MINARDI M191 | THE FERRARI ENGINE CAME

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April 5 1990 was another historic date for Gian Carlo Minardi and the Minardi Team. It was announced that from the 1991 season Ferrari would supply its 12 cylinder engine to the Minardi Team. For the first time in its history Ferrari supplied one of its components to another team.

The Aldo Costa designed M191 became the first car in history to mount a Ferrri client engine. The chassis, built around two small drivers such as Pierluigi Martini (68kg) and Gianni Morbidelli (65kg) presented a reduced and extreme body. The car was born and entirely developed around the engine from Maranello and the Minardi gearbox. During the season it benefitted from significant aerodynamic and technical development. It was an extremely expensive car that heavily committed the team from the technical point of view.

The M191’s Achilles’ heel was the gearbox, created in house which proved very fragile. Constantly, the clutch broke after a few race laps forcing the drivers to continue on without.

Despite this the car stood out constantly reaching the top 10 in qualifying in the last eight GPs of the season (from Hungary to Australia) achieving two fourth places (at Imola and Estoril with Martini) and a total of six points and 7th amongst the Constructors of the 18 teams entered.

As stated, the season’s first great satisfaction came on April 28th on a Sunday strongly conditioned by the rain. On the home track, the third round of the season, Martini achieved a real masterpiece placing 4th at the end of a race run after the 20th lap without the clutch and therefore with the nightmare of breaking the gearbox and without being able to stop at the pits to change tyres. It was a true triumph.

With this result the trust in Ferrari was also rewarded, having brought the only car with a Ferrari engine across the finish line on the darkest day for the cars in red with Prost out in the formation lap and Alesi stuck in the sand at the Tosa bend immediately after the start. The same situation occurred in Montreal with the M191 no. 23 which crossed the finishing line in seventh place with the only surviving Ferrari engine.

On July 15th, on the occasion of the British Grand Prix, the Minardi Team crossed the finish line of 100 grands prix, finishing in 9th place. The 1985 Brazil GP was a distant memory.

MINARDI M189 | THOSE FANTASTIC LAPS IN THE LEAD.THE CAR THAT OPENED A CYCLE

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SThe M189 was born from the wake of enthusiasm of the results achieved in the 1988 season. The car made its debut in the fourth round of the world championship on the occasion of the Mexico Grand Prix, taking the place of the M188B.

Designed by Nigel Cowperthwaite and Tommaso Carletti with Aldo Costa in the role of technical director the car was powered by the 3500cc Ford Cosworth V8. The M189 was the first racing car in which the model of the chassis was not created by hand but worked for the surfaces at the I.De.A. Company in Turin with a 5-axis numerical controlled machine that exploited CAD-CAM technology.

The M189 was entirely designed by CAD and developed in the wind tunnel in Crandfield in England and was also the first racing car to mount rear rocker shock absorbers above the gear box with the hub holders made of welded steel, a solution that was subsequently adopted by everybody.

Particular attention was given to the profile of the wings developed by the former Lotus technician Cowperthwaite. Experiments also began with a high nose cone. The M189 was equipped with the low nose cone but at the same time raised a few centimetres with respect to the bottom of the body. This “step” was the first attempt to favour the air flow in the forward part of the rib, a constructive philosophy that was subsequently adopted by all the teams with the introduction of the high nose cone. The M189’s main weapon was probably constituted by the Pirelli tyres which were particularly perfuming in qualifying but less incisive in the race. They were characterized by a special mix that after the first use allowed the buffing of the surface layer for a second use with performance that was even superior to the first.

The start of the season was not the happiest for Pierluigi Martini and Luis Sala who were forced to seven retirements in as many races with the M189 suffering from overheating problems and the nightmare of prequalifying coming ever closer. The turning point came on July 16 at Silverstone on the occasion of the British Grand Prix where a new arrangement of the heating system was installed and with Martini and Sala who brought the two Minardis into the points, in fifth and sixth places respectively.

GIAN CARLO MINARDI “It was a decisive race for us and the history of the Minardi Team. Those three points allowed the team to not take part from pre-qualifying in the second half of the season which would have meant a great less on the economic level with the loss of the television bonuses and those of the transportation. Piero had a stupendous race even if characterized by a horror start. After three laps he came into the pits because the water temperature was sky high. Taken by the desperation we sent him back onto the track without any intervention on the car and luckily all the parameters fell back into the norm. We never understood what happened but that’s ok”

September 24 at Estoril in Portugal was another incredible date. Martini took Minardi to the lead of a Grand Prix for the first time in its history, controlling the two very fast Williams-Renaults with a stupendous performance and crossing the finishing line in fifth place. To these results Martini added a deserved 6th place in Australia under pouring rain, the 7th and 8th places at Monza and the 9th in Germany and Belgium.

With 6 points to its credit the Minardi team finished in the Top 10 with 20 teams entered for the second consecutive year.

GIAN CARLO MINARDI “The 1989 season was certainly the first of 3/4 seasons in which the Minardi was really fast. 1991 and 1993 come to mind”

MINARDI M188 | THE “CAMEL” THAT CONSECRATED MINARDI AND MARTINI

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April 5th, 1985 is the symbolic date for Gian Carlo Minardi and the Minardi Team. At 9.30am of that Friday 35 years ago the Team from Faenza marked its debut in the Formula 1 World Championship on Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro track during the first round of free practice with the sole example of the M185 entrusted to Pierluigi Martini. “Everybody looked at us as if we were Martians,” remembers former mechanic Bruno Valli.

During the 21 years of history in the World Championship there were many other important occasions and one of these was certainly July 19th, 1988. On the Detroit track in the sixth round of the world championship, Pierluigi Martini and the Minardi Team gained their first world championship point with the M188. This was a triumph for the driver from the Romagna who finally asserted himself in the ranks of the true drivers in the highest series but it was especially a reward for the tenacity of Gian Carlo Minardi, the first great achievement since his arrival in F1.

The M188 designed by Giacomo Caliri and nicknamed the “camel” due to its chronic instability should have been a liberation for the team. Unfortunately these expectations were soon disappointed. The racing car with the naturally cooled 3500 cc Ford Cosworth DFZ V8 with a very short wheel base of 2670mm, even if aided by a torsion bar suspension (a solution that would be taken up in F1 only 10 years later) the M188 did not perform and was badly suited to the regular road surfaces. In the first five grands prix the M188 counted three retirements, three did not qualify (Monte Carlo, Mexico and Canada) with Adrian Campos and barely a sixteenth place and eleventh place twice. These results brought about the dismissal of the Spaniard who was replaced precisely by Martini on the occasion of the USA Gp.

The poor results brought a technical revolution with the departure of Caliri whose functions were entrusted to a team of young engineers led by Aldo Costa, Gabriele Tredozi, Tommaso Carletti and Vincenzo Emiliani, the latter charged with redesigning the traditional suspension with helical wheels which, thanks to its geometry, hinged more effectively to the chassis making everything more rigid and improved the behaviour of the car. The lengthening of the wheel base contributed to making the racing car more stable and improving above all the aerodynamic flow. Finally, starting with the Italian Gp, a dynamic dome was adopted to increase the flow of air to the engine.

All these improvements ensured that the racing car achieved better overall performance of a total of about 3 seconds and achieved 7th place in Australia, 8th in Portugal and 10th place in the Constructors’ Championship

19 December 1979 – 2019: 40 years of the Minardi Team

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1980 – GM77, Presentazione del Minardi Team

Wednesday December 19 forty years ago Gian Carlo Minardi’s sporting activity changed style and register. Up to that day the cars handled by the manager from Faenza ran under external “colours”, first of the Società del Passatore and then Scuderia Everest.

““On December 19, 1979 the Minardi Team was officially born, also thanks to Angelo Gallignani, President of Scuderia Everest and in 1980 we debuted on the track with our first Formula 2 racing car, the GM75 designed by Caliri and Marmiroli and entrusted to Miguel Angel Guerra, the first driver to race under the Minardi Team colours,” remembered Gian Carlo Minardi.

Despite the initial hardships the Argentine driver gained a good 9th place in the European Championship. In the following however the Minardi talent scout put under contract a certain Michele Alboreto who, at the wheel of the Minardi-Fly M281, took third place in Pergusa and the brilliant win in the race at Misano in the middle of a torrid August on the Riviera… but that is another story.

Gian Carlo Minardi e Domenico Sangiorgi

At the same time as the Minardi Team’s coat of arms- the blue trapezoid with the lion, Italian flag and yellow letters- also made its debut and accompanied Gian Carlo Minardi throughout his journey that culminated with 21 years in Formula 1 and 340 Grands Prix, numbers that today still legitimize the team from Faenza amongst the top ten teams that have raced the most grands prix in the history of F1 that next year will celebrate its 70th birthday.

“In that moment we became Constructors, certified by CSAI and FIA; and we grew from year to year until we became too big for Formula 2 but too small for Formula 1. In the 1980s F1 was everybody’s dream and it was at the peak of its fame and so taken by the decision to launch myself in that challenge to construct in 1984 the first prototype F1 car which debuted the following year in Brazil with Pierluigi Martini. All supported by a group of entrepreneurs from the Emilia-Romagna region who trusted me,” continued the manager from Faenza.

Da Sinistra: Ing. Giacomo Caliri, Bruno Corradi (Pilota), Gian Carlo Minardi, Ing. Luigi Marmiroli, Tonino Bertoni (capo meccanico)

“In all those years we built our racing cars with great pride and satisfaction and for this reason, even today, I do not view positively the possibility of having an F1 starting grid made up of assemblers and/or clones”

“I am pleased that forty years later the name Minardi still lives in the memory of the fans as they have shown over the last four years during the Historic Minardi Day. I wish you all Happy Holidays and I will be waiting for you from Friday 24th to Sunday 26th April, always of the Imola Circuit for edition number five” ”

1979 – Preparazione GM75 per la galleria del vento

Historic Minardi Day 2020 in pursuit of Formula 1, the ACI Storico Festival and the Elegance Competition

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The organizational machine of the Historic Minardi Day is already working at full speed to prepare the 5th edition which, as per tradition, will have as its home Imola’s Enzo and Dino Ferrari Circuit which will open the gates from Friday April 24, 2020.

There are many confirmations but there will be many new attractions, as Gian Carlo Minardi unveiled at the ACI Stand at the Padua Festival.

“The fact that we extended the event by one day is already a major development. Next year the engines of the Formula 1 and all the extraordinary cars that will come to Imola will be turned on starting from the Friday and they will only be turned off on Sunday April 26th,” said Gian Carlo Minardi.

“The other great development is represented by the participation of ACI Storico which will be our main partner through the ACI Storico Festival (ACI Historic Festival), a get together for all the ACI clubs in Imola. There will be no lack of occasions for meetings and conventions in a setting of fantastic cars and great enthusiasts. We must not forget that many historical races belong to ACI and that for some years it has started up many activities including Ruoti Nella Storia (History in wheels) in Italy’s most beautiful towns” in Italy’s,” continued the manager from Faenza.

“The fifth edition of the Historic Minardi Day will also be the stage for the first elegance competition dedicated to historical cars. Staying in the field of history, the “Savio Trophy” has been confirmed, as well as the non competitive outing in the hills of the Romagna.”

Amongst the new developments there will many confirmations. “The DNA of the event remains solid. The single ticket(which can be bought at the circuit-Ticketone) willgive access to the Circuit’s paddock, pits and terrace to be in direct touch with the racing cars and their protagonists. Last year we hosted 32 F1 racing cars for a trip through more than half a century of history to which were added many F2, F3, F Junior, Prototypes, Gran Turismo and Lancia Martini Racing which gave life to an extraordinary spectacle that recalled an exciting sound. In addition, many enthusiasts had the chance to experience the excitement of a lap of the Santerno Circuit aboard a Supercar of the calibre of the Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio, Renault Alpine, Dallara Stradale, Lamborghini and Pagani.

“Our objective is to bring back to the Circuit the atmosphere of the paddock in the early years of Formula 1 be eliminating the barriers that risk keeping fans away. With the chance to give you an appointment for April I want to thank the more than 15,000 passionate fans that that literally invaded the paddock and the pits,” concluded Gian Carlo Minardi.

 

The Racing Team Nederland at the 24 hours of Le Mans with the colours of the M192. MINARDI “It is an honour that Frits van Eerd chose these colours”

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The colour scheme of the Lamborghini powered Minardi M192 that was the protagonist of F1 in 1992 with Alessandro Zanardi, Gianni Morbidelli and Christian Fittipaldi who took sixth place in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka will come back onto the track next June 15th and 16th thanks to the passion and genius of Frits van Eerd and Racing Team Nederland.

The famous Dutch entrepreneur, collector and the greatest enthusiast of Minardi in the world, as well as the protagonist of the Historic Minardi Day in Imola wanted to pay homage to Gian Carlo Minardi by also choosing the iconic yellow, white and black for his Dallara P217-Gbson #29 that will take part in the 24 hours of Le Mans, the final round of the 18-19 Super Season fot the FIA WEC Endurance World Championship.

“There is a special friendship with Frits van Eerd and I am honoured that Team Minardi always inspired him. It is fantastic that the colours of my F1 cars were chosen for the Racing Team Nederland’s cars. Frits and I will continue will collaborate to reinforce this association with the Minardi name and I will be happy to advise him- as a sort of “godfather” for his passion for motorsport – in the field of racing teams, talents and possibly new projects,” commented Gian Carlo Minardi who was present at the presentation.

Together with Frits van Eerd, at the wheel of the Dallara P217 there will be a team made up entirely of Dutchmen with Giedo van der Garde and Nick De Vries (the F2 driver who is in McLaren’s youth programme).

Road To China | 1000th Gp. MINARDI “Proud to have taken part in 340 Gp with the Minardi Team”

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What sort of grand prix will Shanghai be? This is the question that many fans and experts have been asking since the first two rounds in Australia and Bahrain showed two markedly different potentials, even if, in the end, the result was the same. Two wins for Mercedes, first with Bottas and then with Hamilton and only a third place for Ferrari with Leclerc.

For Ferrari the Chinese Grand Prix will be an appeal for verifying whether they have really identified and solved the problems of reliability that ruined the celebration in Sakhir and which is the real Ferrari; the one we saw in Melbourne that suffered a major gap from its direct rivals or the “red” that won the front row of the grid two weeks ago and subsequently dominated the race with the driver from Monaco up to 10 laps from the chequered flag.

Last year Ferrari did very well with Raikonnen’s third place and I hope that this Sunday too it can repeat the result by taking this season’s first win. It will be a tough grand prix for the cars in which the engines, tyres and brake systems will be put to a hard test.

Formula 1 will cut the ribbon of 1,000 grands prix. This is an important result, of which Minardi took part in 340 rounds, 34%. This result makes me proud,, also because as of today the Minardi Team is the ninth team with the most races, behind, Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, Lotus, Tyrrell, Brabham, Sauber and Renault. We will tell a part of these 340 grands prix in Imola on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28, April at the fourth edition of the Historic Minardi Day, together with many friends, drivers and engineers and the newest recruits who are taking their first steps in the world of karting. There will be a parterre of high calibre cars and drivers. We are now at the last stages and we are fine tuning the final details to excite and entertain the enthusiasts who will come to visit us.

I will be waiting for you at Imola Circuit and we will be in touch again on Sunday to comment, I hope, another exciting race.

Gian Carlo Minardi

F1 | Grand Prix of the United States, the weekend of the “first times” with Pierluigi Martini

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After Team Principal (Gian Carlo Minardi) and Engineer (Gabriele Tredozi) we could not miss the Driver Pierluigi Martini, the hero who gave the Minardi Team its first world championship point at Detroit 1988 and its first front row at Phoenix 1990 with the second fastest time behind Berger’s McLaren, together with many other important results that became part of the history of the team from Faenza such as fifth place at Silverstone and Estoril, the fourth place in qualifying in Spain and the third fastest time in Australia – with starting grids made up of 27 cars – behind the McLarens of Senna and Prost and in front of Nannini’s Benetton finishing in the points with sixth place, the fourth places set in 1991 at Monte Carlo and Estoril with the Ferrari powered Minardi and the fifth places at Montmelò and Magny-Cours and racing in more than 100 grands prix.

“Detroit ’88 changed my life as a driver but it was just as important for the team. When the call came from Gian Carlo I was racing in F3000. I will never forget that weekend. The M188 was a car so difficult and demanding to drive that the steering wheel had taken away the fingertips from both hands. I finished the race on the strength of desperation. After 23 laps I was in fifth position and when I read on the board on the wall that there were still 40 more laps I didn’t want to believe it but I gritted my teeth. The car, nicknamed the Camel, jolted every time it disconnected from the asphalt and I struggled more to keep it on the road in the straight than in the curves. This was due to the configuration chosen by Caliri,” remembered Pierluigi Martini with satisfaction.

“Minardi chose the strategy of not changing tyres and I crossed the finish line on the canvasses. In the end I also touched the guardrail but luckily I did not break the car. It was our perfect day.”

“Phoenix ’90 was the other great day, with the Minardi on the front row for the first and only time in its history. It was a great lap, even if not my best since I made the best lap in Adelaide the year before with the third fastest time behind Senna and Prost and finished the race in sixth place,” continued the driver from the Romagna.

As the engineer Gabriele Tredozi already did, Martini also highlighted the great technical leap between the M188 and the M189 that ran the first races in the 1990 world championship before passing the baton to the M190.

“There was a great abyss between the two cars. The great leap of the M188 came in the summer of the occasion of the Monza Grand Prix when the car was taken up by Aldo Costa and Gabriele Tredozi who totally redesigned the front suspension which let us make up more than 2” per lap. Previously the M188 jumped on the valleys like crazy. The M189 was the car that gave us the best results, despite the cooling problems that were resolved after the Silverstone Grand Prix.”

Pierluigi Martini concluded his memories with the important result achieved, together with Sala, in the 1989 grand prix at Silverstone, “That weekend was our salvation because, thanks to the fifth and sixth places, we managed to avoid the trap of prequalifying. In the first lap I came back into the pits because the temperatures were once again very high but then, luckily, the problem was solved and that allowed us another incredible comeback”

F1 | United States Grands Prix, the weekend of the “first times” with Gian Carlo Minardi

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We are entering into the weekend that will bring us to the eighteenth round of the calendar: the United States Grand Prix, an appointment that for the Minardi Team is synonymous with unique results that played a part in changing its history.

We are talking about Detroit 1988, the grand prix that gave the team from Faenza its first world championship point with Pierluigi Martini (sixteenth place on the starting grid) and at Phoenix 1990, again with the driver from the Romagna who placed on the front row in qualifying (out of 27 qualifiers) in the M189 with only Berger’s McLaren-Honda ahead of him and in front of De Cesaris in the Scuderia Italia, Alesi’s Tyrrell, Senna’s McLaren, Piquet’s Benetton and Prost’s Ferrari.

As we await Austin we decided to relive these two important events with the direct protagonists and today we met with Gian Carlo Minardi,

“I still remember those events with extreme pleasure, beginning at Detroit. It was the season’s sixth round and we came from the Canadian Grand Prix where we once again had problems with Adrian Campos’ car, he was the official driver together with Luis Pérez-Sala,” remembers the manager from Faenza.

“We needed to give the whole team a shake and, for this reason, I took the difficult decision to substitute Adrian with Piero Martini who had raced for us in the debut season in 1985. Our main sponsor was the Spanish company Lois and I notified its President of this change, assuming all the risks. Piero came to the track without having tested the M188 and anyway he managed to qualify with an excellent 1’45″048 that earned him sixteenth place, in front of drivers of the calibre of Arnoux and teams such as Tyrell and Ligier. In the race Piero climbed up to sixth place giving us our historic first world championship point. The final laps were highly charged for us, especially after Luis’ retirement with a broken gearbox. For us it was the first point after three uneasy years since our arrival in Formula 1 and marked the beginning of constant improvement. That evening we celebrated with a dinner at the top floor of the Detroit Tower, together with the main sponsor’s president who had accepted, with reservations, the substitution of Campos,” said Minardi who continued his memory up to the first grand prix in 1990.

“The following year, 1989, was a better season for Minardi. The M189 constantly climbed up the starting grid finishing in the third row in the final grands prix up to the opening race of the 1990 world championship on the track at Phoenix with the front row. It was an incredible result since it was the first years of the dominance of McLaren and Williams. In the race Martini and Sala had to give way, however, they finished at the fringe of the points zone, in sixth and seventh positions”.

“Staying on the theme of the Grand Prix of America, the other result that deserves a mention is Indianapolis 2005, even if it is a story to itself. Together with Ferrari and Jordan, we honoured the presence since the Bridgestone tyres did not have the problems that on the other hand stopped the cars with Michelin tyres, crossing the finishing line in fifth and sixth positions with Albers and Friesacher,” concluded Minardi.

F1 | Spa-Francorchamps, we finally start again!

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With the end of the three weeks of summer break, this weekend the Formula 1 world championship is ready to start the engines again with teams and drives committed to a double commitment on two tough tracks as Spa-Francorchamps and Monza which will lead the way to a fiery end of season.

Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel will have the toughest task since they will not be able to make the slightest mistake. They are called to make nine perfect grands prix if they want to wipe out the 24 point gap that separates the German from Lewis Hamilton. The mistake at Hockenheim weighs very heavy.

We start with the track in the Ardennes, it is a circuit that is as historic as it is difficult in which the weather and safety car will practically do the honours. After having tested it on Sauber and Hass, the Ferraris will be equipped with the latest version of the Power Unit as Mercedes should also do.

On the tyre front Pirelli will bring to both Belgium and Italy the Medium, Soft and SuperSoft mixes. We come to this round with some unknown factors on the drivers’ market in which above all Kimi Raikonnen’s future is still up in the air. We experienced a very hot August (not only due to the high temperatures) that will redraw the 2019 starting grid. Daniel Ricciardo will say goodbye to Red Bull to wear Renault’s colours together with Hulkenberg and with Sainz taking the seat left free by Fernando Alonso who announced his retirement from F1 after 17 seasons. Red Bull will promote Gasly alongside Verstappen, while the places in Toro Rosso are still vacant. Force India, which has been placed under administration, was saved by a group of entrepreneurs led by Laurence Stroll whose son will free a place in Williams.

We expect very intense weeks. This weekend we start with Spa where the weather promises rain but then I expect many of you at Monza.

Gian Carlo Minardi

F1 | Minardi M191B-Lamborghini, Bortolotti “An unforgettable moment”

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26 years after Christian Fittipaldi and Gianni Morbidelli the steering wheel of the Minardi M191B, the protagonist of seven F1 grands prix in 1992 (before giving way to the M192) powered by the LE3512 Lamborghini engine designed by Mauro Forghieri, was passed onto Lamborghini Factory Driver Mirko Bortolotti who had the task of shaking down the seven months of restoration work carried out by the Polo Storico (historic programme) of the carmaker from Sant’Agata Bolognese.

Lamborghini’s official driver completed the twenty planned laps without encountering any problems.

“Seeing the technicians working on the original plans and become excited the first time the motor of the V12 Lamborghini engine was switched on was an unforgettable moment,” commented the driver from Trento, “These ‘old school’ cars are truly fantastic and unique. Congratulations to all the members of the Polo Storico Lamborghini for having made all this possible after a restoration that lasted seven months”

The M191B is now ready to go back to the racing and competing in the championships dedicated to historic F1 races.

This link will take you to the film made by the Lamborghini Racing Team

The Minardi 191B F1 with Lamborghini engine returns to racing after 26 years

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Twenty-six years from its last Grand Prix, the Minardi M191B chassis #003, equipped with a Lamborghini LE3512 V12 engine and one of the protagonists of Formula One in 1992, is back on the track.

The exciting shakedown organized by Lamborghini Squadra Corse is the result of a meticulous restoration carried out by Lamborghini Polo Storico with the support of former Lamborghini Engineering personnel, the active part of the Lamborghini F1 project in the early ’90s.

The Minardi M191B #003 is the first single-seater to be restored by Polo Storico. After being on display at the Lamborghini Museum in Sant’Agata Bolognese, the car underwent seven months of work to return to its original efficiency, with most of the original components maintained.

The tires, fuel tank, engine control unit, seat belts, and fire extinguishing system were replaced, while the other components were carefully restored, starting from the engine designed by Mauro Forghieri. The 12-cylinder LE3512 is still able to deliver the original almost 700 HP, enabling enthusiasts to relive the emotions of the golden years of Formula One.

The guests of honor on the occasion of the grand return are Mirko Bortolotti, Lamborghini Factory Driver, and Giancarlo Minardi. The founder of the Faenza-based team recalled the fruitful collaboration with Lamborghini that lasted for the entire 1992 season: “Seeing the models of 25 or 30 years ago is still exciting. They are the last cars before the beginning of telemetry and automatic transmissions. Apart from the rumble, which still today brings back those wonderful times, it was a very flexible engine with enormous power starting from the low rpms.”

Entrusted to drivers Gianni Morbidelli and Christian Fittipaldi, the Minardi M191B #003 competed in the first Grand Prix races of 1992 before being replaced by the M192, also equipped with a Lamborghini engine. The best result achieved by the single-seater restored by Polo Storico was 11th place with Christian Fittipaldi at the wheel at the Spanish GP, and it is now ready to return to racing and competing in the championships dedicated to historic F1 races. The testing outcome was very positive: the car ran more than 20 laps without any problem and the Lamborghini engine perfectly maintained all the features that had so impressed Ayrton Senna during the tests at Estoril in 1993.

Foto: Lamborghini Squadra Corse

Pirelli110 | Minardi "Reached important milestones together"

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Torino’s Automobile Museum was the setting for the celebration of Pirelli’s100 years of sporting competition. It debuted with a win in the 1907 Peking-Paris race. I wish to express my sincerest best wishes for this anniversary to the entire Pirelli brand and wish it another 110 years of success. We are talking about a historic supplier. Racing was born with it and the development of tyres has grown with the races. It has been a reciprocal exchange of information and technology.

My first collaboration with Pirelli goes back to the 1973 Formula 3 season when the Minardi Team introduced the slicks designed by its engineer Mario Mezzanotte and his assistant Turchetti. The adventure then continued in Formula 2 where we achieved some fine results such as the win at Misano and Michele Alboreto’s pole position at Pau.

After the first two seasons in Formula 1 (1985 and 1986) clad with Pirellis our roads came back together in 1989 and 1990. Thanks to the clearance by Goodyear we began developing their tyres until the end of 1988. It was an important experience. Taking part in the baptism of fire of the new tyres was extremely important for the Team and gave the drivers great benefits. At Estoril during only one day of time trials Martini tested the fine number of 30 sets of qualifying tyres, at the same time achieving the circuit’s newest fastest time (1:13:100). It was thanks to these tours de force that Pirelli achieved its excellent qualifying times. In 1989 we won a third place on the grid at Adelaide behind Senna and Mansell and in 1990 the front row at Phoenix at Phoenix.

Today we are facing a difficult season in which the tyres will be an important gauge, for better or for worse. We are talking about the most important modification of the 2017 regulations.