Bruno Giacomelli

Bruno, who sees himself as 'cool but enthusiastic', seemed to be well set for a successful Grand Prix career, but after he had been given some excellent early opportunities his star waned and was eventually reduced to a distant flicker.

Bruno came through Formula Italia to contest the 1976 BP Formula 3 championship in a March, and he did very well to run a close second to Rupert Keegan in his first season in the category. Benefiting from the close attentions of Robin Herd and the March factory, Giacomelli graduated to Formula 2 in 1977 and took three wins, but suffered through poor reliability. Enjoying substantial backing, he made his Grand Prix debut in a third works McLaren in selected races, but at this point he was still focusing on Formula 2. In 1978 he blitzed the opposition, winning eight of the 12 rounds in the works March to become the first Italian ever to win the title.

In 1979, Bruno joined the Alfa Romeo team for what was to be very much a learning year. The gloves were off in 1980 and at first he floundered, prone to silly errors which undid much good work. Then, after Depailler's death in a mid-season testing accident, he found himself leading the team, and rose to the challenge magnificently.

Maybe he lacked motivation, for while there were occasions during the next three seasons when his undoubted ability shone, too often he seemed uninterested and at odds with his machinery. Out of a Grand Prix drive from 1984, Giacomelli surfaced occasionally in Indy Car and sports car racing over the next few seasons to no great effect, so it was a considerable surprise when he was brought into the Life team in 1990 to replace the disenchanted Gary Brabham. The exercise was something of a joke, however, as Bruno rarely seemed to venture beyond the pit lane.

In 1995 Giacomelli was keeping his hand in racing a Porsche in the Monza four-hour race, and after two seasons away from the tracks he garnered enough sponsorship in 1998 to contest the highly competitive Porsche Supercup series, where he performed more than respectably on occasion.