Franco Rol (5 June 1908 in Turin – 18 June 1977 in Rapallo) was a racing driver from Italy.
He participated in five Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on May 21, 1950. He scored no championship points. He also participated in many non-championship Formula One events. Info from Wiki
Bio by Antonio Vasques
Franco Rol was a racing driver from Italy. He participated in five Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on May 21, 1950. He scored no championship points. He also participated in many non-championship Formula One events.
World War II was barely over when Franco Rol began racing sports cars – initially with a Gordini and then Alfa Romeo 6C-2500. A regular in Italy’s long distance road races at the time; he led the 1948 Giro d’Italia and finished second a year later.
Success in 1949 also included a second place in the Targa Florio and third in the Mille Miglia despite being delayed by an accident in that latter event. Winner of that year’s Pescara sports car race in heavy rain, he retired a Maserati 4CLT/48 from the 1949 Italian Grand Prix on his Formula 1 debut.
Rol joined the works team for the following season and was fifth in the non-championship event at San Remo. However, his planned two-car entry for the 1950 Indianapolis 500 (with specially commissioned Maserati 8CLT/50 chassis and Giuseppe Farina as his team-mate) never materialised.
Instead, he made a short-lived debut in the 1950 World Championship at Monaco when one of those to be caught up in the infamous first-lap pile-up at Tabac. Forced to miss the Swiss GP due to injury, he retired from two further championship starts that year in France and Italy. However, he crashed into the crowd during Barcelona’s Penya Rhin GP when his brakes locked. Two spectators were killed and several injured.
Rol returned at the 1951 Italian GP with the brand-new OSCA 4500G and recorded the only finish of his five-race GP career when an uncompetitive ninth and last. The world championship was switched to Formula 2 rules in 1952 and Rol retired a works Maserati A6GCM from the Italian GP.
That was his last major single-seater race and he returned to sports cars in 1953. However, he was severely injured during that year’s Giro di Sicilia and although he recovered, this gentleman driver did not race again. He lost his life in 1977 in a boating accident off the coast of Rapallo.
Source Motorsportmagazine/Wiki.
Bio by Stephen Latham
orn on the 5th June 1908 in Turin, Italy, Franco Rol raced in the years after the end of World War II, mainly as an independent and competed in five World Championship Grands Prix plus many non-championship F1 events. He was a regular in Italy’s long distance road races and it was said when driving closed sports cars he wore silk shirts rather than racing overalls.
He started his racing career in 1947 with a privately entered Simca Gordini in the Mille Miglia plus competed with it at Pescara and the Coupe de Lyon and raced an Equipe Gordini entered Simca Gordini T11 in the Prix de Léman at the Circuit du Blécherette. His best result was fifth in the GP of Torino, held at Valentino Park Circuit.
In the following year there was an impressive second place finish alongside Vincenzo Richiero in the Targa Florio, behind Clemente Biondetti and Aldo Benedetti’s Ferrari 166SC. He was also third in the the Coppa d’Oro delle Dolomiti plus the Mille Miglia (with Richiero), where he had led most of the way from Rome, but hit a house, and they finished behind the Biondetti and Bonetto Ferraris. There was a victory in a Pescara sports car race, in heavy rain, though after qualifying eleventh he retired a Maserati 4CLT/48 from the Italian GP at Monza.
He was back in a works Alfa Romeo 6C in 1950’s Targa Florio, where he finished seventh after leading, but crashed out of the Mille Miglia after his brakes failed. Switching to a Maserati A6GCS sportscar, he finished eighth in the Coppa Internazionale delle Dolomiti. In two non championship races with Officine Alfieri Maserati’s 4CLT/48 he was fifth in the Gran Premio di San Remo at the Circuito di Ospedaletti and eighth at the Grand Prix des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Driving a Maserati 4CLT/48 he retired from the Monaco GP, when he was one of a number of drivers caught up in the first lap pile up at Tabac Corner. Although Fangio managed to escape the chaos, Nino Farina, who was second, was caught out by the residual water laid down by the waves. He spun into the wall before bouncing into the paths of the oncoming cars though Villoresi, Étancelin, Ascari, Chiron and Sommer all managed to dodge past. However, Fagioli spun into the barriers and after González collided with Farina’s car, it started a chain reaction of collisions down the field. The narrow circuit left the cars with nowhere to go and they ran into one another and Franco, was among the drivers whose race was over, including González, Fagioli, Rosier, Manzon, De Graffenried, Trintignant, Harrison and Schell. There were two further Grands Prix but after qualifying seventh and ninth in France and Italy, engine issues ended his races and he missed the Swiss round due to injury. He retired at Pescara but did better in the non-championship Grand Prix de Pau, where he recorded a fourth place finish then in late October he entered the non championship Gran Premio de Penya Rhin at Pedralbes but sadly, on the third lap, he went into the crowd at the end of the Victoria straight, killing two spectators and injuring several more. Franco had commissioned the construction of the Maserati 8CLT/50s single-seater, with a 8-cylinder supercharged 2,984 cm3 engine and it was intended to compete at that year’s Indianapolis 500. However, although two cars were built and tested at Monza by Giuseppe Farina and Franco, they never appeared at the race due to problems at the Maserati factory.
In 1951 he and Gino Munaron retired an Alfa Romeo 6C from the Mille Miglia but he drove an Osca 4500G to ninth place in the Italian GP at Monza. He raced a variety of cars the following year and he and Munaron teamed again in March and May with a Siata 208S and were eleventh and third in class (behind two Ferrari 166 Barchettas) in the Mille Miglia and twelfth at the Giro di Sicilia on a Palermo-Trapani road course. In privately entered cars, he retired an OSCA MT4 in the Valentino GP and a Ferrari 250MM from the Giro di Sicilia. He was back with Maserati again in September and raced an A6GCM in the Italian GP at Monza, but retired on lap 24 lap due to mechanical failure.
After purchasing a Ferrari 250MM, he participated in the Targa Florio in 1953 with Adolfo Macchieraldo but suffered serious injuries in a huge crash. After recovering, he decided to quit racing and went back to his business activities. Sadly, on the 18th June 1977, he was killed in a boat accident off Rapallo at the age of 69.
