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| Last updated: 30-November-2001 | |
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1984-88
Mimmo moves to Modena, starts as a Ferrari mechanic |
When his family moved from Milan to Modena, on Ferrari's doorstep, Domenico Schiattarella's career path was set. At the age of 16, he began racing karts in Italy, winning 28 races in 1984. Funding his way into proper car racing by being a Ferrari road car mechanic, he raced for Buratti Luigi's BLM team in Italian F4 in 1985, winning 5 races en route to 3rd in the championship, before winning the title in 1986.
Domenico, or 'Mimmo' for short, then teamed up with Giacomo Vismara and moved up to Italian F2000 for 1987. Proving a very fast learner, he swept all before him and took out the series first go. Not willing to hang around any longer than he had to, by 1988 Vismara had taken Schiattarella into Italian F3. Driving a Reynard 883 Alfa Romeo, he found the going a lot tougher in this competitive category. He scored only two points, the same as one Alessandro Zanardi, to come equal 15th. |
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1989-91
Continues in Italian F3, ends up 2nd overall to Busi |
Nonetheless, for a newcomer he had been impressive enough to be awarded Rookie of the Year. He continued improving into 1989, when he switched to the Piemme team to drive their Dallara 389 VW. With 11 points, he jumped to 8th overall. Then in 1990, when he changed camps again to drive a Forti Corse Dallara 390 Alfa Romeo, despite scoring more points (14) he slipped a place to 9th overall, but he did record a 2nd at Imola and a 3rd at Monza.
1991 was his fourth and last year in Italian F3, and it was to prove his best by far. Driving for his fourth different team, Ravarotto, in a Ralt RT35 Alfa Romeo, he stormed to victories at Magione and Mugello and took 2nd at Monza and Vallelunga to score 38 points and claim 2nd place behind Gianbattista Busi, but ahead of Massimiliano Papis and Jacques Villeneuve. Mimmo may have even been higher up if he didn't get black-flagged at the last round for ramming Busi, his title rival. |
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1991-92
Upstages Mika Hakkinen and Jacques Villeneuve in various F3 outings |
Although his family distributed cutlery, Schiattarella did not bring a bag of gold to his teams, making his performances even more noteworthy. What made people really sit up and take notice was when he beat Mika Hakkinen (who was making one of his sporadic raids into continental F3 championships, having dominated the British series) to the pole at Imola, and also when he out-qualified Villeneuve when the Canadian was his team-mate at the prestigious Macau and Fuji F3 races.
Mimmo actually came 5th at Macau, and for his efforts throughout the year he won the Autosprint Gold Medal. For 1992, he eyed a step up into F3000, and was given a test by the Mansell Madgwick team. Though he was tremendously impressive, he simply didn't have the money, and he had to go elsewhere, driving whatever he could, wherever he could. |
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1992-93
Jack of all trades sees drives in Sudam F3, Italian prototypes and supercar GT |
For one thing, that meant doing a few Italian F2 races, but it also meant travelling to South America, to race in their F3 and F2 championships with Forti Corse. However, that too almost came to naught when an early-season training accident left him with an injured leg, rendering him ineffective for most of the year, although he did manage a best result of 3rd in South American F2.
By now his career was lurching in instability, and for 1993 he was doing something completely different yet again. A number of completely different things, in fact. He made a one-off return to F3, driving in the Monaco F3 race, where he set the fastest race lap, at that time also an F3 lap record. He also competed in the Italian Prototype Championship in an Osella Alfa Romeo, and won at least one race in the Italian Super Car GT championship in a Ferrari F40. |
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1993-94
Off to America, and a partnership with Project Indy in CART |
But he also journeyed to North America, where he drove for the RDS team in the only Reynard chassis in the Toyota Atlantic championship. Although his best finish was only 6th, it was good enough to earn him Rookie of the Year. Being in America also allowed Domenico to develop a number of contacts, notably with Andreas Leberle of the Project Indy CART team.
And so it was that half-way through 1994, a year in which he had been racing his Ferrari F40 in Italian Super Car GTs, and in which he had come 2nd (1st in GTS class) at the Vallelunga 12hr in a Ferrari Club Italia Ferrari 348 LM with Mancini and Monti, Leberle gave him the call-up to drive a year-old Lola T93/06 Ford at Toronto and Mid-Ohio. With no testing beforehand, Mimmo did superbly simply to qualify. He retired at Toronto, but came home a creditable 16th at Lexington. |
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1994 Simtek A couple of outings, nothing special but it put him on the scene |
Having grown accustomed to doing short-term deals left, right and centre, it was no surprise when Schiattarella linked up with a leading sports marketing agency towards the end of 1994, and got his big break when he did a deal to replace Jean-Marc Gounon at the fledgling Simtek F1 team. But this too was a team struggling financially, such that prior to his debut at the European GP at Jerez, the only experience Mimmo had in the S941 was a 30-lap run to earn him his superlicence.
Those with short memories who didn't know about some of his Italian F3 exploits feared that the new unknown wouldn't be able to out-qualify the Pacifics. But he did so, comfortably, and got onto the Jerez grid in last place. Though he finished 19th and last, he impressed many with a sensible, careful but determined approach. Although Taki Inoue raced the Simtek in Japan, Mimmo was back in the Simtek at Adelaide, qualifying 26th (behind Jean-Denis Deletraz) and retiring with a gearbox problem. |
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1995 Simtek A great showing from the backmarkers in Argentina, with Mimmo 9th |
Schiattarella was able to continue at Simtek in 1995, even if his deal was only to drive the first half of the season before Hideki Noda took over in the latter half. In the end, it made no difference, since Simtek had run up debts of 6 million pounds in just 18 months of operation, and after round 5 at Monaco the team folded. But not before the new S195 chassis had shown a great deal of competitiveness in the hands of Jos Verstappen in particular, but also with Mimmo behind the wheel.
Though he qualified last in the season opener at Interlagos, he was running quite strongly in the race before a steering box failure sent him into retirement. Then in Argentina, while Verstappen stunned the establishment by plonking the previously-unfashionable car in 14th place on the grid, Domenico was no slouch either in starting 20th. In the race, although the Dutchman ran in the points, he retired, and Schiattarella was on hand to pick up the pieces. |
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Hear 1980 F1 World Champion Alan Jones stumbling over Mimmo's name whilst reading out the grid list in 1994.
"Row 13: Noda and ... I'm not even going to try and pronounce this guy's name. Hehehe... but anyway, there he is!" |
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1995
Outqualifies the more fancied Jos at Monaco, as Simtek bids F1 farewell |
In fact, at one stage in the race of attrition, if looked as though Mimmo may have been on for a points scoring finish of his own. However, wheel problems forced him into an unscheduled pit stop, and eventually he came home 9th and last (both Fortis finished, but since they were 5 laps behind the Simtek even, they were not classified). Although he was 4 laps down, that 9th place was Simtek's joint-best finish in its short-lived history.
In San Marino he started 23rd but went out with suspension trouble. He then gridded up 22nd in Spain, and went on to finish a solid 15th, once again 4 laps behind. Then in Monaco, he did a fabulous job in qualifying to beat team-mate Verstappen on this most technical of tracks, but an accident at the first aborted start, plus the fact that Simtek was in such dire financial straits that it had no spare car, meant that Domenico never took the restart. And after that the team closed. |
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1995-96
A search party is sent out for Mimmo's IMSA wheel |
Out on the streets again, so to speak, it was Leberle and Project Indy who came to his rescue again. Towards they end of the year they offered him another two CART outings, this time in a Reynard 941 Ford, although once again he would have no testing before race weekend, such were Project Indy's budgetary constraints. In that context, Schiattarella's results of 18th at Vancouver and 21st at Laguna Seca were positively heroic.
But in truth, Domenico's forays into CART depended on Leberle's generosity, and was never a full-time proposition. Thus in 1996, he found that he still had very little on his plate. He stayed in America to help develop the Sturtz BMW IMSA prototype, but in his one start in that series, at Lime Rock, he got the shock of his life when the suspension broke at 304km/h, sending his wheel flying 600 metres into the forest, where it was only retrieved two days later! |
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1996-97
Luck at Vallelunga, and a drive materialises in FIA GT with Badoer |
Towards the end of 1996 he returned to Italy, where he found some success. In the Vallelunga 6hr endurance event, he teamed up with Luciano della Noce in a Euro Team Ferrari F40 GTE. Having set the fastest lap of the race, Mimmo won the race comfortably with his team-mate. He also won the Super Car GT exhibition race at the Bologna Motor Show in his trusty own Ferrari F40.
Perhaps sports cars really was a way to go, so in 1997 he found a drive with the GBF squad in the FIA GT championship in firstly a Lotus Elise V8 turbo, then the gorgeous Lotus Elise GT1, mainly with Luca Badoer, but also Mauro Martini. Things got off to an inauspicious start when the car caught fire in its first test at Monza! True to form, a spate of retirements meant that Schiattarella's best results were 20th at Helsinki, albeit some 30 laps down, and 12th at Donington. |
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1998-99
Bleak year sees CART stint, but Rafanelli rescues Mimmo's career |
1998 then turned out to be yet another virtually empty year, Schiattarella's only outing being, you guessed it, thanks to Project Indy in CART. A late replacement for Roberto Moreno, who had left the team, Mimmo came in at Long Beach and dragged the Reynard 971 Mercedes-Benz home into 16th place, although a collision in the dying stages meant that he didn't actually see the chequered flag.
Seemingly at the end of the road as far as his career was concerned, out of nowhere in 1999 he experienced a resurrection of sorts. It came from Gabriele Rafanelli, boss of the Rafanelli team which was running a Riley & Scott Mk III prototype with a Judd V10 engine in the new American Le Mans Series. At Road Atlanta, needing a second driver beside Eric van de Poele, Schiattarella was drafted in. |
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1999
A great victory at Road Atlanta sees a Courage Nissan Le Mans drive |
It seemed like a risky move. Van de Poele would be doing pre-Le Mans testing while the practice and qualifying sessions at Road Atlanta were taking place, so all the pre-race burden was on Schiattarella's shoulders. As he did in F1, Domenico applied a methodical approach, and treated the free practice sessions like test sessions. It paid rich dividends, and amazingly Mimmo came away from the daunting track with pole position.
A technical irregularity forced both he and his Belgian team-mate, who had returned for the race, to start from the back. But Rafanelli's momentum was unstoppable, and the pair unforgettably won the race. In no time Schiattarella had suddenly become sports car racing's hottest property, and he quickly got a drive at Le Mans in a Courage Nissan C52 with Alex Caffi and Andrea Montermini, where the trio finished a fine 6th, albeit 23 laps behind. |
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1999-2000
More ALMS duties with Rafanelli, but little in the way of huge success |
Van de Poele happened to get himself injured at Le Mans, so for the next three races of the ALMS, Erik Comas partnered Schiattarella. They came 3rd at Mosport, but would have won but for a late stop-go penalty. 5th at Sears Point and 7th at Portland were also disappointing. He then finished 6th in the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta with the returning van de Poele and also Tomas Enge, before retiring in the last two rounds. Overall, Mimmo came 19th with 62 points, a result that didn't do him justice at all.
Having become a wanted man in sports car circles, in 2000 Domenico went from a struggling journeyman who could hardly find a drive to committing himself to two different championships. In the ALMS, he stayed with Rafanelli to drive the Olive Garden-sponsored Lola B2K/10 Judd, with drivers such as Didier de Radigues, Pierluigi Martini and Norman Simon. 3rd at Charlotte and 4th at Las Vegas were highlights in an average campaign that saw Mimmo finish 13th with 126 points. |
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2000-01
Italian heaven: Domenico with Naspetti in a Rafanelli Maranello |
In the same team and car, with de Radigues and Emanuele Naspetti, Schiattarella raced at Le Mans but retired with engine problems. Throughout the year he also raced in the new Grand-Am championship in America in a Risi Ferrari 333SP with Ralf Kelleners, Allan McNish, Caffi and van de Poele. Here the results were much better. A 5th at Trois Rivieres, 4th at Mid Ohio, 3rd at Lime Rock, and 2nds at Phoenix and Elkhart Lake saw Domenico end up 4th with 285 points.
However for 2001, Schiattarella stuck with Rafanelli, but Rafanelli didn't stick with sports prototypes. Instead, the team fielded a Ferrari 550 Maranello in the FIA GT championship for Mimmo and Naspetti. Against the dominant Chrysler Vipers, it has been a difficult year, with the pair's only points scoring finishes being 5th at Brno, 4th at Magny-Cours, and 5th at Silverstone, for equal 17th with only 7 points. The man with the most original helmet design in motor racing has his own website, which you can visit here: www.schiattarella.com. |
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