Obituary

Giancarlo Baghetti

We were saddened to learn of the death, on November 27, of Giancarlo Baghetti. He succumbed to cancer, aged 61.

Baghetti was not well known to the public at large, but his place in motor racing history is secure. At Reims in 1961, he took his Ferrari 156 to victory in his very first World Championship race, a feat which has not been equalled since. His success in the French Grand Prix was actually his third straight F1 triumph, for he had previously won the non-championship races at Syracuse and Naples, though the latter had a conspicuously weak field.

Baghetti never completed a full World Championship campaign, and his career declined as he moved from Ferrari to ATS and thence a sequence of occasional appearances in various F1 cars. After his initial blaze of glory, he recorded just a pair of points-scoring finishes in 1962.

After his last F1 start, at Monza in 1967, he dabbled with other forms of the sport until retiring to concentrate on a new career in photo-journalism.

We offer our sympathies to his family and friends.