On this week #23: Ludovico Scarfiotti

On 8 June 1968, Ludovico Scarfiotti was killed in practice for the Rossfeld-Berchtesgarden Hillclimb in Germany, a round of the European Hillclimb Championship. The Italian was at the wheel of a Porsche that went off the road in circumstances that have never been fully explained,

Scarfiotti is best remembered for his one and only Formula 1 win, in the 1966 Italian Grand Prix. To this date, he is still the last Italian to win his home race and at the wheel of a Ferrari no less. And yet, some of his other victories were possibly even more prestigious. He was a true amateur, one of the last of the real “gentleman drivers.” He was born into a very wealthy family, his grandfather, whose name he bore, was the first president of FIAT and he was a cousin of Gianni Agnelli. Scarfiotti first came to prominence in 1958, winning the Italian sports car championship with OSCA. Enzo Ferrari took him on for a few races in 1960, but the results were nothing special, but in 1962, the Commendatore gave him a second chance, running a Dino 196 SP in the European Hill Climb Championship, which he duly won. That earned him a place with the works team for 1963, when he made his Formula 1 debut, finishing sixth in his first real race, the Dutch Grand Prix. That same year, he also won the 12 Hours of Sebring teamed with John Surtees and, most importantly,  again at the wheel of a 250 P, the Le Mans 24 Hours, this time paired with fellow countryman Lorenzo Bandini. However, in practice for the French Grand Prix at Reims he had a terrible crash which left him with broken legs.

For the next two years, Scarfiotti raced occasionally in Formula 1 for the Scuderia, but he was best known for his sports car exploits, twice winning the Nürburgring 1000 Kilometres, in 1964 with Ninni Vaccarella  and in 1965 with Surtees, also taking his second European hillclimb title that same year.

In 1966, after a falling-out between Ferrari and Surtees, Scarfiotti was once again given the call to race for the Prancing Horse in Formula 1 and so came that amazing win in Monza. However, the victory on home soil did not open the gates to further success and in fact, Ludovico only raced in a further six Grands Prix, two with Ferrari, one with an Eagle through his friendship with Dan Gurney and three with Cooper and at the end of 1967 his relationship with the Scuderia also came to an end. The following year, Scarfiotti was signed to the factory Porsche team to compete in the European Hillclimb Championship, in which he had done so well with the Italian marque, but following a second place in Montseny, Spain, the gentleman driver met his tragic end at Rossfeld.

In his book “Piloti, che gente,” Enzo Ferrari remembered him thus: “He left Ferrari and looked elsewhere, in England and Germany, but he wasn't happy. I knew it and we had already sown the seeds for a return, for another season racing in red, with the team he never forgot. But then, he was caught out at Rossfeld by the rockface that threw him from his Porsche and that was how he ended. He was generous, correct and above all easy going. However, his moments of pride meant that, in countless endurance races, he was unable to find that happiness that his love life had measured out to him in a measly see-saw of affections.”