanding my needs on the track and was good at developing the car, driven by the desire to innovate. I remember that we had a frame that started with aluminum panels that had been replaced by carbon skins. I had the opportunity to try the single-seater for 1981 in Balocco: it was the best F1 I have ever driven. Too bad it never raced because miniskirts were banned and the car was completely redone. Marelli, thanks to Chiti, had been very involved in that project…”.
He joined Ferrari in 1967 with the task of following the Dino program both in Formula 2 and in the mountains where the 206S Dino Montagna raced. He had made himself known so much that he soon arrived in F1 and endurance racing until the beginning of the seventies, when Giovanni chose the Biscione instead of the Cavallino: the aspiration was to find an environment that was driven by the desire for innovation, while in Maranello there was a very rational pragmatism.
Giovanni Marelli with Mario Andretti in 1981
In Alfa Romeo Marelli had deepened his acquaintance with Mario Andretti, a driver to whom he remained so attached that he left Europe after his long experience in Autodelta, to go overseas: in the United States he had found fertile ground for his creativity with MCM , a company of which he was CEO that offered cutting-edge technological solutions. In CART he had achieved great satisfaction with the Newman-Haas team which raced “Piedone”.
The funeral rite will take place tomorrow at 2pm in Gallarate, where the engineer will be buried. Motorsport.com’s condolences to his wife Fiorella and son Carlo.
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