It happened today – 27 November

[Rob]

On 27th November 1995, Giancarlo Baghetti died in Milan. Born there on Christmas Day 1934 to well-off family, Giancarlo started racing using a car that belonged to his father, a businessman in the steel industry. The car was prepared by Angelo Dagrada, who in 1960 built Baghetti a Formula Junior single-seater, fitted with a Lancia engine, which the youngster excelled in, to the extent that he was given a chance to compete at the highest level, thanks to FISA, the Federazione Italiana Scuderie Automobilistiche, which was looking for new Italian talent to revive a school that had been decimated by tragic accidents that had accounted for amongst others, Musso and Costelloti. Success in the FISA Cup ahead of the other rising star, Lorenzo Bandini got him the opportunity to race a Ferrari that the Maranello marque had made available to FISA.

1961 got underway with a very nice second place in the Sebring 12 Hours, alongside Willy Mairesse at the wheel of a 246 SP and continued with two Formula 1 races – the Syracuse and Naples Grands Prix, which did not count towards the World Championship, in which Baghetti got a fantastic double win. Olivier Gendebien’s decision to return to the Ecurie Nationale Belge, meant Baghetti got the opportunity to make his debut in the World Championship in the French Grand Prix at Reims. The youngster from Milan took an incredible win, flying past Dan Gurney’s Porsche. “Italian motor sport has its new champion. Now there is no doubt about it,” read the next day’s headline in the Corriere della Sera. However, the rest of his career was not as brilliant as the start. Baghetti became a factory driver for the Maranello Scuderia, but he only managed to get two points finishes in 1962, before giving in, along with Phil Hill, to the siren call of Chiti’s ATS, with disappointing results. From then on, Baghetti made sporadic appearances in the Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix in various private cars, while also scoring good results in sports car racing. In 1968, he announced he was hanging up his helmet and concentrated on his other great passion, photography and journalism.

“When I first got to know Giancarlo Baghetti, I judged him to be a cold blooded youngster, measured and composed,” wrote the usually corrosive Enzo Ferrari in “Piloti, che gente…” “However, in the car he came out of his shell, or maybe it was the car which did that. His career kicked off in style as he immediately achieved great wins. He was promoted by the press as the next Varzi. I can’t say if this was detrimental, but it definitely did not help, and his star rapidly waned. He then became a photographer and he asked if, for a magazine that had little to do with motor sport (Playboy, Editor’s note) he could interview me, or have a ‘candid conversation,’ as they liked to call it. I declined the offer and instead the shiny pages bore a vindictive record of his failed career.”

- See more at: http://formula1.ferrari.com/it-happe....JFwykY26.dpuf

[wisepie]

Shame that so many promising Italian drivers were either killed or faded from prominence after a short time. Today's driver market seems to be heading the same way with pay drivers being on the grid one season and gone the next, not being able to raise the funds.