Onofre Agustín Marimón (19 December 1923 – 31 July 1954) was a racing driver from Zárate, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
He participated in 11 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 1 July 1951. He achieved 2 podiums, and scored a total of 8 1⁄7 championship points.
Marimón was killed on 31 July 1954 during practice for the 1954 German Grand Prix, becoming the first driver to be fatally injured at a World Championship Grand Prix other than the Indianapolis 500.
Marimón’s Maserati left the Nürburgring race course at the Breidscheid curve near the Adenauer Bridge after he lost control attempting to improve his qualifying time. He died at the bottom of a steep and treacherous incline. He was going fast on a downgrade but failed to negotiate a sharp turn at the bottom. Marimón impacted a ditch, his Maserati shearing off a tree and rolling over a number of times. He was pinned underneath the car as it came to rest on its top with the wheels spinning in the air. Marimón was given the last rites by a Catholic priest before dying a few minutes after rescue workers freed him. It was thought that his braking unit failed.
Marimón’s death trimmed the Maserati team to four drivers. His practice times had not been satisfactory enough for him to make the top 5 for the 1954 German Grand Prix. His best time was 21.3 seconds behind the record time of 9:50.1 set by Juan Manuel Fangio. Info from Wiki
Exactly 65 years ago, the argentine driver Onofre Marimón made one of the most impressive presentations in Formula 1 history.
At the 1954 British GP in Silverstone, under a soft rain, the Maserati driver (in the photo, with car 33) started in 28th and completed the third. Only on the first lap, he surpassed 22 rival cars, (Yes 22 cars). Influenced by compatriots Juan Manuel Fangio and Jose Froilán González, Marimón showed a peculiar courage However, he did not have time to consolidate his potential. The driver died at the Nurburgring during training for the German GP – just 14 days after the british race.
Bio by Stephen Latham
A protege of Juan Manuel Fangio, Onofre Agustín Marimón participated in eleven Grands Prix, taking two podiums and eight championship points. His father, Domingo Marimón, had competed in the Turismo Carretera road races and in 1948 won the Gran Premio America del Sur, a 5950 mile route which ran from Buenos Aires to Caracas in Venezuela. Fangio also competed in these TC races and the two became close friends. Onofre acquired the nickname ‘Pinocho’ (others listed it as ‘Pinocchio’) and became a popular character in the paddock and some saw him as a future champion. Sadly, he lost his life in an accident during practice for the 1954 German GP and poignant pictures at the time showed his good friends Fangio and Gonzalez consoling each other after his accident.
Onofre was born in Zárate, Buenos Aires, on December 19th, 1923 and moved as a child to Cosquín, where there is a street which bears his name). He eventually emulated his father by becoming a race driver and made his debut in 1949. After his father broke his collarbone, Onofre took over his Chevrolet for a race at Mar del Plata and won it plus was second to José Froilán Gonzalez at La Cumbre in a car prepared by Rubén-Renato Toto Fangio (Juan-Manuel’s younger brother).
In the following year he had victories at La Cumbre, Necochea, General Pueyrredón, San Nicolás, Esperanza and twice at Junín. At one race, Domingo told him that whoever proved quicker between the two of them in practice would race the car and Onofre qualified on pole and went on to take victory. He was second at Costanera Norte and fourth in Paraná and while contesting the Vuelta de Córdoba, he had been challenging Juan Gálvez for the lead on the first day and was leading on the return run when the car’s engine failed near the finish. There were two Maserati outings in November and December where he was fourth in the Gran Premio de Parana at Parque Urquiza with a 4C and sixth with a 4CL at the Gran Premio del Presidente Alessandri at Circuito Pedro de Valdivia Norte.
In 1951 he won at La Cumbre and was second in La Costanera and in the Sierra de los Padres, third in Junín and fourth at the Autódromo de Buenos Aires but though entered with a Maserati 4CL he did not start the Gran Premio del General Juan Perón at Circuito Costanera Norte. However, his aim was to race in Europe and Fangio promised Domingo he would take care of his son. He made his European debut alongside Froilan González at Le Mans in a Talbot-Lago T2GS but their race ended after 128 laps due to a radiator problem. A week after Le Mans, he participated in his first World Championship race, at Reims, driving a 4CLT-50 for Scuderia Milano, an Italian team founded in Milan by Arialdo and Emilio Ruggeri, two brothers who had raced Maseratis in the early post-war period. He was fifteenth of the twenty three starters in qualifying and the fastest of the Maseratis, with De Graffenried behind him in sixteenth. In the race, Whitehead and De Graffenried had retired after only a single lap and they were followed by Onofre on the second lap, with his drive coming to an end after his engine blew up. However, it was still a good day for Argentina as Fangio took victory and Gonzalez finished second in his first race for Ferrari. Although Onofre did not participate in the British GP at Silverstone, he attended to give support to his two friends, with Gonzales taking the win in his Ferrari ahead of second placed Fangio’s Alfa Romeo. In September he was eighth, after losing time in the pits, with a Scuderia Marzotto Ferrari 166F2 in a Modena F2 race.
He raced in Argentina in 1952, taking part in the Mecánica Nacional championship with the Chevrolet and he came close to winning the Championship. Early in the year he was sixth with a Ferrari 125 in the Gran Premio de Montevideo at Autódromo de Punta Fría.
His first event in 1953 was a non-championship Gran Premio Ciudad de Buenos Aires at the Autódromo Municipal del Parque Almirante Brown, where he was tenth with an Automovil Club Argentino Ferrari 166F2. There was a retirement from the Mille Miglia alongside Gianfranco Moroni in an Alfa Romeo 1900TI while teamed with Fangio at Le Mans, their race ended after 22 laps when Fangio retired their Alfa Romeo 63 3000CM due to engine troubles and he didn’t get to race it. Fangio had persuaded Maserati to give Onofre a chance and his first Grand Prix for them came at Spa, a week after Le Mans. Besides Onofre, Maserati added Johnny Claes alongside Juan Manuel Fangio and José Froilán González while Toulo de Graffenried drove a privateer car. Fangio dominated the practice sessions and qualified ahead of Ascari, with González third ahead of the Ferraris of Villoresi and Farina and Onofre in sixth. After the flag fell, as the cars approached Eau Rouge it was González who was leading, before extending his lead to Fangio on the third while Fangio himself was ahead of Ascari and Onofre was pressuring the Hawthorn and Villoresi Ferraris. Unfortunately, on lap eleven, race leader González was forced to retire on lap eleven with a broken accelerator pedal then two laps later, Fangio’s race was over due to engine failure but he took over the Claes car and rejoined the race. Onofre put in a strong performance and moved into third place after taking Villoresi which eventually became second after Hawthorn had to pit due to a fuel leakage. However, thinking he was suffering from engine trouble, he pitted but the team told him to rejoin and continue for as long as he could, though the pit-stop dropped him to fourth behind Fangio and Villoresi. On the final lap, Fangio was running second but suffered a steering failure which sent him flying into a ditch (thankfully he only suffered cuts and bruises) and Ascari took the win and Onofre was third, ahead of De Graffenried. Maserati extended his contract with them until the end of the year and his next two Grands Prix came in July. He was running sixth at Reims when a stone broke his radiator and he eventually finished ninth while at Silverstone he was fighting for fifth place until his engine failed. He retired due to an accident in a non championship race at Circuit du Lac at Aix-les-Bains while two more Grands Prix in August ended in retirement, at the Nurburgring (suspension) but frustratingly, after qualifying fifth at Bremgarten, he was running in second place but was forced out with an overheating engine. At the end of the month he and Emilio Giletti raced a Maserati A6GCS at the Nurburgring 1000kms and had run as high as second but its engine failed near the finish. In two races in September with the Maserati A6GCM, there was another impressive drive in the Italian GP at Monza where he was involved in a battle with Ascari, Fangio and Farina. Starting from the second row after qualifying fourth, he stayed with the leading trio and kept pace with them for lap after lap but, unfortunately, he suffered a damaged oil radiator on lap 46 and was forced to pit. After an eight minute delay, and now three laps behind, he rejoined and caught the leaders but retired due to an accident on lap 75 of the 80 lap race. His final race that year came in the following week at the Modena Aeroautodromo where he finished second to Fangio.
He started 1954 in January’s Argentinian GP at Autódromo 17 de Octubre but he retired the 250F due to an accident on lap five and at the end of the month he was back at the circuit for a non championship Gran Premio Ciudad de Buenos Aires race but retired on lap four. The following four races were non championship events where he was fifth (from pole plus fastest lap) at the Gran Premio di Siracusa, retired at Pau (suspension), was fourth in the Gran Premio di Bari (and took the fastest lap) and in June won the Gran Premio di Roma at Castelfusano (plus took fastest lap). His second Grand Prix came two weeks later at Spa but despite qualifying fourth behind Fangio, González and Farina, engine trouble after just three laps ended his race. He was teamed with Fangio the following week in a 250S/6C Maserati at Monza in the Supercortemaggiore 1000Km and they were running second until the car’s rear axle broke near the finish, after one hundred and fifty two laps. His next two Word Championship races came in July, where he started the French GP at Reims from the second row after qualifying fifth. He was in fourth place in the early laps, though had to pit to cure a misfire and retired after twenty seven laps with gearbox trouble. At Silverstone, due to an error, the team’s cars were delivered to the wrong port in France and did not arrive at the track until the last day of qualifying. Onofre had to start from the back of the grid but despite this he fought through the field and eventually finished third, behind the Ferraris of Froilan Gonzalez and Mike Hawthorn and ahead of Fangio’s Mercedes-Benz W196. The race is notable in that the fastest lap (and the point for achieving it) was split between seven drivers and he shared it with Fangio, Moss, González, Ascari, Hawthorn and Behra. The German GP at the Nurburgring was next at the beginning of August but after Friday practice, he was unhappy with his times so asked Fangio for advice, who suggested he follow him round the next day to see if that could help him improve. Sadly, on the following morning he didn’t wait for Fangio to arrive but went out on his own and crashed, with his car plunging through a hedge and somersaulting down a slope. It came to rest upside down with him trapped inside, and though rescuers were able to free him, there was little they could do to save him and the last rites were administered by a priest who happened to be on the scene. The reason he had not waited for Fangio was revealed a few days later, when his father Domingo, who had been helping in the pits and timing him, told the press how “the weather was threatening, and ‘Pinocho’ decided to go out on the track as soon as possible, in case it started to rain. Before leaving, he told me he wanted to lap below 10 minutes. The way he was driving, I felt he could do it. When 10 minutes were up, I had a sense of foreboding. I thought he had had some trouble. Then I started to run.” Fellow driver Roberto Mieres recalled “we were very good pals, just about the same age, both of us younger than Fangio and Gonzalez. The question is that we, like the rest of the Argentinian drivers, were much at the limit in those years, trying to get near the lap times of Fangio and González. That Saturday, when he went out to practice while most of our group was in the pits. I was in my car, waiting for him to come past the pits. And we waited, and waited. Suddenly, Fangio comes and says to me ‘go out, go out, see if you can find him’. So they push-started my Maserati and I drove round, and suddenly, I see this large hole in the hedge alongside the track.” González noticed the tyre marks on the track and said “during the rest of the lap I was trying to work out which of the drivers it could be. When I arrived at the pits, I heard on the loudspeakers that it was `Pinocho’ who’d crashed. So I got hold of a sports car that Ferrari had taken to the circuit and drove round to the place of the accident. From what the people there told me, the car went off the track and tangled with a tree, which then somersaulted it down a ravine.” He noticed the wrecked Maserati was stuck in fourth gear, and this was a third gear corner. It’s impossible to know what exactly had happened but Onofre must have been giving it his absolute all towards the bridge at Adenau, simply to try and break that 10-minute barrier.” Returning to the pits, a devastated Gonzales sobbed on Fangio’s shoulder. Villoresi withdrew from the race, as did the Owen Racing Maserati of Ken Wharton but the team’s third car for Sergio Mantovani started the race. Fangio and Karl Kling led the way in their two Mercedes but although Gonzalez started and was running third, he was so upset he was called in after sixteen laps to hand over to Hawthorn.
Onofre was buried in the Cemetery de Cosquín, Córdoba, and his name was given to a road circuit, located around Villa Carlos Paz.
Credit to ‘Racing Years’ website for many race results
Onofre Marimon: 1954 Formula One Season By Jeremy McMullen
Onofre Marimon seemed to have all of the necessary elements to be truly successful in Formula One. Mentored by Juan Manuel Fangio and close to all of the other Argentineans in the paddock, this easy-going Latin was a rising star heading into 1954. As a result of obvious talents and successes on the track, Marimon would have the means to field his own team. But like Marimon himself, his team’s presence in Formula One would be short-lived.
The coming of the 1954 season presented opportunities and pitfalls. The return of Formula One and its regulations allowing a maximum engine displacement of 2.5-liters meant a new line of grand prix cars would be rolling out of factories like Ferrari, Maserati and, soon, Mercedes-Benz. Given that the 2.5-liter displacement was the maximum there would also be a whole series of underpowered Formula 2 cars that would be still eligible to race, and in the right conditions, could still be competitive.
Maserati, particular, would have a lot of excess cars lying around at the end of the 1953 season. The A6GCM and A6SSG had brought Maserati to the same level as Ferrari by the end of the 1953 and, with the new 2.5-liter engine, promised to be competitive even with the new 250F coming online. Still, there would be some 2.0-liter A6GCM that would be made available to customers that would allow for privateers to have a means to take part in grand prix races. This would be an opportunity for Marimon to enter into the world of being a team owner.
Heading into the 1954 season, Marimon would come to have at his disposal a Maserati A6GCM, chassis 2033, that had been originally purchased by Chico Landi and his Escuderia Bandeirantes team in 1952. Francisco ‘Chico’ Landi would first take part in a World Championship grand prix back during the 1951 Italian Grand Prix driving a Ferrari 375. In 1953, Landi would take part in two grand prix. One of those would be while driving for his own team at the Swiss Grand Prix. The only would be while driving for Scuderia Milano in the Italian Grand Prix.
Heading into the 1954 season, Landi would not take part in any rounds of the Formula One World Championship and would not take part in any races on the European continent. This left one of the Maserati A6GCMs open for use and Onofre Marimon would be the one that would approach Landi about the use of the car.
Onofre’s own racing career was just beginning to really take off. Therefore, concern about being a team owner and manager would be a distant second in his mind. However, he would show some interest in providing opportunities for his fellow countrymen to take part in certain races. And with the Maserati being with Landi in Brazil, then the first round of the 1954 Formula One World Championship would be the perfect opportunity for another of Marimon’s countrymen to have a chance behind the wheel of a race car, especially when it took place on home soil.
The first round of the 1954 Formula One World Championship would come very early on in the year. In fact, the 17th of January would provide very little time for teams to get the new 2.5-liter cars readied and shipped to South America. Therefore, the Argentine Grand Prix would be filled with a mixture of Formula One and Formula 2 entrants, including Onofre Marimon’s Maserati A6GCM.
Just as Marimon already possessed all of the necessary talents to be a true star in Formula One, he would have all of the necessary elements already in place in Argentina to field a car of his own in his home grand prix. The only element he needed to rectify would be the driver. Marimon would have a factory ride with Maserati right alongside his mentor and fellow countryman Juan Manuel Fangio. Since he already had a ride with the factory Maserati team, Carlos Menditeguy would earn the drive in the 2.0-liter A6GCM.
The addition of Menditeguy in the entry list meant there would be no less than six Argentineans entered in what was the 8th Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina, the second such race as part of the World Championship.
The second edition, everyone hoped, would fair much better than the initial one had. Eager to capitalize on the event for his own political purposes, President Peron would be eager to have the World Championship come to Argentina. The best teams, cars and drivers in the world would then be present in January of 1953 for the first ever edition of the Argentine Grand Prix as part of the World Championship. The crowds would be incredible, and right up against the fences by the side of the circuit. Unfortunately, this made for a very dangerous situation. And when a young boy wandered onto the track in an effort to get a better view, what view he would see would be Giuseppe Farina bearing down on him almost ready to hit him. Instead, Farina would swerve around the boy. However, the maneuver would have dire consequences as Farina would then plow into the crowd killing a number of people. One year later, Farina would be back, as would the crowds.
Very much the shoestring effort, Marimon’s entry for Menditeguy would consist of just the car and some extra equipment and that would be about it. Still, it was an opportunity for Carlos to take part in what would have been his second World Championship race. However, there would be problems for Menditeguy.
During practice, the advantage of the new Formula One regulations would be more than obvious. But Menditeguy would not be all that concerned with the new regulations. He had an opportunity to take part in a World Championship race. On top of this, there would be a number of other Formula 2 cars in the field. Therefore, he would have a good chance at a strong result. If he could just make it to the start.
This would prove a little too difficult. During practice, Menditeguy would run into trouble and would have the 2.0-liter engine expire on him. Marimon had supplied the car and not much else. Marimon’s resources were rather thin. Therefore, when the A6GCM suffered its engine failure, Carlos would be left with very little hope of taking part in his second World Championship race. Carlos would be stranded without hope. And with that, Marimon’s first entry as a team owner would come to nothing.
Certainly, the Argentinean had plans for the future. However, that would all come to naught on the 31st of July when Marimon crashed his Maserati while practicing for the German Grand Prix. Approaching the tricky Adenau Bridge section of the infamous Nurburgring, the rear wheels of the Maserati would lock up and would cause Marimon to lose control and tumbled off the circuit. Marimon would be killed instantly because of the injuries suffered in the crash. His loss would be deeply felt amongst all of the Argentinean drivers. His loss also meant the premature end of his own racing team. Instead, Onofre Marimon, the racing team, would live on in Formula One history as one of the shortest-lived racing teams in the history of the series.
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