Ludovico Scarfiotti

Sports car competition

Scarfiotti finished third in the 1962 1,000 Kilometres de Paris with Colin Davis. The following year, partnered with Lorenzo Bandini, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Ferrari 250 P, averaging 117.99 miles per hour over 2832 miles. That victory gave Ferrari its fourth consecutive Le Mans win. In 1965, Scarfiotti and John Surtees drove a Ferrari 330 P2 Spyder to victory at the 1000km Nürburgring, leading all 44 laps with an average speed of 90.46 mi/h. At the 1966 Nürburgring, Scarfiotti and Bandini placed second in a 2-litre Dino 206 S, 90 seconds behind a Chaparral.

Surtees ended his relationship with Ferrari after the team replaced him with Scarfiotti for the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, where Scarfiotti retired after 123 laps. In 1967, Scarfiotti and Mike Parkes finished a lap behind the winners at the 1000 km Spa in a Ferrari P4. They also took second at the 24 Hours of Daytona behind a sister Ferrari P4 spyder, and repeated that result at the Monza 1,000 km. At the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans, Scarfiotti and Parkes finished second behind a Ford Mark IV.

Scarfiotti raced a Ferrari factory car in the September 1967 Canadian-American Challenge Cup near Bridgehampton, New York, sponsored by the North American Racing Team.

Formula One

Enzo Ferrari signed Scarfiotti to the Formula One team for 1963 alongside Surtees, Willy Mairesse, Bandini, and Nino Vaccarella. He placed sixth in the 1963 Dutch Grand Prix, a lap behind Jim Clark. In 1965, he finished fifth in the non-championship Syracuse Grand Prix. Scarfiotti became the first Italian in fifteen years to win the Italian Grand Prix in 1966, setting a track record speed of 136.7 mi/h; as of the end of the 2024 season, he remains the last Italian to win it.

At the Dutch GP, Scarfiotti, Parkes, and Chris Amon finished 4-5-6, all one lap behind Amon; at Spa, Parkes had a career-ending accident and Scarfiotti was four laps behind and not classified. For the rest of 1967, Ferrari entered only one car for Amon. Scarfiotti drove an All American Racers Eagle Mk1 at Monza, but both Weslake V12 engines failed early. With Ferrari hiring Jacky Ickx and Amon for 1968, Scarfiotti joined Cooper.

He finished fourth at the 1968 Spanish Grand Prix and fourth again at the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix, where 11 of 16 starters retired.

Death

The 1968 hillclimb on Germany's Roßfeldhöhenringstraße claimed Ludovico Scarfiotti. His Porsche 910 left the track during trials, plunged down a wooded slope, and hung in trees. Thrown from the cockpit, he was found badly injured fifty yards away. He died in an ambulance from multiple fractures. A sixty-yard skid mark showed he braked hard at the last moment. He was the third Grand Prix driver killed that year.