Farewell to Giovanni Marelli, former technical director at Ferrari and Alfa Romeo

Engineer Giovanni Marelli has handed away on the age of 84. Born in 1940 and graduated in mechanical engineering in Padua, he joined Ferrari in 1967, tasked with overseeing the Dino in each Components 2 and hill climbs within the racing division. After successes on the Tasman Cup with driver Chris Amon, beating Jim Clark’s Lotus, he adopted the sports activities competitions and Components 1 till the early Nineteen Seventies, when he left Ferrari to affix Alfa Romeo. He obtained a direct name from Alfa Romeo President Giuseppe Luraghi, who wished him to work alongside engineer Carlo Chiti as Alfa expanded its involvement within the Prototype Championship with the Alfa Romeo 33 and in touring races with the GTA and GTAm. He additionally labored on rallying in preparation for the arrival of vital fashions just like the Alfa Sud and Alfetta, which went on to win in each class they participated in. Amongst his achievements had been 8 out of 8 victories within the Prototype Championship with the 33 Stradale, the Group 2 Rally Championship with Pregliasco’s Alfetta, and the European Championship with the GTAm.

Alfa Romeo’s racing division, Autodelta, needed to develop to compete in Components 1, in addition to in experimentation and manufacturing. Alfa Romeo had factories in South Africa and South America, and racing was strategic for testing new options. Marelli himself recounted lately: “These had been fascinating but additionally sophisticated years. With Luraghi, Alfa was increasing increasingly: factories in South Africa, rising presence in Europe and the USA… racing was strategic, and everybody was concerned. However political pressures had been immense. In touring races, we had been very robust with a automotive born in 1965, the GTA. In ’77, we gained eight out of eight races with the 33 Fernet, and we had two engines, naturally aspirated and turbo. As a result of we all the time needed to experiment, innovate, to remain on prime.”

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He defined that with Chiti, they had been always working and experimenting as a result of they might by no means be happy. “In Ferrari, there was meticulous growth with designs and specs; in Alfa, it wasn’t like that, it was all hustle and bustle as a result of we had been actually engaged in a way more bold and strategic industrial actuality with only a few folks,” Marelli mentioned. “These days, it’s mentioned that all the pieces is accelerating, however it has all the time been like that. From tubular frames to boxed chassis, on all fronts, we had been by no means happy, and with engineer Chiti, we insisted on rallying and coming into Components 1 after our expertise as engine suppliers to Brabham. Let’s say we reached a place of absolute management: rally, prototypes, F1, manufacturing: we managed to be all over the place with an distinctive community of firms round us. Brembo, for instance, we pushed lots, and we reached the highest with the 4-piston caliper for the Giulietta Turbodelta: it braked higher than the Porsche; with Spica, we accelerated high-pressure gas injection… And the rallies? The folks from Turin would arrive with helicopters and limitless assets; we had been a state-owned firm with events intervening in budgets, which had been reduce to the bone, however with engineer Chiti, miracles had been carried out! In rallies, our assist was my Alfetta with a dry sump, 4-valve head, and 150,000 km on the chassis, additionally serving as a reconnaissance mule together with the Romeo van and a Giulia Break for quick help,” he remembers. “We shortly developed the Alfetta GTV Group 2 as a result of we wished to reply to the Turin groups who had been dominating: beneficiant wheels from the 33, appropriate suspensions, light-weight elements, and a strong however not overly pushed engine. Conrero’s Opel was there with Ormezzano. Our Alfetta ran like a practice within the arms of Mauro Pregliasco. A terrific driver and man, like Ickx, Andretti… In Group 2, we managed unattainable feats, like staying forward of the numerous Fiat 131s, together with these of Verini, Bettega, and Tony Fassina, or Vudafieri’s Stratos.”

Marelli’s story continues: “On the similar time, we had been creating our return to F1, which, with nice effort and dedication, led us to take pole with Bruno Giacomelli on the finish of the 1980 season. We had carried out a rare job; it was the period of floor impact, the battle between FISA and FOCA, between Jean Marie Balestre and Bernie Ecclestone, with a closely concerned Ferrari but additionally Renault with the turbos, Jones’ Williams, and Piquet’s Brabham, particularly Bernie Ecclestone with Parmalat’s tremendous budgets. It was a interval the place President Ettore Massacesi, engineer Carlo Chiti, and I had been below immense strain as a result of some elements of politics wished us to shut down. Many individuals got here from Olivetti, a number of advertising, however little product and efficiency. I wish to stress that, along with Ferrari, we had been the one ones to do all the pieces in-house, from the chassis to the engine, however with many constraints. In Ferrari, one individual determined, in Alfa… a parliament! Seeing our automotive on pole on the Watkins Glen GP, simply two years after debuting, and after shedding one among my dearest buddies and drivers, Patrick Depailler, was really one of the vital and troublesome moments of my life. The automotive we had was lastly very robust, Bruno gave a twelve-second lead in just a few laps to the pursuer. Then, {the electrical} failure. It occurs. We didn’t take it badly as a result of we knew we had all the probabilities to win the Championship the next yr. And it was determined to name Andretti, additionally to provide extra assist to Bruno as a result of we wished to win massive, and we actually had the possibility.”

“Sadly, we underestimated the truth that everybody had realized that our Alfa was exhausting to beat on the observe, so the British, in addition to others, pushed for rule adjustments, and the battle between FISA and FOCA intensified with the British groups that weren’t politically right. They interpreted the principles whereas we adopted them to the letter. And we misplaced competitiveness,” Marelli mentioned. “We subsequently accelerated in making Autodelta a extra unbiased entity, attempting to anticipate what AMG and BMW’s Motorsport would turn into. With engineer Chiti, we had ready all the pieces. We had been for rear-wheel drive and the gearbox behind the engine to keep away from shedding energy, however the wind of front-wheel drive was already blowing robust, even for sedans. We even had a 400-horsepower mid-engine twin-turbo two-seater with a boxed body and composite supplies to maintain it gentle. It had the ability that arrived ten years later with the Ferrari F40. However politics had determined to promote Alfa. And I left Alfa Romeo, and so did Chiti, our beloved firm.”

Alternatives by no means fail if you already know what you need. Carl Haas had a Components Indy group co-owned with actor Paul Newman. The thought was born to work with Eric Broadley, founding father of Lola, to construct a lighter automotive with composite supplies. In Italy, engineer Marelli had began a worthwhile collaboration and firm with Monfrini, which was later acquired by Raul Gardini for the Moro di Venezia. He introduced Haas and Broadley to Italy, and the 2 had been deeply impressed by the technological developments, even surpassing these of Boeing. They had been so impressed that they gave carte blanche. And in 1984, that automotive gained the CART Championship with Mario Andretti. Marelli additionally labored with Yamaha on the bike that competed within the Paris-Dakar, ready by the French group Sonauto, engaged on the suspension, engine consumption, and head. In 1991, the Ténéré achieved a triple victory, with Gilles Lalay ending second, behind the legend Stéphane Peterhansel, and Thierry Magnaldi in third.

Within the interview talked about above, engineer Marelli defined what his biggest success was: “Getting back from my first work mission with Ferrari, despatched personally by the Commendatore, with the victories of the Dino. And the following day, sitting on the desk together with his spouse Laura and him. Then repeating the victories with the Dino within the Mountain Championship with Schetty and in addition setting data that lasted for years.” And the bitterest second? “Leaving Alfa Romeo. We had all the pieces, completely all the pieces, to make the leap that the Germans later made. I’m referring to BMW, for instance, but additionally Audi and Mercedes. There was a really short-sighted imaginative and prescient from too many individuals. Ferrari was delusion and keenness; Alfa Romeo was an industrial challenge with a lot wider repercussions. An actual missed alternative, additionally for the nation.”

“The Alfetta with the Montreal V8 to beat the People and the Porsche 935,” Marelli recounted. “A race automotive for patrons developed within the mid-Nineteen Seventies, from which we additionally derived street variations for the German market. We had developed an engine on the take a look at bench that ran at 9,000 rpm with turbo, Spica injection. The automotive had a coated backside, floor impact, twin ignition with 4 valves, supercharging… It was actually forward of its time. But in addition the ethanol engines within the early Nineteen Seventies for environmental advantages: the 1.5 turbo 4-cylinder with 1000 horsepower, the 3-liter V6 twin-turbo with 4 valves, delivering 400 horsepower for street use, which ought to have been the reply to BMW’s six-cylinder turbo for a new-generation flagship to rival the Mercedes S-Class and BMW 7 Collection. Alfa had all of the potential to turn into what Audi, BMW, and Mercedes are as we speak, giants producing over 1 million automobiles, to whom we solely wished to indicate our exhausts—and we succeeded. Assume that by 1978, we had already developed a SUV model for Alfa Romeo based mostly on the Alfa Sud.” The engineer closed: “We had envisioned all the pieces, however it was very troublesome to cope with the chilly wall of ignorance and mediocrity that prevailed over these initiatives.”