Notes:
Giovanni Salvati, Giovannino or even Giannino as he was known by family and friends, was born in 1941 in Castellamare di Stabia, province of Napoli, Italy, where his father Narciso managed a service station in Corso Vittorio Emanuele. His family moved to Milan when he was a boy and Narciso Salvati opened a tyre shop in Viale Umbria, where Giovanni and his younger brother Adriano completed their apprenticeship program. Giovanni Salvati grew up nearly the Monza circuit, where he made his racing debut at the age of 24, taking part in a Formula 875-Monza Trofeo Cadetti race. In 1966 he finished third in the series, at the wheel of an Ambivero-Fiat, behind the winner Franco Guffanti and Santino Pancotti, second, who both drove CRM cars.
The Formula 875-Monza was an Italian category of small single-seaters fitted with a Fiat 500 Giardiniera, 499 cm3 straight-2 engine, created in 1964 by Luigi Bertett, then the President of Automobile Club of Italy, along with Romolo Tavoni, former Scuderia Ferrari team manager and the engineers Aurelio Lampredi and Alberto Massimino. All the races of the Trofeo Cadetti (Cadets Trophy), which first edition was organised in 1965, were held on the 2.405-kilometer (1.495-mile) Junior circuit of Monza. Among the artisan car manufacturers, mostly from the Milan area, who built Formula 875-Monza cars were Santandrea, CRM, Thiele, Ambivero, MZ, Corsini, SAAV, Gibertini-Oleari, Vargiu, Lab, Melesi, Cavallini, Repetto and others. The name "875-Monza" indicated the maximum cost of the chassis (875,000 Italian-Lire, some 1,700$ at the time), in the early years of the series. The Formula 875-Monza has not to be confused with the Formula 850, a different single-seater national category, more performant and expensive, that was created in 1966. In recent years, the Trofeo Cadetti changed from Formula Monza to Fiat Panda 1000-powered Formula Panda in 1983, and to Formula Fire in 1988, using Fiat Fire 1000 engine. In 1995 it was named definitively as Formula Junior, with Fiat Punto 1200 engine. Since then, races were organized also in different Italian tracks.
In 1967 Giovanni Salvati moved up to Formula 850, driving a craftmade Zambarbieri and later a Degrada and a De Sanctis, scoring four wins in two years. In 1969 he and his brother founded the Scuderia Italia, which was created to rent Formula 875 Monza cars to young drivers. The team acquired a year-old Tecno 68-Ford and Giovanni made his debut in the Italian Formula 3 Championship, on 06 April 1969, in the Premio Novolan held at Monza Junior circuit. As a newcomer, he set the pole position at his very first race at Monza, driving under pouring rain. At Monza, which later became his preferred track, Salvati made a great performance, fighting on par with a talented younthful from Sweden named Ronnie Peterson, who drove a works Tecno. Peterson won the first heat, Salvati the second, and they started from the first row in the final, duelling furiously for the lead during the whole race. The American Cliff Haworth in another Tecno, who followed in third place, was even lapped by the leaders midway through the race. Unfortunately gearbox failure forced Salvati into a withdraw while leading, after signing the fastest lap of the race. Mad-Ronnie inherited the lead with just seven laps to the line and waved his hand toward him. He was later quoted as saying that "A true champion does not calculate, a true champion fights for the victory and not for scoring points, as you Italians usually do. Salvati today drove like a true champion!" During the season, the pair battled hard several other times against each other, at Monza and in different European tracks, becoming firm friends. Even their blue and yellow helmets were similar. Peterson spoke so well about him to the Pedrazzani brothers of the Novamotor, that they later helped Salvati in tuning his racing Ford engines.
By the end of the 1969, Salvati was hired by team Autodelta-Alfa Romeo's sporting director Roberto Bussinello, to participate in a testing session at Monza, in sight of the following European Touring Car Championship season. With him, were selected a large number of Italian young drivers, who tested a works Alfa Romeo GTA Junior 1300 on the 5.750-kilometer "Stradale" circuit, without chicanes. Among them were the likes of Gian Luigi Picchi, who set the fastest time, Raffaele Restivo, Massimo Larini, "Hoga", Alberto Rosselli, "Baronio", Carlo Zuccoli, Luigi Rinaldi, Vittorio Venturi, Enzo Corti, Alfio Gambero and Vittorio Brambilla, to name just a few.
Eventually Giovanni Salvati was not signed by Autodelta-Alfa Romeo and returned to single-seater racing. In spite of the chronic low budget problems of the Scuderia Italia, Salvati continued his career with determination. 1970 marked his best season when he finally won the Italian Formula 3 Championship title, dominating the series with four outright wins - two at Monza, one at Imola and one at Linas-Montlhéry -, and three second places, at the wheel of a Tecno 70-Ford, ahead of Picchi and Sandro Cinotti.
Giovanni Salvati, winner of the Italian Formula 3 Championship in 1970 aboard his Tecno 70-Ford.
Photo courtesy of Pino Mariella. Reproduced under kind permission, all rights reserved.
During the season, suddenly Salvati was hired by the brothers Gianfranco and Luciano Pederzani, founders of Tecno Automobili, to drive a factory Tecno Formula 2 car in the non-championship 1970 Gran Premio Lotteria at Monza. Salvati who started the race in great shape, was able to closely follow the leaders Gerry Birrell's Brabham BT30-Ford and Ernesto Brambilla's private Ferrari Dino, until the last lap, when he overtook them both on the approach to the Parabolica bend, and won the race!
Two months later at Pergusa Salvati drove once again the works Tecno Formula 2 car, but he did not finish the race, crashing and suffering an injured foot. Back to Formula 3, Salvati campaigned his own Tecno in Europe, scoring outright victories at Linas-Montlhéry, Magny Cours and Hockenheim. He also won a race of the Torneio Brasileiro de Formula 3, held just at Tarumã, Porto Alegre, finishing second in points, behind Wilson Fittipaldi's Lotus. He was awarded the first prize in the "Casco d'Oro" ceremony by the Italian magazine Autosprint, in December of 1970.
In sight of the World Sportscar Championship, during the Winter Salvati carried several testing runs with team Abarth, driving their powerful 2-litre sportscar. Before the beginning of the 1971 European Formula 2 Championship, he was considered as one of the favorites for the title, but his season soon became a disaster. He didn't drive until May, when he joined the Scuderia Ala d'Oro and made his debut in a March 712M-Ford. Salvati obtained an impressive second place in July at Imola, close behind the winner José Carlos Pace in a Frank Williams Racing March 712M-Ford.
Salvati's last victory occured on 19 September 1971, when he won the Coppa Agip at Monza, before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the South-American Formula 2 series. He had accepted the invitation by Aquilino Branca to drive his new white Branca 71-Ford Formula 3 car at Monza, in the final round of the Italian Formula 3 Championship. Salvati won the race, beating Carlo Giorgio's Tecno and Sandro Cinotti's De Sanctis.
In Brazil for the 1971 Torneio Brasileiro de Fórmula 2, he finished fifth in the opening race at Interlagos and did not finish the second event at the same track, driving the March 712M of the Scuderia Ala d'Oro, which Ford Cosworth FVA engine was tuned by Branca. Then the Formula 2 circus moved to Tarumã.
During the third round of the series, held at Tarumã circuit, near Viamão in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on Sunday, 14 November 1971, Giovanni Salvati was dicing for the fourth place with Wilson Fittipaldi in another March 712M. On 24th of the 30-lap second heat, he tried to overtake him by diving into the inside of the Turn 1 left-hander. But the move was not possible, Salvati missed the braking point and slid on the left over the gravel, going straight into the barrier. At the time the Turn 1 guardrail was located right at the edge of the track, without any run-off area. Also, Tarumã topography, with the track located on the top of a hill, offered little room for escape zones. Salvati's March got wedged underneath the bottom element of the guardrail, and the promising Italian talent suffered extreme injuries, to which he would not survive. He was 30 years old.
At the time the Italian press reported that during the Brazilian series, before losing his life Giovanni Salvati met Graham Hill who was in Brazil, driving a Rondel Racing's Brabham BT36-Ford. They went out together, talked to each other to know how their cars were handling, and reached an agreement to race together in sight of the next season.
A couple of years after Salvati's death, an Italian racing team was founded in Desio, province of Milan, and named "Scuderia Giovanni Salvati" in his honor. Founders of the team were Vittorio Gargiulo, a journalist, and Adriano Salvati with a group of former Formula 875 Monza drivers and friends, including Pippo Cascone, Mario Simone Vullo, Pier Emilio Barlassina and Pippo Bianchi. Amongst the early members of the team were a few youngsters of great promise such as Michele Alboreto, Giovanni Lavaggi and Dindo Capello.
|
Sources:
- Book "Albo della Gloria: Al Piloti Caduti in Tutto il Mondo al Loro Posto di Combattimento", by Emanuele Carli, Modena, Italy, 1972, page 75.
-
Book "I miei anni in Autodelta" by Gian Luigi Picchi, Drive Experience, 2018, ISBN 978-88-942803-2-6.
-
Book "The International Motor Racing Guide", by Peter Higham, David Bull Publishing, Phoenix, United States, ISBN 1-893618-20-X.
-
Book Autosprint Anno 1970.
-
Book Autosprint Anno 1971.
-
Magazine Auto Italiana, issue N. 49, December 1969 [D1].
-
Magazine Autosprint, issue of 15 November 1971.
-
Magazine Autosprint, issue of 22 November 1971.
-
Magazine Rombo, issue of 21 March 1983.
-
Website Motor Racing Circuits, by Daniel King, page http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk/racingcircuits/Brazil/Taruma.html .
-
Website AUTOSPORT → Forums → The Nostalgia Forum, thread "Speed's Ultimate Price: The Toll", page 24, posting by "pyrytus", message http://forums.autosport.com/topic/9705-speeds-ultimate-price-the-toll/page-24#entry1499785 .
-
Website AUTOSPORT → Forums → The Nostalgia Forum, thread "Speed's Ultimate Price: The Toll", page 24, posting by "gdecarli", message http://forums.autosport.com/topic/9705-speeds-ultimate-price-the-toll/page-24#entry1500148 citing magazine Autosprint Anno 1984.
-
Website Formel 3 Guide, page http://www.formel3guide.com/stat/meister-italien.htm .
-
Website Motor Emotion, page http://www.motoremotion.it/2013/05/19/giovanni-salvati-un-giovane-entusiasta-delle-corse/ .
-
Website Motor Emotion, page http://www.motoremotion.it/2013/12/19/scuderia-salvati-fucina-di-piloti/ .
-
Website Lo Sport a Castellammare di Stabia, page http://www.liberoricercatore.it/Sport/automobilismo/Giovannino_Salvati.htm .
-
Website Le Mans & Formula 2 Register by Stefan Örnerdal, page https://www.the-fastlane.co.uk/formula2/F369_E5.htm .
-
Website Le Mans & Formula 2 Register by Stefan Örnerdal, page https://www.the-fastlane.co.uk/formula2/F270_9.htm .
-
Website Le Mans & Formula 2 Register by Stefan Örnerdal, page https://www.the-fastlane.co.uk/formula2/F371_E64.htm .
-
Website Le Mans & Formula 2 Register by Stefan Örnerdal, page https://www.the-fastlane.co.uk/formula2/F271_28.htm .
-
E-mail by Nanni Dietrich, dated 23 February 2004.
-
E-mail by Nanni Dietrich, dated 05 July 2004, citing [D1].
-
Private message by Pino Mariella, dated 11 December 2010.
|
