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| Full name | Minardi F1 Team |
|---|---|
| Base |  Faenza, Italy |
| Founder(s) | Giancarlo Minardi |
| Noted staff | Gustav Brunner,Paul Stoddart |
| Noted drivers | Alessandro NanniniPierluigi Martini Marc GenéLuca Badoer Christian FittipaldiMichele Alboreto Mark Webber Jos VerstappenFernando Alonso Alex Yoong Justin WilsonGiancarlo FisichellaJarno TrulliPaolo Barilla |
| Next name | Scuderia Toro Rosso |
| Formula One World Championship career | |
| First entry | 1985 Brazilian Grand Prix |
| Races entered | 346 entries (340 starts) |
| Engines | Motori Moderni,Ford,Ferrari,Lamborghini,Hart,Fondmetal,European,Asiatech,Cosworth |
| Constructors' Championships | 0(best finish: 7th,1991) |
| Drivers' Championships | 0 |
| Race victories | 0(best finish: 4th,1991 San Marino Grand Prix,1991 Portuguese Grand Prix and1993 South African Grand Prix) |
| Points | 38 |
| Pole positions | 0(best grid position: 2nd,1990 United States Grand Prix) |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| Final entry | 2005 Chinese Grand Prix |
Minardi was an Italianautomobile racing team and constructor founded inFaenza in 1979 byGiancarlo Minardi. It competed in theFormula One World Championship from 1985 until 2005 with little success, nevertheless acquiring a loyal following of fans. In 2001, to save the team from folding, Minardi sold it to Australian businessmanPaul Stoddart, who ran the team for five years before selling it on toRed Bull GmbH in 2005 who renamed itScuderia Toro Rosso.[1] Initially called "M" (short for Minardi) then a number, from 2001, all of Minardi chassis were called "PS", the PS being the initials of team owner, Paul Stoddart.
During its time in F1, the team scored a total of 38 championship points; 16 of these were earned by the team's first driver,Pierluigi Martini. Martini also recorded the team's only front row start, qualifying 2nd at the1990 United States Grand Prix, and he led a lap during the1989 Portuguese Grand Prix, the only time a Minardi led a lap. The team never achieved a podium finish, only managing three 4th-place finishes: Martini twice in 1991 andChristian Fittipaldi in 1993.
In the 21 seasons, Minardi entered 37 drivers. Thirteen had Italian nationality (nine of whom raced during the time the team was owned by Giancarlo Minardi), the others came with 13 different nationalities (discounting Doornbos racing under a Monaco license in 2005). Martini holds the record for more starts with the team with 103 Grands Prix, followed byGianni Morbidelli andMarc Gené with 33 starts.
Before Minardi's demise, the team was particularly well-liked within Formula One circles for its friendliness, accessibility, and lack of corporate culture.[2][3] On the track, their cars were regarded by many as well-designed for their tiny budget, their low position recognised as a result of a lack of funds (and engine power) rather than a poor car.[4] They also resisted employingpay-drivers more than most other financially constrained teams. Former Minardi drivers include double World ChampionFernando Alonso, Grand Prix winnersAlessandro Nannini,Giancarlo Fisichella,Jarno Trulli andMark Webber;CART IndyCar World Series double championAlessandro Zanardi and race winnersJustin Wilson and Christian Fittipaldi; and 24 Hours of Le Mans overall winnersMichele Alboreto,Pierluigi Martini, and Marc Gené.
The Minardi family has a longstanding involvement in motorsport. Giancarlo Minardi's grandfather had aFiat dealership in Faenza since 1927, while his father, Giovanni Minardi, competed in his own cars in the late 1940s. The first Minardi car ever was the GM75 built by Giovanni Minardi: it had a 6 cylinder engine designed by Oberdan Golfieri and built by Antonio Lotti. Rino Ferniani drove it at theCircuito del Garda, retiring when he was leading the race.
After his father’s death, Giancarlo took over the racing part of the family business. He took the reins of theScuderia del Passatore in the early 1970s. He decided to start competing with aBrabham BT28 chassis and anAlfa Romeo engine inFormula Italia rather thanFormula 3, like it was decided before. In 1972, the team finished runner-up with Giancarlo Martini, but he won in the following season. In 1974,Lamberto Leoni lost the championship due to a controversial black flag. In 1975, the team was renamed “Scuderia Everest” for sponsorship reasons. The promisingElio De Angelis raced for the team in 1977 and 1978 whileClay Regazzoni raced in 1978 and 1979. Minardi ran withMarch chassis andBMW engines inFormula Two from 1975 to 1979.
In 1976, the team briefly ran a customer Formula OneFerrari 312T withGiancarlo Martini, uncle of Pierluigi Martini. Martini Sr. qualified 15th for theRace of Champions atBrands Hatch but failed to start the race after an accident during the warm-up lap. The team then competed at theBRDC International Trophy inSilverstone where Martini finished 10th. In 1979, Minardi received financial backing from well known Italian motor racing patron Piero Mancini and set up the Minardi racing team as a Formula Two constructor.[5]
The team first competed under the Minardi name in the1980 European Formula Two championship. Rather than using a customer chassis, the team commissioned a BMW-powered design fromGiacomo Caliri's FLY studios — previously responsible for theFittipaldi Automotive team's F5A Formula One car.[6] The first Minardi's driver wasMiguel Ángel Guerra, who achieved 9th place in the standings with 10 points. In 1981, Caliri and Marmiroli designed theMinardi M281 driven byMichele Alboreto,Johnny Cecotto, Miguel Ángel Guerra, Roberto Farneti andEnzo Coloni: Alboreto won the Misano race and finished 8th with 13 points, Cecotto gained 3 points and moved toMarch in summer. A FerrariDino 206 engine was used in 1981, but the team changed to a BMW four-cylinder unit in 1982.[7] The new design continued Minardi's naming logic and was called theMinardi M282. The drivers wereAlessandro Nannini andPaolo Barilla.[7] Barilla didn't score any points, Nannini got 10th place with 8 points. The 1983 season saw several drivers racing with theMinardi M283: Alessandro Nannini (11 points),Pierluigi Martini (6 points), Paolo Barilla (0 points), Enzo Coloni (1 race),Emilio De Villota (2 races),Oscar Larrauri (1 race) andAldo Bertuzzi (1 race). The last season in Formula 2 was in 1984. Nannini (finished 10th with 9 points) was the first driver, the others wereRoberto Del Castello (14th, 1 point),Pierre Chauvet (1 race) andLamberto Leoni (3 races).
The team's most notable result remains the 1981 win at theMisano round by Michele Alboreto.[5] Minardi left the lower division at the end of 1984, although in 1986 a modified version of their final Formula Two car, the M283, was entered without success in two rounds of theFormula 3000 championship which had replaced Formula Two in 1985.[8]
During 1984, Minardi took the decision to enter Formula One the following year.[9] Caliri designed the M184, the team's prototype Formula One car (intended as a dual purpose design for the newFormula 3000) aroundAlfa Romeo's V8 turbocharged engine but when engineerCarlo Chiti left Alfa Romeo to foundMotori Moderni, Minardi became the only customer for his new V6 engine design. The engine was not ready for the start of the1985 season, so the team converted theirM185 chassis to accept aCosworth DFV engine for the first two races. The single car team was unsuccessful in its first year, scoring no points. The new engine was underpowered and driverPierluigi Martini finished only two races, although he was also classified 11th at theGerman Grand Prix despite stopping with engine problems.[10] Martini's best position was 8th in the1985 Australian Grand Prix, behindHuub Rothengatter in anOsella.
Nonetheless, the team expanded to two cars for the1986 season. In 1988, Minardi switched toCosworth engines, and in 1989 it became top entrant forPirelli's return to Formula One. The team was moderately successful in the midfield through the late 1980s and early 1990s, giving a succession of Italian drivers their first chance at the top level, includingAlessandro Nannini,Pierluigi Martini andGianni Morbidelli (Nannini, who had been the team's Formula 2 driver from 1982–1984, had actually been the team's first choice as their F1 driver in 1985, but they had to go with Martini afterFISA refused to grant Nannini theSuper Licence required to drive in F1. They would grant Nannini the licence in 1986). Martini in particular was synonymous with Minardi, eventually having three spells with the team. He drove for them on their debut in 1985, scored their first point in the1988 United States Grand Prix, although he had been running 5th for quite a long time during the race until being passed by Tyrrell'sJonathan Palmer, took their only front-row start at 1990 USA Grand Prix (aided by special Pirelli tyres; several of their other drivers had surprise qualifying results that day. Also, day 2 of qualifying was rained out so no one improved), their only lap leading a race in the1989 Portuguese Grand Prix, where he finished 5th, and scored their joint-best F1 result up to that point (the other being at theBritish Grand Prix the same year).In 1991, Minardi became the first team in modern times to make use of customer engines fromFerrari and in 1992 they usedLamborghiniV12s. In 1993, Minardi enjoyed a good campaign, collecting seven points thanks toChristian Fittipaldi's fourth place in the1993 South African Grand Prix and fifth place in the1993 Monaco Grand Prix andFabrizio Barbazza sixth places in the1993 European Grand Prix and1993 San Marino Grand Prix.
As the number of small teams shrank, Minardi slipped from the mid-field towards the back of the grid. Money woes hit and in 1994 Minardi merged withBMS Scuderia Italia in an effort to survive. Giancarlo Minardi retained 14.5% with the remaining 85.5% distributed between the Scuderia Italia investors (Emilio Gnutti, Giuseppe Lucchini and Vittorio Palazzani) and Defendente Marniga. In 1994, Martini finished 5th at both the1994 Spanish Grand Prix and1994 French Grand Prix, whileMichele Alboreto scored his last point in Formula 1 with a 6th place in the1994 Monaco Grand Prix. Acknowledging that the team was struggling,Bernie Ecclestone spoke toFlavio Briatore, who agreed to buy a share in the team in 1995. In 1996, Italian businessman Gabriele Rumi, former owner of theFondmetal team switched his sponsorship support fromTyrrell to Minardi. He gradually increased his interest in theFaenza outfit, becoming co-owner and chairman. In 1997, Minardi teamed up with engine manufacturerBrian Hart. For the2000 season the team were forced to use 1998-specFord Zetec-R V10 engines, which were rebadged as Fondmetal engines in deference to his financial input. However, Rumi's poor health forced him to withdraw his backing at the end of the season.
Points were rare during this time;Pedro Lamy scored his one and only point in Formula 1 with a 6th place in the1995 Australian Grand Prix; this result was followed by a long barren spell untilMarc Gené finished 6th in the1999 European Grand Prix. That same race,Luca Badoer had been running fourth until his gearbox failed with 13 laps to go, at which point the Italian burst into tears next to his stricken car. Other Minardi drivers also came close to scoring points, includingShinji Nakano who finished 7th at the1998 Canadian Grand Prix andEsteban Tuero, who finished 8th at the1998 San Marino Grand Prix.
Minardi was known for not using pay drivers, but for the 2000 season, the team signed ArgentinianGastón Mazzacane, who only acquired the seat thanks to backing from the short-lived pay television channel Pan-American Sports Network.
The team, now near collapse, was purchased byAustralian businessmanPaul Stoddart in early 2001, merging it with his European RacingFormula 3000 team. That season sawFernando Alonso make his F1 debut for the team at the age of 19; though he (and the team) failed to score any points that year, his performance was impressive enough that the rebornRenault F1 team signed him for 2002. He was replaced byMark Webber, another future race winner, and heavy attrition athis debut race in Melbourne saw him finish in the points in 5th, with teammateAlex Yoong just outside the points in 7th. During the season the team used Asiatech branded engines (formerly Peugeot), the rest of the season did not yield any further points for the team. The team finished above the newly debuted Toyota factory team who arguably had a much more sizable budget for the debut campaign than Minardi's budgets over several seasons combined. Minardi also finished ahead of the Arrows team who went bankrupt halfway through the season due to mounting debts and several mounting court cases against them.
From 2003 until their final season in 2005, Minardi used Ford Cosworth/Cosworth branded engines due to Asiatech folding at the end of the previous season. The Cosworth engines though not very reliable did help Minardi to some decent points scoring positions now and again.
Another memorable episode happened during the2003 Brazilian Grand Prix. The race was stopped just after 75% distance, after treacherous weather and a sequence of accidents, including a spin into the grass for lead Minardi driverJos Verstappen. Stoddart later claimed that Verstappen had enough fuel on board to last until just after the time the red flag was eventually waved, due to the large number of safety car laps. Assuming Stoddart was being truthful, Verstappen may well have won this race had he not spun.
During its final years, the Minardi team was almost as famous for its politics as for its racing. Stoddart was described as the Formula One teams' unofficial shop steward. During his time as team principal, Stoddart campaigned for reduced costs in the sport. He appealed to the competing car manufacturers for an agreement where the independent (and, on the whole, financially weaker) teams in Formula One would get cheaper engine deals than at present. In return, the team principals who would benefit from this would support the works teams when it came to opposing new rule changes enforced by theFIA, such as the proposed ban on traction control. Before the start of the 2004 season, however, Stoddart threatened to withdraw his support against the ban on traction control, but later changed his mind. Midway through the 2004 season, the other teams voted to change the unpopular single lap qualifying system back to the old 1 hour format, but Stoddart voted against because it would also mean the 107% rule being reintroduced; this meant the change never occurred, as a unanimous vote was required to change something so significant in the middle of a season. Before the2005 Australian Grand Prix, Stoddart initially threatened to withdraw his cars if they were made to comply with the revised regulations for 2005, claiming Minardi could not afford to do so. Once again Stoddart ended up withdrawing his threat. Stoddart also repeatedly called for the resignation of the FIA's President,Max Mosley, particularly in the aftermath of the2005 United States Grand Prix where the majority of teams withdrew from the race due to safety concerns about theirMichelin tyres. While Minardi had runBridgestone tyres, Stoddart had offered to compromise with the Michelin teams but Mosley had rejected it.
In 2004, Minardi was represented by two rookies,ItalianGianmaria "Gimmi" Bruni andHungarianZsolt Baumgartner. During the year, they celebrated their 20th season in F1. Baumgartner scored Minardi's first point in more than 2 years at theUnited States Grand Prix, finishing 8th. Baumgartner was also the first Hungarian to score a point in a World Championship F1 race.
In 2005, Minardi's drivers wereChristijan Albers andPatrick Friesacher. They amassed a total of seven points following the debacle of the2005 United States Grand Prix, in which they finished fifth and sixth (of six runners) respectively. After losing financial backing from his sponsors before the2005 German Grand Prix, Friesacher was replaced by Dutch Jordan test driverRobert Doornbos, creating the first all-Dutch driver line-up in Formula One sinceCarel Godin de Beaufort andBen Pon drove together for the Ecurie Maarsbergen team at the1962 Dutch Grand Prix atZandvoort.
In 2005, Paul Stoddart stated that he would sell Minardi if he could find the right buyer. Stoddart claimed that he had 41 approaches.[11] His criterion for a sale was the ability of a buyer to move the team forward and leave the team based inFaenza. The drinks manufacturerRed Bull GmbH, which already owned another Formula One team,Red Bull Racing, decided to set up a second team to promote drivers who had risen through its young driver programme,Red Bull Driver Search by integrating all Minardi F1 Academy members and resources.[12]
Ending several weeks of speculation on 10 September 2005 Red Bull announced it would take control of Minardi in November and run it as their "rookie team" from 2006.[13]
Minardi fans worldwide immediately started an online petition[14] to save the Minardi team name and the team's 20-year heritage in F1 after the news broke. The petition was not successful and the team was renamedScuderia Toro Rosso for the 2006 season. The greatly increased funding from Red Bull, including the use of the Red Bull chassis, customerFerrari engines andRed Bull Technology transmissions, gradually led to improved results, culminating in Toro Rosso's only pole position and win bySebastian Vettel at the2008 Italian Grand Prix. The team was further renamedScuderia AlphaTauri in 2020 to promote the clothing brand of Red Bull.[15] The team won as AlphaTauri at Monza in2020, withPierre Gasly.[16] The team was further renamed again asVisa Cash App RB in 2024.[17]
Giancarlo Minardi and Paul Stoddart have both made use of the Minardi name in new motorsport ventures.
On 1 January 2006, Giancarlo Minardi re-acquired certain rights to use the Minardi name in racing. He also announced that he was licensing the Minardi name to established team GP Racing in the junior Euro Formula 3000 series, to be entitled 'Minardi Team by GP Racing'.[18] The team raced with moderate success, scoring a podium in each leg of theSpa round in June 2006.[19] For 2007, Minardi Team by GP Racing combined forces withGP2 team Piquet Sports, to formMinardi Piquet Sports.[20] For 2008 the team was known simply as Piquet Sports.
In 2006, Paul Stoddart declared his intention to enter a new team called 'European Minardi F1 Team Ltd' into Formula One beginning in2008. His application was unsuccessful, with the 12th place on the grid being awarded toProdrive.[21] Instead, Stoddart turned his attentions to the U.S.-basedChamp Car series. On 18 December 2006, it was confirmed that he had purchased a controlling interest in the CTE Racing-HVM Champ Car team and that the team would be renamedMinardi Team USA.[22] In 2007, the team had reasonable success.Robert Doornbos took two wins and several podium places on his way to third in the series, winning Rookie of the Year honours.[23] When the series folded before its planned 2008 season,[24] Stoddart's involvement ceased, with the team entering theIndyCar Series under the HVM name.
Stoddart retains the right to use the Minardi name for a British-registered company.[25]
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