| BEFORE FORMULA ONE | ||
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1985-87
Genius in lower formulae |
Born on 17 November, 1967, Italian Domenico Schiattarella, or 'Mimmo' to his friends, only had a short karting career before funding his way into car racing by being a Ferrari road car mechanic.
He began in Italian F4, taking five wins in 1985 before winning that series in 1986. He then moved up to Italian F2000, and swept all before him to become champion in that category as well. |
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1988-91
Brilliant drives for budget Italian F3 team before black flagged |
Stepping up to Italian F3 in 1988, despite only coming 15th overall he was named 'Rookie of the Year'. Steady improvement saw him come 8th in 1989 and 9th in 1990, with a 2nd place at Imola and a 3rd place at Monza in 1990.
But in the Ravarotto team in 1991, Schiattarella was a sensation. He didn't bring with him a bag of money, so the whole team did 1991 on a shoestring. Taking two wins at Magione and Mugello, he finished a close second in the series after being black-flagged in the final round at Vallelunga for deliberately ramming his opponent. Alas, that incident was the only thing he had in common with Michael Schumacher when it came to F1 ... |
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1991-92
Out performs Hakkinen, Villeneuve |
Also in 1991, Mika Hakkinen was busy dominating the British F3 series and was launching sporadic raids into Europe. In the one Italian round he did, at Imola, Schiattarella beat him to pole. Paired with
Jacques Villeneuve at the Macau and Fuji F3 races, Schiattarella outqualified the Canadian on both occasions as well, finishing 5th at Macau.
Though he wanted to do F3000 in 1992, he didn't have the funds, so he did the South American F3 series instead for Forti Corse, but in a training accident early in the season he injured his leg and his year was spent. |
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1993-94
Stint in the USA proves successful |
Going to North America instead in 1993, he drove in the Toyota Atlantic series, and was rookie of the year once again. He also drove at the Monaco F3 race, taking the kudos for fastest lap of the race.
His time in America opened doors, though, and in 1994 he was called to drive a year-old Lola for Andreas Leberle's Project Indy team for two races. |
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| FORMULA ONE | ||
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1994 Simtek Gets F1 drive at end of season |
Linking up with a leading sports marketing agency towards the end of 1994, Schiattarella got his big break when he did a deal to replace
Jean-Marc Gounon at Simtek.
His only experience in the car before the European GP at Jerez was a 30-lap run to enable him to get his FIA superlicence. |
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1994
Impresses at Jerez, but not in Adelaide! |
Though there were fears that he wouldn't be able to outqualify the Pacifics, he did, and scraped onto the Jerez grid in last place. Though he finished 19th and last, he impressed many with a sensible, careful but determined approach.
He also raced the Simtek at Adelaide, qualifying 26th (behind Jean-Denis Deletraz, ouch!) and retiring with a gearbox problem. |
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1995
Returns with a somewhat competitive car |
Schiattarella stayed at Simtek in 1995, and in that year Nick Wirth designed a car that, if given a decent chance, proved to be very competitive indeed.
But being competitive is one thing, having the funds to be competitive is another, and after running up debts of 6 million pounds in 18 months of operation, Simtek closed its doors after round 5 at Monaco. |
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1995
Can't covert promise into results, best 9th |
By that stage, though, Schiattarella had had some very decent showings. He qualified 20th out of 26 in Argentina and Monaco, and in the latter case outqualified his highly-rated team-mate
Jos Verstappen.
Though the retired on four of these five events, in Argentina he finished 9th, equalling Simtek's best-ever finish. |
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| AFTER FORMULA ONE | ||
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1995-98
Can't repeat pre-F1 success |
Out of a drive again, Project Indy again came to the rescue, offering him two more (albeit fruitless) outings in 1995 at Vancouver and Laguna Seca. In 1996, Schiattarella turned his attention to sports cars, and won the Vallelunga 6hrs event with Luciano della Noce in a Ferrari F40 GTE.
In 1997, he had some outings in the FIA GT Championship in a GBF Engineering Lotus GT1 with Luca Badoer and Massimiliano Angelelli, though good results were once again not forthcoming. Once again without a drive in 1998, he made a one-off appearance for Project Indy at Long Beach, ending up classified four laps down despite a collision. |
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1999
Stunning result as ring-in for van de Poele |
But in 1999 his star has risen. When the Rafanelli team needed a second driver beside
Eric van de Poele in their Riley & Scott Mk III for the Road Atlanta round of the American Le Mans Series, Schiattarella was called in at the last moment.
He had never seen the car or the track before, yet he was entrusted with qualifying the car, since van de Poele would not arrive until race day, being busy with Le Mans commitments. Pushing the R&S to the limit, he planted it on pole, and went on to record a stunning victory. |
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1999
Erik replaces Eric as going gets tougher |
Suddenly he was the toast of the ALMS. But since then, after van de Poele was injured at Le Mans (where, incidentally, Schiattarella finished 6th in a Courage Nissan), and with the Panoz and BMW cars getting stronger, Schiattarella and new team-mate
Erik Comas have found the going tougher.
However, many predict that the Italian will be a hot piece of property on the sports car market for years to come. |
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