Between high-level motorcycle racing and Formula 1, there are bridges that pilots from both worlds happily take. But the troop is varied. So, if a MotoGP champion of the caliber of Marc Márquez installed at the age of 25 in a Toro Rosso for circuit laps, a former glory of Formula 1 must wait until he is 75 to taste the joys of handlebars on a track! This is the case of Arturzo Merzario, an Italian retiree who deserves a little attention…
The event is reported by GP One and it is due to the unavoidable passion Dario Marchetti. The Ducati man offered his eldest the opportunity to do twenty laps on a Panigale Final Edition 1299 R on the Tazio Nuvolari circuit in Cervesina. A happiness thus commented by Merzario : " I ride a Harley-Davidson 883 and 1700, but that has nothing to do with it! As soon as you open the throttle, the Ducati nails you to the saddle! I took it easy because I didn't want to break anything and I didn't want to bother the others on the circuit, who were real drivers ».
But who is Arthur Mercario ? The man competed in Formula 1 until the end of the 1970s and was the one who saved Niki Lauda from the flames of hell at the Nürburgring in 1976. Without his shared heroism with Guy Edwards, Lauda would no longer be in this world. Likewise, Merzario had signed a personal sponsorship contract with the tobacco company Marlboro and always strolled around the paddocks wearing an immaculate Stetson, like the famous cowboy associated with the brand. What he still does!
