Honestly, the Merzario isn't even in Sh*tbox Tier. If you want a truly horrible experience I'd advise taking the ATS
Fun fact, after the rule change in F1, that removed constructor points for the highest placed driver of that car, and the move to both cars in a team scoring (From 1958 and through 1978, only the top placed car for each manufacturer scored. This also applied to customers, so in e.g 1967. Jo Siffert used a customer Cooper with the Maserati engine, and was the highest placed Cooper-Maserati, he scored points. Even though he was entered as Jo Siffert, and not for the Cooper-team). ATS is one of only two teams who have ended up in a point scoring position and not scored. The other team being Osella. Curiously enough, it happened in the same race for both teams, and were the last time both teams had any driver inside the top 6.
It happened at the Italian GP in 1984. Jo Gartner ended up 5th in his Osella, and Gerhard Berger 6th in his ATS. Curiously enough, both being Austrian drivers. The curious aspect of this, is that the FIA also decided that the drivers wouldn't be awarded points. Nor would the points be moved down to eligible drivers. So in the Italian GP of 1984, only 4 drivers scored points. F1 have never had fewer drivers to score in a race.
The reason for this was that ATS and Osella had entered the championship that year with only one car. Gartner and Berger was driving a 2nd entry for both teams in Italy, and would not be able to score. So in reality they were extra cars not counting towards anything. The fate of the drivers would be quite different as well. Berger would go on to be famous in F1, while Gartner was killed during the 24hrs of Le Mans in 1986.
ATS would pull out of F1 at the end of 1984, while Osella would become the first Italian backmarker team that didn't give up where others would've, They kept going until the end of 1990, but never ever finishing with a car inside the top 6 after Italy 1984. They were close many times, but with the fittingly named FA1L chassis in 1988 they started to go into massive DNQ's and also DNPQ's. The team was bought out by Giovanni Rumi from Fondmetal, and renamed to Fondmetal, they started 1991 using the 1990 Osella-chassis. Fondmetal only lasted two years before pulling out before the 1993 season. The legacy lived on though, the design for their 1993 car was sold in 1994 to Guido Forti and used as a basis for the FG01 car that Forti-Corse entered in F1 in 1995.
Further fun-facts: That FG01 is quite similar in looks to the 1992 Fondmetal-car. It was the last ever F1 car to have a manual H-shifter, and for many years you could book an "F1 experience" at Three Sisters Raceway in Wigan, UK. One of the cars you could race was the 1995 Forti-Corse FG01.
Extra super-duper fun-fact:
If Osella had ordered Jo Gartner in to the pits 2 laps before he finished, he would've been classified behind Piercarlo Ghinzani. Why is that relevant you may ask? Because Ghinzani was in the season-entered Osella. He would then become 6th and score a point for Osella.
If FIA had moved the points positions down (like what happens when cars are DQ'd), Ghinzani would've scored 2 points, and brought Osella to 9th instead of 12th in the championship. That would also cause Spirit to score their only F1 points in history, but that was not the case this time.
Anyway, thanks for joining my TED-Ta...Write about things just barely related to the ATS being poop in the 1979 mod!
