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The Vallelunga circuit named after Piero Taruffi will be the setting for both the sixth and final round of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europa and the sixth edition of the World Final dedicated to the cars of the maker from Sant’Agata Bolognese involving all the protagonists of the three series Europe, Asia and North America.

After the positive experience in the Italian Gran Turismo Championship aboard the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 the Polish driver followed by Minardi Management will return to the wheel of the blue Imperiale Racing “Lambo” number 44 together with Vito Postiglione to defend the leadership and to play for the title strengthened by the ten point lead over their direct rivals.

The spotlights will turn onto the final round on Thursday with free practice and qualifying, while on Friday there will be two races at 11.40am and 3.40pm.

On Saturday the curtain will rise on the World Final’s intensive programme with the warm-up, official trials and race-1. Race-2 is scheduled for Sunday at 2.25pm. There will be direct streaming on the Lamborghini Squadra Corse Facebook page.

“It’s time for the culmination of year-round struggles. We are leading in the standings, so the situation is very good for us, but we must remember that our rivals will definitely not go easy on us. Two-day tests before the finals mean that not only we know the track very well, but the other teams also. For this reason, I expect a hard fight from the first outing on the track. Together with Vito, we will definitely give our best and I hope that it will be enough to stay on top. Keep fingers crossed” commented Karol

“As always we will go to the track with our minds on the aim of winning the Super Trofeo Europa and to then have a say in the World Final, an appointment that embraces the best teams from the three series and to finish as well as possible a season that has been positive up till now,” commented managers Giovanni Minardi and Alberto Tonti.

We are coming into the weekend of the Mexican Grand Prix, the nineteenth and third last round of the Formula 1 World Championship and with another match ball for Lewis Hamilton to win his fifth world title.

At Austin Ferrari managed to delay the celebration with Kimi Raikonnen’s win and Sebastian Vettel’s fourth place which was surely an important result for the team from Maranello that reduced the gap slightly from Mercedes on the Constructors’ front. It was a result that revitalized the shares in the team of the Finnish driver who came back to victory after 5 years and 115 races and who will leave Maranello to return to Hinwil.

I do not share the comments about this since I am convinced that the choices made by the team’s management are the right road to return to victory. The results speak on their own with Sebastian Vettel constantly faster than his team mate, even if he was the protagonist of too many errors (9 in 18 grands prix is a very high average for a driver who wants to win the title). At Austin he had overtaken Raikonnen as well, just as he had all season.

At this time Ferrari must recover Vettel the driver in view of both the final three rounds and in consideration for 2019 and the arrival of Charles Leclerc will give him the right stimulus.

Raikonnen was perfect at Austin and I hope to see him with the same determination, which had been lacking in the first part of the season, also in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi. He has to be the deciding factor to help Ferrari win the constructor’s title.

Gian Carlo Minardi

At the South Garda international track Andrea Kimi Antonelli left Mini 60 after having won the Rok Cup International Final that this year celebrated its sixteenth edition.

Placed in the L-Series 2 group, Energy Racing’s very young driver from Bologna followed by Mercedes-AMG in collaboration with Minardi Management was the absolute protagonist with three wins and a fourth place in the three rounds of the Heats that put him in the front row of the Qualifying Heats and he finished the weekend with first place in the Mini Rok Final that earned him the title.

“We thank Mick Panigada and all the staff of Energy Corse for the dedication they put in place all season that helped Andrea to grow. Now another chapter begins,” commented Giovanni Minardi and Alberto Tonti.

For Andrea Kimi Antonelli it is already time to think about next season that will see him make a leap of category to the OKJ that will already begin on the same track at Lonato for the first three rounds of the WSK Final Cup. After the round at South Garda the karting international will move to circuit 7 Laghi of Castelletto di Branduzzo (Pavia) for the round on November 11th which will then be followed the final weekend at the Adria Karting Raceway planned for November 21st.

In the new challenge of OKJ Andrea Kimi Antonelli will wear the colours of the Rosberg Racing Team, the team created by the fusion between the 2016 World F2 Champion Nico Rosberg and Dino Chiesa that, five months after its formation, already celebrated the FIA Karting World Championship at Kristianstad.

“We are excited about starting this new adventure beside Rosberg Racing in OKJ, the newly crowned OK World Champion. This contract strengthens the collaboration with Mercedes-AMG and we will continue to follow Andrea’s growth, giving him the proper support race by race,” continued managers Minardi and Tonti.

We continue our trip in time towards the United States Grand Prix and after Gian Carlo Minardi we approached Gabriele Tredozi, the engineer from Brisighella who marked his debut in the Formula 1 World championship wearing the Minardi Team colours beginning in 1988

We wanted to experience once more the emotions of Detroit ’88 and Phoenix ’90 from the technical point of view.

“I remember the Detroit weekend very well. It was my sixth grand prix in Formula 1 and I was the race engineer for the M188 number 23 entrusted that up to Canada was entrusted to Adrian Campos and from Detroit to Pierluigi Martini. That weekend Piero climbed into the car for the first time during free practice and he quickly set excellent times that showed he could be in the first ten places when he closed qualifying in sixteenth place. Bringing the car to the finishing line on debut on a street circuit and disjointed such as that of Detroit in sixth place was an extraordinary result, especially because the M188 had a number of problems,” remembered Tredozi.

The Minardi M188 designed by Caliri, nicknamed the “camel” due to its chronic instability was powered by a Ford 3.5 aspirated V8 and its very short wheelbase and the torsion bar suspension (an absolute innovation at the time) were badly suited for irregular road surfaces.

“This was a very rigid car and certainly not easy to drive, particularly on a street circuit. In August, in view of the grand prix at Monza, we managed however to resolve a large part of the problems thanks to an important intervention with the adoption, amongst other things, of the dynamic dome to increase the flow of air into the engine which let us gain two seconds”.

“This development was then transferred to the M189 that made its debut in Mexico (the third grand prix of the 1989 season, editor’s note), also beginning the following season at Phoenix by taking the front row with Martini, who was beaten only by Berger in the McLaren in the final minutes by only a few tenths of seconds,” continued Tredozi,

The Minardi M189 was surely the best car built at Faenza, both in terms of results with 6 points won (5th and 6th places in Great Britain, 5th place in Portugal and fourth place in qualifying in Spain and 6th place in Australia), as well as its performance at speed.

“The generational leap between the M188 and the M89 was important. The chassis was worked for the first time with a 5 axis numerical machine that exploited CAD-Cam technology instead of by hand, with rear shock absorbers to balance the gear box and great attention paid to the profile of the spoilers. The start of the season was not easy due to water cooling problems, but once we modified the system the efforts were repaid with the fifth and sixth places at Silverstone which were followed by other important results such as the front row at Phoenix 90,” concluded the engineer from the Romagna, “They were two incredible results that made Minardi history, achieved also thanks to Martini’s technical skills”.

The Japanese Grand Prix has gone into the record books with another Mercedes one-two and fifth and sixth places for Ferrari. In between were the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

There was no lack of after effects and twists, like the minor collisions between Verstappen-Raikonnen, Verstappen-Vettel and Magnussen-Leclerc with the Dane who, in trying to avoid being overtaken by the driver from Monte Carlo, moved at the last moment cutting the Sauber driver’s road. “Magnussen can have his license taken away since it is not the first time that he has been the antagonist in these episodes,” was the harsh comment from Gian Carlo Minardi who also accented another argument

“Too many concessions are being made in favour of safety that are detrimental to fairness and this is not good. If we take the examples of the two points of the track where Verstappen collided with the Ferrari drivers, without focussing on who is right or wrong. Until a few years ago the side of the track – that section of asphalt between the two white lines – there was sand which was fatal to anyone who made a mistake,” was the analysis of the manager from Faenza.

“In the first episode Verstappen approached the chicane long but passed through the curb coming back on track and then in the subsequent collision with the Finn, ruining the Raikonnen’s race, when he got a penalty of barely 5”. In the episode with Vettel, the German came out worse when he left the track, however he found asphalt on the escape route thus avoiding the worst.”

“I have the impression that we are hiding behind the factor of safety to allow actions that are not clear and not easily comparable between them that bring the marshals to issue subjective judgments. I believe that when a car exceeds the white line with more than two wheels that the driver must be punished heavily”.

“Otherwise we change the rules and leave the drivers free to fight it out, classifying all collisions as race incidents with no sanctions,” concluded Minardi.

There are still 5 rounds until the end of the season on the Formula 1 World Championship that this weekend lands in Japan at the historic Suzuka circuit. After Lewis Hamilton’s win and Mercedes’ 1-2 double the gap between Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari has climbed to 50 and 55 points respectively in the drivers’ and the constructors’ ladders.

Ferrari must admit its fault for the points lost at Monza as at the other circuits in the times that was most favourable for it. The gap would have been much smaller, just like the pressure. Mercedes has shown great strength both technically and strategically. Even if some did not like the team games, the history books will only show the titles won.

Toto Wolff’s are making the most of all the material available to them by exploiting every favourable opportunity. Unfortunately Ferrari has not managed to do it just as well, despite finishing within a few seconds after a very tight and tough grand prix.

Suzuka is surely not an easy circuit where in recent years the weather was an important variable. This weekend too the forecasts are not the best since there is a tornado and we do not yet know which direction it will take. I may be the case to change the date of the race since the bad weather has always been a constant factor. I remember the 1994 edition when Alboreto and Martini touched without even noticing because it was raining so much. It went decidedly better for Fittipaldi in 1992 when he crossed the finish line with the Lamborghini powered M192 in sixth place, giving us the only point of the season.

Pirelli will bring the Medium, Soft and SuperSoft mixes and Mercedes and Ferrari have focussed on different strategies with 10 sets of SS for Vettel and Raikonnen and 7 for Hamilton. It will crtainly be the case to intervene with the tyres in view of next year since this year they are not achieving the results hoped for with negligible differences in performance from one mix to another.

Gian Carlo Minardi