On a sunny winter day, Atlas F1's Ross Stonefeld and his photographer David Cameron took the train down south to the small town of Faenza, for a guided tour of the Minardi factory. They came back with an exclusive look inside

While Minardi has been an F1 entrant for 20 years the team's racing history covers a longer period and the various awards and trophies are stored on the wall of the stairwell leading to the offices.

The mechanics may have been enjoying a well deserved break but the design and engineering staff were hard at work. We ended our photo work in these areas and were not able to stare at computer screens for too long as the team was quite proud and secretive of their 2005 concepts.

At the conclusion of our visit Mr. Minardi invited us into his office and gave us a few minutes of his time in addition to thanking us for visiting. We did not keep him long as he needed to attend to his second job as chairman of the local football club.

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