Schiattarella is another driver to have found his way onto the Grand Prix grid in the nineties by dint of finance rather than a track record of major successes.

    'Mimmo' began racing in Italian Formula 4 back in 1985. He won that championship the following term and graduated to Italian Formula 3, where he was to spend the next three years. By 1991 he was a leading runner along with the likes of Badoer and Jacques Villeneuve, but threw away his chance of becoming the champion in the final round at Vallelunga when he pushed his title rival Giambattista Busi off the circuit and was black-flagged.

    Schiattarella then spent part of the next year in the Sud-Am championship before making an end-of-year appearance in the Macau F3 race, where he finished fifth.

    A couple of outings in the Project Indy Lola tested the Indy Car waters, but the chance to drive for Simtek at the end of the 1994 season whetted his appetite for more in 1995. Apparently his contract was for the first half of the year only, with Hideki Noda laying down his wedge of cash for the balance of the season. In the event 'Mimmo1 failed to get past round five at Monaco as Simtek, despite possessing a very promising car, were in such financial difficulties that they could no longer carry on.

    Subsequently Schiattarella has, in the main, concentrated on sports car racing. In 1996 he won the Vallelunga 6 Hours in a Ferrari F40 against moderate opposition, and he shared a Lotus GT1 with Luca Badoer on a couple of occasions the following year. The 1998 season saw the briefest of returns to single-seaters in CART with Project Indy after Moreno quit the team. A race at Long Beach was to be their final outing of the year as a lack of funding forced them out.

    'Mimmo' found a competitive ride at last in 1999 driving Team Rafanelli's Riley & Scott MkII sports car in the American Le Mans Series. Teamed with Eric van de Poele, he won the opening round at Road Atlanta and placed well elsewhere. Schiattarella also joined Caffi and Montermini at Le Mans, where the Italian trio took a Courage-Nissan into a fine sixth place.

(c) 'Who is Who' by Steve Small, 2000