Arturo Merzario

Arturo Merzario, an Italian driver born in 1943, competed in Formula 1 from 1972 to 1979, accumulating fifty-eight starts across eight consecutive seasons. His career began at the very top, with Ferrari, and ended with a team bearing his own name.

The Ferrari years of 1972 and 1973 were his most productive: a point in his debut season was followed by six points and twelfth in the championship in 1973, which would remain his best overall finish. A move to Iso Marlboro in 1974 brought four more points, and a season with Williams followed in 1975.

From there the results dried up. Two pointless years with March in 1976 and 1977 preceded the launch of the Merzario team, with which he contested the 1978 and 1979 seasons, again without scoring.

All eleven of Merzario's career points therefore came in his first three seasons. His willingness to keep racing through five scoreless years afterwards, ultimately in his own machinery, marks him as one of the more persistent privateers of 1970s Formula 1.