20 replies to this topic

[island]

Hi!
He had this stupid "Monza Gorilla" nickname.
But in fact he was one of the best in 1975/1976. Certainly as good as his March
teammates Hans-Joachim Stuck and Ronnie
Peterson. And do not forget his magnificient
race at Zeltweg in 1975!
What do you think of him?

[Martyj]

I would stop short of calling Brambilla one of the "best" of 75/76. Much like Jarier, Beltoise, De Cearas (sp?), Mass, Bandini, or Bonnier, he was talented enough run up front occasionally but far from being considered among the top in any given season. Too inconsistent, and way too many mistakes. I believe his single win in Austria has more to do with the fact he happened to be in front on good rain tires when the race was called. Also, he may be the only driver to actually crash as he took the checkered flag.

I also suspect he was a ride buyer with his Beta Tools money. I doubt his talent and accomplishments in lower formulas alone could have earned him a ride in the big leagues.

[ZippyD]

Island,
Interesting, exciting yes. Great,no.

------------------
"I want to tell you something, not about the others but about myself."
"When I saw something like that I used to go to pieces."
"But I'm older now. When I see something really terrible I put my foot down. HARD! Because I know the other person is lifting his."
"What a terrible way to win."
"Cher mademoiselle, there is no terrible way to win. There is only winning."

[Dave Ware]

Let me say again that I could have bought the Gorilla's damanged Surtees nose after the Canadian Grand Prix for $35 and decided it was a frivioulus use of money. Dumb, dumb, dumb...

He had some success in F2 and touring cars but not enough, I believe, to take him to F1. Especially since he was around 38. I believe the Beta Tools sponsorship paved the way to F1. No one expected anything from him. But he did achieve enough results, and show enough speed, to justify his place there. Not "great", but definately "interesting".

It's my understanding that the March team would ship half a dozen extra noses to each race for Brambilla.

There are some great captions to Brambilla photos in one of those Paul Oxman yearbooks that I think you have, Island. There is a shot of him driving a March w/ no nose, and the caption reads "Carrying on with relatively little damage (for him)." And another, a shot of the car just before he crashes: "Preparing to go where no man has gone before, the Monza Gorilla prepares to write off yet another March." Check those out.

He had a brother, Ernesto (sp?) who I think raced F2 with him. There was a Tino Brambilla who raced F2 for Ferrari, I believe in '69, and won three races in a row. I assume it was an older brother. (Or, given Vittorio's age, maybe younger.)

At the time I read in Autoweek a story about Vittorio and Ernesto in their younger years. They both worked in their Dad's Moto Guzzi dealership/repair shop. The boys would ride their Moto Guzzis, at high speed, to work. Riding into the dealership involved negoitating a tight blind turn. It was vitally important that Papa Brambilla remember to open the heavy wooden doors to the dealership parking lot. One morning he forgot to open them. Vroom vroom, turn turn, thunk thunk.

Sadly, we don't have F1 drivers like that anymore. What a character!

Dave

[ZippyD]

When ESPN started broadcasting F1 in the late 80s, early 90s(Keir???)the announcers were Jackie Stewart and John Bisignano(?). Bisignano was a F3, F2 pilot in Europe of some repute.
During one broadcast they were talking about Jackie Stewart's lap records. After Jackie was finished talking about himself(again) he said to John "You're also the holder of a lap record. Aren't you?" Bisignano said "yes, I hold the F2 lap record at Jarama and the only reason I have the record is because I was being chased for the entire race by the "Monza Gorilla.""

------------------
"I want to tell you something, not about the others but about myself."
"When I saw something like that I used to go to pieces."
"But I'm older now. When I see something really terrible I put my foot down. HARD! Because I know the other person is lifting his."
"What a terrible way to win."
"Cher mademoiselle, there is no terrible way to win. There is only winning."

[This message has been edited by ZippyD (edited 05-01-2000).]

[Fast One]

When I was in Milan last September, I was given to understand that Vittorio still works as a mechanic at a garage in Monza (the same one likely). I would have given anything to find it and say hello. Was he great? Well, no, but I liked watching him for some reason. Who can explain why we take a liking to certain drivers? I wasn't able to find him, but it was nice to know he is still around.

[Keir]

ESPN started their coverage in '84.
I always liked Brambilla and didn't care for the "gorilla" nickname. Great is an abstract term. Vittorio was great to watch, but I stop short of calling him a great driver.
His years at March were good ones and Austria was indeed a revelation, but sadly a "one trick pony".
I'll always remember him well!!!

------------------
"I Was Born Ready"

[Jonathan]

While at March Brambilla would sometimes damage/destroy up to four (4) cars in one Grand Prix week-end. Some how they always kept him in a car.

Following the end of the '76 season March released a statement to the affect that they were going to have to scale back their operations as the found it difficult to prepare four cars (they had been running a three and four driver team all though 1976). I think I recall a (Rob Walker ?) comment that the should have said repair not prepare...

[Ray Bell]

Was he not the target of Jenks' comment in the spoof report on the 'Grosser Preiss von Deutscheland'... the one I mentioned once before.. something like:
"When it was all over somebody remarked that they hadn't seen Brambilla since early on Saturday... a long look around the circuit found his car lying wrecked at the bottom of the deepest gorge. It had a note pinned to the steering wheel: 'I didn't think you'd be able to retrieve it from here, so I went home'..."
Such fame!

------------------
Life and love are mixed with pain...

[BRG]

The Monza Gorilla, also known as the Rock-ape, was a throwback to the days of the enthusiastic amateur. In the late 1970s, particularly in Italy, it was still possible to get enough backing to get a fair seat in F1. Brambilla lucked in because he got a March in a year when their car was at least moderately competitive. And to his credit, he achieved a GP win, more than many drivers ever manage. Nor was it a flash in the pan as he ran towards the front on several occasions.

Great? No, he could never be called that. But he fitted the stereotype of the Italian racing driver exactly, and he is one of the brighter spots of F1 history - never a dull, PR-trained, corporate stooge. Colourful, unpredictable (no-one, including himself ever knew what he was going to hit next...!) but above all, an enthusiast and a racer. God, we could do with a few like him these days!

Good health and long life, Vittorio!

------------------
BRG

"all the time, maximum attack"

[Dave Ware]

I did a wee bit of checking last night (my "library" is nothing compared to Mr. Lakes') and was reminded that in addition to his fortunate win at Austria, Vittorio also had the pole at Sweden and qualfied third at...damn, now I don't remember. But anyway, before flying off the road, he could be damn fast in a Grand Prix car.

He spoke Italian and French but little or no English.

D.

[Ray Bell]

That must be why he could never explain to them how to get the brake balance right....

------------------
Life and love are mixed with pain...

[ZippyD]

Speaking of balance,
I remember Mario Andretti had problems remembering how to adjust the roll bars on his Lotus during a race. He would forget which way to push/pull the lever to softened/stiffen the bars. One of his mechanics finally told him: "Mario, remember: When you push it in it's hard. When you pull it out it's soft." After this Mario was fine and he went on to become world champion.

------------------
"I want to tell you something, not about the others but about myself."
"When I saw something like that I used to go to pieces."
"But I'm older now. When I see something really terrible I put my foot down. HARD! Because I know the other person is lifting his."
"What a terrible way to win."
"Cher mademoiselle, there is no terrible way to win. There is only winning."

[Jonathan]

"Vittorio also had the pole at Sweden".

For those of you who don't already know: This pole was not won by Vittorio driving the fastest lap, but actually by Robin Herd who noticed that the March Pits had the Logines Optical sensor used for scoring lap times right next to it... maybe two seconds before Vittorio comes screaming past up goes the March Pit board (in front of the sensor !)

Interestingly enough Vittorio led much of the Swedish Grand Prix until he managed to wear out his front Brake pads...

Vittorio was also known as "King of the too late breakers" for his tendancies to break at the absolute last possible instant (Irregardless of weather he was leading or being laped).

[Jonathan]

ZippyD

"One of his mechanics" ?

Are you sure that wasnt Bob Dance ?

[Jonathan]

While Driving the Surtees at Watkins Glen (?) Vittorio managed to damage his car in qualifing (surprise !), so he calmly takes the seat (custom fitted to his dimensions) out of the car and walks back to the pits...

The reactions of the spectators was something like "Is that all thats left of his car ?"

[ZippyD]

Jonathan,
I don't remember who gave Mario the roll bar strategy. I think it was one of his mechanics. I could have been Colin Chapman himself. Perhaps Keir can help with this?
Keir???

------------------
"I want to tell you something, not about the others but about myself."
"When I saw something like that I used to go to pieces."
"But I'm older now. When I see something really terrible I put my foot down. HARD! Because I know the other person is lifting his."
"What a terrible way to win."
"Cher mademoiselle, there is no terrible way to win. There is only winning."

[Huw Jenjin]

Aren't all great drivers lucky enough to be in competitive cars at the time of their greatness?
What we should be doing is comparing Vittorios speed compared to his highly feted March team mates at the time. Nuff said I think. Vittori was everything that i like about a GP driver. Totally commited, fallible, blindingly fast and above all entertaining. So he overdrove, what do you want under drivers like Prost?
I certainly couln't wait to see him go out, and loved every minute that he beat the clinical high budget teams. Just look hard at the lap speeds compared to his team mates in the March years. A real Hero I think. i wish there was more like him.

[Don Capps]

Perhaps we should keep in mind that being a great character who drives race cars was once as important as being a great race car driver...



------------------
Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Semper Gumbi: If this was easy, we’d have the solution already…

[Jonathan]

Huw Jenjin -

Lella Lombardi was at times as much as four seconds a lap slower than Vittorio. She complained bitterly that something in her car felt 'broken'. Vittorio was then sent out in her car to verify the problem. While he didn't do a competitive time in the car, he claimed the car was fine. This incident more or less sealed Lella's fate in F1.

The next year when Ronnie Peterson returned to March, he was given what had been Lella's car. While his times where initially not as fast as Vittorio's times they were very close. Strangely enough he also complained that the car felt 'funny'. Upon performing a mechanical inspection a 'subframe' was indeed found to be broken. From this point onwards Ronnie was clearly the fastest of the March drivers. Unfortunatly it wasn't until after his crash at the German Grand Prix that he was given a new chassis and was seriously able to contend for the lead. Had March been able to focus more of their efforts on giving their lead driver a decent car, instead of constaintly repairing Vittorio's cars, I suspect they could have been a much greater factor that season.

[eurocardoc]

Vittorio drove our TS19 in Monaco, 1977. During the race, he would be gaining on 4th or maybe 5th? then suddenly would be 5 or 6 seconds back on the next lap. This happened several time. After the race we questioned him, thinking that maybe there was a problem with the car? His reply was that he had worn a new balaclava which during the race would slowly fall down obscuring his vision. The delay was due to him slowing down as he opened his visor and pushed it back up with his fingers. thjwen it would happen again in a few laps....

Brian

And yes, he was a tremendous character, a capable driver, just overly italian!