Giorgio Scarlatti, a wealthy Roman, was a part-time Formula 1 driver for six seasons who made 12 Grand Prix starts. His career began in sports cars – retiring a Cisitalia from the 1950 Coppa della Toscana. He competed in Italian events throughout the decade and his Maserati A6GCS was placed in Naples and Collemaggio during 1954.
Formula 1 privateer
Third at Bari 1955, he won the following year’s Trofeo Sardo and finished fourth on the Targa Florio. By this time, Scarlatti fancied racing in F1 and he acquired an old Ferrari 500 which he used to finish fourth in the 1956 Naples GP. He entered the Monaco GP a week later but failed to qualify by some margin. When he made his GP debut in Germany Scarlatti retired on the opening lap.
Works Maserati driver
Scarlatti joined the works Maserati team in 1957 when driving a 250F in GPs and 350S in sports cars. In the former discipline, Scarlatti was sixth in Pescara and shared fifth in the Italian GP with Harry Schell – his best GP result. He was also in the third placed car in the Swedish GP sports car race at Kristianstad.
Maserati withdrew its works team at the end of the year and Scarlatti ran his 250F privately in 1958. He retired from the two GPs he entered but finished second on the Targa Florio sharing a works Porsche 718 RSK with Jean Behra.
Final Grand Prix starts
Entered by Scuderia Ugolini in 1959, he narrowly failed to qualify in Monaco and finished the French GP in a distant eighth position. His only other GP that year was at Monza when Scarlatti replaced the injured Masten Gregory in a works Cooper T51-Climax. The race confirmed Scarlatti’s journeyman status as he was a disappointing 12th despite driving for that year’s championship winning team. His F1 career petered out in 1961 when he retired a De Tomaso-OSCA from the French GP.
However, he enjoyed better fortunes in sports cars. Winner of a minor race at Caserta in 1960, he was fifth in the 1961 Targa Florio when sharing Scuderia Serenissima’s Maserati T63 with Umberto Maglioli. The year ended with Scarlatti’s highest profile victory – sharing Lorenzo Bandini’s winning Scuderia Centro Sud Ferrari 250TR in the Pescara Four Hours. He drove a Ferrari 250GTO in the Targa Florio for the next two years – finishing fourth and sixth before retiring from the sport.
