Talk:1978 European Formula Two Championship
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Arturo Merzario
[edit]I have a question regarding the status of Arturo Merzario. Some sources credit him with scoring three points in the ICI Chevron this year, while others do not under the justification that he was a graded driver, with other drivers' placings adjusted in reflection of this. The results in the Motorsport Magazine database, which I used in constructing the complete results table (and admittedly may have been too hasty in judging its accuracy versus that of other sources), reflect this latter reality. The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing reflects this same reality in its points table for the 1978 season.
The Autosport report of the Misano race also notes Merzario's status as a graded driver and makes a point of mentioning that Ricardo Zunino scored a point after finishing 7th on the road because of this. The final points table published in the November CSI bulletin also omits Merzario but contains some anomalies of its own, such as only awarding points down to 4th place for Misano (there were 17 classified finishers, so points should have been awarded to the top 6).
As I understand it, there were two kinds of graded driver by this time: Grand Prix and Long Distance. Drivers with GP grading could not score points in the European F2 Championship, whereas LD drivers could. As far as I can ascertain, Merzario could not have been a GP graded driver due to his lack of top six finishes in World Championship F1 races in the previous two seasons (let alone fulfilling the other more difficult criteria). He would, however, have held an LD grade on account of his results in World Championship sportscar racing, whence confusion might have arisen.
This is not the first time that there seems to be confusion in period sources—even official ones—over driver grading: Derek Bell (who would have been LD graded at the time) was omitted from some of the provisional standings during the 1973 championship, but correctly appeared in the final standings.
I suppose what I'm asking is this: is there anyone out there with a copy of the 1979 Yellow Book and the definitive final standings? Did Merzario score those three points, or had the situation changed since 1973 and Long Distance graded drivers no longer qualified for F2 points? MTV Simtek (talk) 22:31, 6 March 2026 (UTC)