Gianfranco Brancatelli

Gianfranco Brancatelli (born 18 January 1950 in Turin, Piedmont) is a former racing driver from Italy.

Gianfranco Brancatelli

Brancatelli in 1974
Born	(1950-01-18) 18 January 1950 (age 73) Turin, Italy
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Italian
Active years	1979
Teams	Kauhsen, Merzario
Entries	3 (0 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1979 Spanish Grand Prix
Last entry	1979 Monaco Grand Prix

Career

His racing career began in 1973, in the Formula Abarth series. In 1975, he advanced to Italian Formula 3 racing. Brancatelli entered 3 Formula One Grands Prix in 1979 with Kauhsen (2 failures to qualify) and Merzario (1 failure to pre-qualify).

After his departure from Formula 1, Brancatelli went on to race in several Touring Car series, with some success. He would finish 4th in the 1984 European Touring Car Championship driving a BMW 635 CSi for Eggenberger Motorsport. For the 1985 ETCC, Eggenberger switched to the turbocharged Volvo 240T (while the championship winning Tom Walkinshaw Racing would switch from their powerful V12 Jaguar XJS' to the V8 powered Rover Vitesse), and along with Swedish driver Thomas Lindström, Brancatelli became the European Touring Car Champion, winning six out of fourteen races (Anderstorp, Zeltweg, Salzburgring, Nürburgring, Zolder and Estoril), along with three 2nd places and two 3rd places.

In 1986, Brancatelli switched to Tom Walkinshaw Racing where he drove a Rover Vitesse in the 1986 FIA International Touring Car Championship (essentially a renamed ETCC), but dropped to 12th in the standings winning only once at Andestorp. In 1987 the Italian driver would again switch teams, driving a BMW M3 for Italian outfit CiBiemme Sport in the 1987 World Touring Car Championship where he partnered another former Formula One driver Johnny Cecotto to win the 500 km de Bourgogne at Dijon-Prenois. He finished 8th in the WTCC while finishing 5th in the 1987 ETCC, also for CiBiemme, winning twice at Estoril and Zolder.

The 1988 ETCC saw Brancatelli on the move again, this time going back to Eggenberger Motorsport where he would serve as a driver in the team's 3rd Texaco Ford Sierra RS500 in a number of rounds. Brancatelli would also win the 1988 Italian Touring Car Championship driving a privately entered Alfa Romeo 75.

Other than his success in the 1985 ETCC, arguably Brancatelli's biggest wins in touring car racing were the 1985 Guia Race of Macau driving a Volvo 240T, and the 1989 Spa 24 Hours driving an Eggenberger Ford Sierra RS500 along with Bernd Schneider (yet another F1 driver, this time a current one) and Win Percy. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Brancatelli also travelled to Australia to drive in the Bathurst 1000 touring car race, though success would generally elude him. His best finish was in the 1987 WTCC round, the 1987 James Hardie 1000 where he and Johnny Cecotto would finish 7th outright and 3rd in class, though as they were the first registered WTCC drivers to finish the race they would receive top points for the round. His three other races at Bathurst in 1989, 1990 and 1991 would result in two failed to finish and one disqualification due to a technical infringement.

Brancatelli also raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on five occasions. His best finish was second place in the 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans driving a Sauber C9 for Team Sauber Mercedes, co-driving with ex-Formula One drivers Mauro Baldi and Kenny Acheson. His four other races at Le Mans (1979, 1980, 1986 and 1990) all saw him fail to finish the race.

Brancatelli would continue racing until his retirement in the late 1990s.

Racing record

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Pos.	Pts
1976	Scuderia Everest	March 752	BMW	HOC	THR	VAL	SAL	PAU	HOC	ROU	MUG 12	PER	EST	NOG	HOC		NC	0
1977	Scuderia Everest	Ralt RT1	Ferrari	SIL DNS	THR DNS	HOC	NÜR	VAL 13	PAU 12	MUG 8	ROU 4	NOG Ret	PER Ret	MIS Ret	EST DNQ	DON	17th	3
1978	Everest Racing Team	Chevron B40	BMW	THR	HOC DNQ	NÜR	PAU	MUG	VAL								NC	0
	Bob Salisbury Racing	March 782	BMW							ROU DNQ	DON 8	NOG	PER Ret	MIS Ret	HOC
1979	Racing Team Everest	March 792	BMW	SIL	HOC	THR	NÜR	VAL	MUG	PAU	HOC	ZAN 10	PER 7	MIS	DON Ret		NC	0

Complete British Formula One Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Pos.	Pts
1979	Willi Kauhsen Racing Team	Kauhsen WK	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ZOL Ret	OUL	BRH	MAL												NC	0
	Dicksons of Perth	March 772P	Hart 420R 2.0 L4					SNE Ret	THR	ZAN	DON	OUL	NOG	MAL	BRH	THR	SNE	SIL
1980	Colin Bennett Racing	Lotus 78	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	OUL	BRH	SIL	MAL	THR	MNZ Ret	MAL	SNE	BRH	THR	OUL	SIL				NC	0

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	WDC	Pts
1979	Willi Kauhsen Racing Team	Kauhsen WK	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	ESP DNQ	BEL DNQ										NC	0
	Team Merzario	Merzario A2								MON DNPQ	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	USA	CAN
Source:^[1]

Complete European Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Pos.	Pts
1980		BMW 3.0 CSi	MNZ DNQ	VAL 16	BRH Ret	SAL	BRN DNQ	PER	NÜR	SIL	ZOL						NC	0
1981	Dieter Schmid	BMW 635 CSi	MNZ	VAL	DON 5	SAL	BRN	PER	SIL	ZOL								8
1982	Luigi Team	Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV6	MNZ 6	VAL 6	DON Ret	PER DNS	MUG 7	BRN 7	SAL 6	NÜR Ret	SPA Ret	SIL Ret	ZOL 7					30
1983	Jolly Club Milano	Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV6	MNZ ?	VAL 24	DON Ret	PER 6	MUG Ret	BRN Ret	ZEL 14	NÜR Ret	SAL 8	SPA 6	SIL 23	ZOL Ret
1984	BMW Italia	BMW 635 CSi	MNZ 2	VAL 4	DON Ret	PER 4	BRN 5	ZEL 6	SAL 3	NÜR 1	SPA Ret	SIL 1	ZOL Ret	MUG 4			4th	151
1985	Eggenberger Motorsport	Volvo 240T	MNZ Ret	VAL 2	DON 4	AND 1	BRN 2	ZEL 1	SAL 1	NÜR 1	SPA 3	SIL 3	NOG 6	ZOL 1	EST 1	JAR 2	1st	240
1986	TWR – Bastos Texaco Racing Team	Rover Vitesse	MNZ	DON 4	HOC Ret	MIS	AND 1	BRN 4	ZEL DNS	NÜR 3	SPA	SIL Ret	NOG Ret	ZOL	JAR 4	EST 4	12th	123
1987	CiBiEmme Sport	BMW M3	DON Ret	EST 1	AND 2	ZOL Ret	ZEL 1	IMO 2	NOG Ret								5th	150
1988	Jolly Club	Ford Sierra RS500	MNZ	DON	EST	JAR Ret											26th	80
	Eggenberger Motorsport						DIJ 2	VAL Ret	NÜR 2	SPA Ret	ZOL	SIL 4	NOG

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Pts
1987	CiBiEmme Sport	BMW M3	MNZ	JAR ovr:8 cls:6	DIJ ovr:1 cls:1	NÜR Ret	SPA Ret	BRN ovr:5 cls:3	SIL Ret	BAT ovr:7 cls:3	CLD ovr:4 cls:2	WEL Ret	FUJ ovr:6 cls:3	8th	158

† Despite finishing 7th outright at Bathurst, as the highest placed registered WTCC car Brancatelli was awarded 1st place points for the round.

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position in class) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap in class - 1 point awarded all races)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	DC	Pts	Class
1988	Eggenberger Motorsport	Ford Sierra RS500	A	SIL	OUL	THR	DON	THR	SIL	SIL	BRH	SNE	BRH	BIR	DON	SIL 1	23rd	10	9th

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	Pos.	Pts
1989	Ford Motorsport Eggenberger	Ford Sierra RS 500 Cosworth	ZOL 1 23	ZOL 2 Ret	HOC 1 14	HOC 2 8	NÜR 1 10	NÜR 2 10	MFA 1 11	MFA 2 13	AVU 1 DNS	AVU 2 DNS	NÜR 1 13	NÜR 2 11	NOR 1 11	NOR 2 Ret	HOC 1 9	HOC 2 11	DIE 1 5	DIE 2 2	NÜR 1 11	NÜR 2 10	HOC 1 4	HOC 2 9	9th	162

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1979	Carlo Pietromarchi	Carlo Pietromarchi   Maurizio Micangeli	De Tomaso Pantera	Gr.5 +2.0	108	NC	NC
1980	Scuderia Lancia Corse	Piercarlo Ghinzani   Markku Alén	Lancia Beta Monte Carlo	Gr.5	26	DNF	DNF
1986	Silk Cut Jaguar   Tom Walkinshaw Racing	Win Percy   Hurley Haywood	Jaguar XJR-6	C1	154	DNF	DNF
1989	Team Sauber Mercedes	Mauro Baldi   Kenny Acheson	Sauber C9 Mercedes-Benz	C1	384	2nd	2nd
1990	Nissan Motorsports International	Mark Blundell   Julian Bailey	Nissan R90CK	C1	142	DNF	DNF
Source:^[2]

Complete Bathurst 1000 results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1987	CiBiEmme Sport   BMW Motorsport	Johnny Cecotto	BMW M3	2	163	7th	3rd
1989	Mark Petch Motorsport	Robbie Francevic	Ford Sierra RS500	A	14	DNF	DNF
1990	Mark Petch Motorsport	Robb Gravett	Ford Sierra RS500	1	118	DNF	DNF
1991	Allan Moffat Enterprises	Charlie O'Brien	Ford Sierra RS500	1	158	DSQ	DSQ

References

1. Small, Steve (1994). The Guinness Complete Grand Prix Who's Who. Guinness. p. 409. ISBN 0851127029.
2. "Gianfranco Brancatelli, Italy". racingsportscars.com. Retrieved 14 September 2017.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by Tom Walkinshaw	European Touring Car Championship Champion 1985 With: Thomas Lindström	Succeeded by Roberto Ravaglia
Preceded by Tom Walkinshaw	Guia Race Winner 1985	Succeeded by Johnny Cecotto
Preceded by Michele di Gioia	Italia Superturismo Championship Champion 1988	Succeeded by Johnny Cecotto
Preceded by Altfrid Heger Dieter Quester Roberto Ravaglia	Winner of the Spa 24 Hours 1989 With: Win Percy & Bernd Schneider	Succeeded by Markus Oestreich Fabien Giroix Johnny Cecotto