1977 March-Toyota F3

Born on 16th January 1952 in Lombardy, Italy, Piercarlo Ghinzani is one of the most successful Italian racing drivers of the 1980's era. Cutting his teeth in single seaters he was the Italian and European Formula 3 championship winner before launching a Formula One career which lasted from 1981 until 1989.

He went on to drive in 77 Formula One Grand Prix, mostly for the smaller Italian team, Osella, but also for Toleman, Ligier and Zakspeed. He also drove successfully in Group C as a works driver for Lancia supporting fellow Italian teammates Michele Alboreto and Riccardo Patrese.He kept, and fully maintained most of the cars that he drove in period which Silverstone Auctions are now extremely proud to offer for sale for the very first time. These include his 2 championship winning March Formula 3 cars, 2 of his Osella F1 cars and also his Toleman F1.This is a unique opportunity to purchase highly original, single ownership from new, important historic racing cars with complete and total known provenance.

This particular March 773 was used by Piercarlo to win the 1977 European Formula 3 Championship beating drivers such as Nelson Piquet, Elio de Angelis and Derek Warwick. An outright winner 3 times that season (at Nurburgring, Zolder and Imola) the car gave Piercarlo a total of 9 podium appearances and was the dominant car and driver combination of the season. Professionally stored and maintained ever since, the Toyota Novamotor had its most recent rebuild in 2010 by Ellegi Motori and has only run 200 kms. since. It is presented ready to race.