Felice Bonetto is a racing driver from Italy who last raced in Formula 1 for Maserati. Bonetto has recorded 0 wins and 2 podiums from 16 starts.[1]
A Racer Rating of 4,946 ranks Bonetto 351th of 15,348 indexed drivers, on an Elo scale where the strongest reach the low five figures. It is built from every indexed race in the driver's file, decayed for time since their last race.
| 1953-09-13 | Autodromo Nazionale di Monza | DNF | −35 |
| 1953-08-23 | Circuit Bremgarten | P4 | +35 |
| 1953-08-02 | Nürburgring | P4 | +119 |
| 1953-07-18 | Silverstone Circuit | P6 | +95 |
| 1953-07-05 | Reims-Gueux | DNF | −36 |
| Season | Series | Team | Races | Wins | Podiums | DNFs | Poles | Points | Pos | Gain/Loss | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | ▸Formula 1 | Maserati | 7 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 7 | P9 | +166 | 5,092 |
| 1952 | ▸Formula 1 | Maserati | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | P16 | +2 | 4,926 |
| 1951 | ▸Formula 1 | Alfa Romeo | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | P8 | +214 | 4,924 |
| 1950 | ▸Formula 1 | Milano | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | P19 | −90 | 4,710 |
| Rival | Rating | Raced | Ahead | Behind | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇫🇷 Louis Rosier | 4,858 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 88% |
| 🇮🇹 Nino Farina | 5,565 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 0% |
| 🇮🇹 Alberto Ascari | 5,339 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 14% |
| 🇦🇷 José Froilán González | 5,180 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0% |
| 🇮🇹 Luigi Villoresi | 5,038 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 60% |
| 🇦🇷 Juan Fangio | 6,092 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0% |
| 🇬🇧 Mike Hawthorn | 5,537 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 25% |
| 🇨🇭 Toulo de Graffenried | 4,915 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 100% |
| 🇬🇧 Ken Wharton | 4,728 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 100% |
Felice Bonetto competed in Formula 1 between 1950 and 1953, a four-year period that encompassed the championship's first four seasons. Across 16 starts, all for Maserati, he scored two podium finishes and never won a race. His average finishing position of 4.3 places him in the upper tier of a grid that included five-time champion Juan Fangio, two-time champion Alberto Ascari, and inaugural world champion Nino Farina. Against these figures Bonetto was consistently outpaced, losing head-to-head records to all three. However, he demonstrated competitive standing against peers of slightly lower calibre; he finished ahead of Louis Rosier in seven of eight shared races, and he beat Stirling Moss and Piero Taruffi on separate occasions, results that speak to solid midfield competence in a professional field.[1]
The record shows Bonetto holding his own against drivers of the second rank rather than the very top. He was most competitive against Rosier, a fellow midfield regular, and occasionally bested drivers who would later establish themselves as champions or front-runners; his victory over Ascari in one race, for instance, came against a man who would dominate the sport within two years. Yet the weight of evidence lies elsewhere. In seven races against Farina, Ascari, and Fangio combined, he never finished ahead of any of them. These patterns place him as a professional single-seater driver of moderate standing, capable of podium performances in the right circumstances but outmatched by the grid's elite.[2]
Bonetto's racing extended beyond Formula 1. He won the Targa Florio in 1952 driving for Lancia, establishing himself as a capable road racer, and his career came to a close after the 1953 season. His final Formula 1 campaign, in which he scored one podium from seven rounds and finished ninth in the championship standings, marked the end of his world championship involvement.