Atlas F1 - The Minardi Page

The M02 Car Specifications

The M02

Primary sponsors

  • Telefonica
  • Psn
  • Pdp
  • Doimo

    Chassis: Monocoque body in carbon fibre and aluminium honeycomb composite.

    Front Suspension: Carbon push-rod with torsion bars; steel wishbones; F/S shock absorbers.

    Rear Suspension: Carbon push-rod with torsion bars; steel wishbones; F/S shock absorbers.

    Wheels: Magnesium: Front 13" x 12.0", Rear 13" x 13.7"

    Transmission: Minardi longitudinal with magnesium casing, six-speed plus reverse, semi-automatic with Magneti Marelli electronic control (Minardi software). AP Racing three-disk carbon fibre clutch.

    Braking System: Brembo six piston calipers, front and rear, Brembo and Carbone Industrie carbon fibre brake discs; hydraulic brake balance adjuster.

    Length: 4420 mm

    Width: 1800 mm

    Front Track: 1452 mm

    Rear Track: 1420.7 mm


    Engine Specification - Fondmetal V10

    Engine: Fondmetal V10

    Number of cylinders: 10

    Configuration: 72 degree vee

    Number of Valves: 40

    Capacity: 2998 cc

    Materials: Aluminium cylinder block.

    Engine management system: Magneti Marelli Step 8 software to Minardi spec.

    Lubrication system: Dry sump.

    Ignition system: Magneti Marelli

    Spark plugs: Champion


    Team Principals

    Gian Carlo MinardiGian Carlo Minardi
    Age: 50
    Place of birth: Faenza (RA) - Italy
    Marital status: married to Mara; one son: Giovanni.
    Hobbies: football; chairman of Faenza FC, currently in Div. C2.

    Gian Carlo Minardi grew up in the midst of cars: his family manage Fiat (since 1927), Iveco and Selenia dealerships, as well as an Agip fuel station. His passion for racing undoubtedly came from his father Giovanni, who in 1948 built the GM 75, a small two-seater with a 6-cylinder 750 cc engine designed by Oberdan Golfieri. It was therefore inevitable that Gian Carlo Minardi should himself take up racing. In 1968 he bought a Fiat 500 Group A tuned by Faccioli, in which he competed in various uphill events and achieved some very decent results. After a brief interlude in rallying, at the wheel of a Fiat 124, and several meets for classic cars, he hung up his helmet and devoted his energies to Scuderia del Passatore, a Faenza-based team competing in the minor formulas.

    From 1972 to 1974 Gian Carlo Minardi ran Scuderia del Passatore, achieving excellent results in Formula Italia: Giancarlo Martini was crowned runner-up in the 1972 championship and lifted the title in 1973. In 1975 the team was renamed Scuderia Everest and made its debut in the F.2 European championship. It was at this time that the team entered into collaboration with Ferrari, which gave Minardi a F1 312 B3 to wean emerging talent on the Italian motor racing scene. In the meantime the minor formulas continued to bring satisfaction with Leoni and Martini; Martini won the Italian F2 championship title in 1976. In 1977 Ferrari gave the Faenza-based team the Dino V6 engines which powered the Ralts driven by Leoni and Gianfranco Brancatelli and, in 1978, the Chevrons driven by Elio De Angelis, Clay Regazzoni and Miguel Angel Guerra.

    In 1980 Minardi became a constructor himself, forming the Minardi Team together with the engineers Giacomo Caliri and Luigi Marmiroli. Three brilliant seasons in F2 followed, with drivers like Beppe Gabbiani, Johnny Cecotto, Michele Alboreto (who won the European race at Misano in 1981), Alessandro Nannini and Paolo Barilla.

    The shareholder structure changed when Piero Mancini took over from the Caliri-Marmiroli pairing. In 1984 Minardi began preparing for the move up to Formula One, which it made the following year and in which it still competes, after 15 seasons.

    During this time the Team’s cars were powered by various engines, from the Ford Cosworth (in various versions) to Motori Moderni, from Ferrari to Lamborghini, right through to the Brian Hart engine, giving a small group of talented newcomers the opportunity to experience F1 at the start of their careers. The drivers launched in Formula One by Minardi include such names as Alessandro Nannini, Pierluigi Martini, Gianni Morbidelli, Christian Fittipaldi, Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli and the very young Esteban Tuero, who made his debut in F1 last year aged 19.

    Gabriele RumiChairman - Gabriele Rumi
    Age: 59
    Place of birth: Palazzolo sull'Oglio (BS) - Italy
    Marital status: married to Maria Carla; two children: Stefano and Alessandra
    Hobbies: relaxing with the family

    In 1970 Gabriele Rumi established Fondmetal and decided to switch from cast iron to light alloy castings. In 1961, at 30 years of age, he was already running the family business.

    In 1972 he stopped working as a subcontractor and started building and marketing his own Fondmetal brand wheels. Born in Palazzolo sull’Oglio, near Brescia, he has only two real passions (outside work): the family (he married Maria Carla Manara in 1968 and they have two children, Stefano and Alessandra) and motor racing.

    In 1983 he sponsored Piercarlo Ghinzani in F1. From sponsor to supplier is not just a short step, but a virtually necessary one.

    In 1984 Fondmetal wheels started to make their appearance in F.1 and were fitted, in succession, to Osella, Williams, Tyrrell and Ligier cars. But Rumi didn’t stop there: he bought out Osella and in 1990 entered a team of his own in the F1. world championship under the name Fondmetal F1. The team’s cars were entirely built at the company’s modern factory in Palosco, backed up by an R&D centre based in England, and were designed first by Robin Herd, and then by Sergio Rinland. After three seasons, however, Fondmetal had to withdraw; this was the time of active suspension and electronics madness capable of plunging more than one team in crisis, even a top one. But Gabriele Rumi’s passion was undiminished. He loves F1 and uses it as a means of growth and promotion for his commercial products. Which is why, together with the expert aerodynamics engineer, Jean-Claude Migeot, he decided to buy the Casumaro (Ferrara) wind tunnel, a technological pearl of global stature, and thus created Fondmetal Technologies. He relaunched a company offering design consultancy services for racing cars to leading constructors like Audi and Mercedes and to F1 teams including Benetton, Tyrrell and of course Minardi.

    But clearly consulting was not enough and Rumi was drawn back to the track. In 1996 he joined the Minardi management company and started working alongside the team’s founder Gian Carlo. In 1997 he formulated a plan to relaunch the team, of which he became the majority shareholder and chairman. And once again he threw himself into the melee, from the bridge. Objective: to move up.


    Gustav BrunnerTechnical Director - Gustav Brunner
    Age: 49
    Place of birth: Graz (A)
    Marital status : married with two children: Mia and Max
    Hobbies: ...if he had time, swimming and cycling.

    Gustav Brunner is one of the most brilliant and highly-regarded engineers in modern-day Formula 1. His experience in the design of various aspects of a car is truly comprehensive and has been gained through his collaboration with a number of different teams over the last twenty years. He made his debut in Formula One in 1978 when Gunther Schmidt invited him to work at ATS. He stayed with the German team for two seasons, before being hired by Arrows. This was a short interlude because at the end of 1981, when Jackie Oliver’s team lost its main sponsor, Brunner found himself out of a job. Returning to ATS, he designed the car powered by the BMW turbo engine which competed in the 1983 championship.

    In 1984 he moved to Alfa Romeo Euroracing, where he worked as race engineer to Riccardo Patrese. After a brief period with RAM-March, at the end of 1985 he was engaged by Ferrari to design a Formula Indy car. When the American project was aborted, he was assigned to the F1 department where he was soon appointed head and designed the 1987 car.

    On leaving Ferrari, he worked in quick succession for Rial (1988), Zakspeed (1989) and Leyton House (1989/91), before taking the post, in September 1992, of technical director at Minardi, where he stayed for two seasons.

    At the end of 1993 he returned to Ferrari, where was part of the technical staff up until the end of the 1997 season. Since February 1998 he has been technical director at Fondmetal Minardi.


    The Drivers

    Click on the thumbnail to view the image in full size

    Marc Gene
    see bio
    Gaston Mazzacane
    see bio

    Test driver: to be announced


    Team Milestones

    1979: Team founded by Giancarlo Minardi.

    1979: After managing the race activity of Scuderia del Passatore and the Everest Team, Gian Carlo Minardi establishes the Minardi Team.

    1980: Gian Carlo Minardi is joined by the engineers Giacomo Caliri and Luigi Marmiroli, who build the first Minardi racing car - the GM 75 - based on a March chassis. The team competes in the F2 European championship with a lead car driven by Miguel Angel Guerra (who finishes 9th) and a second car driven variously by Beppe Gabbiani, Johnny Cecotto and Bruno Corradi.

    1981: The new Minardi M281 is powered by a 4-cylinder BMW engine tuned by Heini Mader. Michele Alboreto gets the season off to a great start, finishing third at Thruxton and Pergusa. In a succession of highs and lows, among them Cecotto’s decision to leave the team, Alboreto secures Minardi’s first win, at Misano. The Milanese driver finishes in eighth place in the F2 European championship.

    1982: The Minardi M282 cars start the season with the BMW engine, pending the arrival of the 6-cylinder Ferrari-Dino unit which, however, makes only one appearance on the track, at Mugello. The drivers are Alessandro Nannini and Paolo Barilla; both are short on experience but Nannini still manages some good finishes (including second at Misano), and ends the season in tenth place in the F2 European championship.

    1983: Caliri and Marmiroli leave Minardi and their place is taken by Piero Mancini who joins as a partner. It is a season in which the Minardi M282 BMW is not able to compete with the cars of the official Ralt-Honda and March-BMW teams. Nevertheless Nannini comes second at the Nurburgring and wins enough points to finish in the top ten of the European championship; Pierluigi Martini also makes a brilliant debut, taking first place at Misano.

    1984: Minardi prepares for the move up to F1, getting Nannini to test the M184 powered by an 8-cylinder Alfa Romeo turbo engine. After 2000 km of testing Alfa announces its withdrawal and leaves Minardi high and dry. In the meantime Nannini salvages the team’s honour, finishing 10th for the third time running in the F2 European championship; his best result is 3rd place at Pergusa. The other team driver, Roberto del Castello, also manages to score a point.

    1985: The year of Minardi’s debut in Formula 1. The season begins with the Ford Cosworth aspirated engine, pending the completion of the 6 cylinder turbo unit from Motori Moderni. The Minardi car powered by the engine designed by engineer Carlo Chiti makes its debut at Imola. The team starts the season with just one car, driven by Pierluigi Martini, whose best result is 8th place.

    1986: The great expectations cherished prior to the start of the season, buoyed by a pair of highly capable drivers like Andrea de Cesaris and Alessandro Nannini, are dashed by the poor reliability of the Motori Moderni V6 engine, and also by a dose of bad luck. At the end of the season the only positive result is De Cesaris’ eighth place in Monaco.

    1987: Nannini is joined by the Spanish driver Adrian Campos for the last season in which the Minardi cars are powered by the Motori Moderni engines, which have proven to be too thirsty and unreliable. The best results are Nannini’s 11th place in Hungary and Portugal. 1987 is a disappointing season.

    1988: With the arrival of turbocharged engines, Minardi returns to the Heini Mader-tuned Ford Cosworth unit. The drivers are both Spanish, with Luis P?rez Sala joining Adrian Campos. The M188 designed by Giacomo Caliri is a streamlined and compact car and Sala shows encouraging progress at the wheel. Campos, on the other hand, is swapped mid-season for Pierluigi Martini, who wins Minardi’s first point in Detroit. The last grands prix of the year yield other good results: 8th place in Portugal and 7th in Australia.

    1989: The M189 is the result of a team effort coordinated by the engineer Aldo Costa, who in the summer of 1988 replaced Caliri on the technical management side. Also making a return as technical partner is Pirelli, which had previously assisted Minardi as its preferred team in its first years in F1. After a start to the season characterised by excellent qualifying but less encouraging race performances, the results begin to come: Pierluigi Martini finishes in the points three times (5th in Great Britain and Portugal, 6th in Australia), while P?rez Sala finishes in 6th place in Great Britain, saving the team from pre-qualifying. The Minardi-Pirelli-Martini combination also does very well in qualifying: in fact the driver from Romagna qualifies third on the grid in Australia, 4th in Spain and 5th in Portugal. But the most exciting achievement of all occurs in Portugal, where Martini manages for the first time - albeit for just a few laps - to lead a grand prix in a Minardi car.

    1990: The M190 is again powered by the Ford Cosworth engine. But shortly after the start of the season Ferrari announces an agreement under which Minardi is allowed to use its 12-cylinder engine in the 1991 season. Paolo Barilla joins Pierluigi Martini, then makes way for Gianni Morbidelli at the end of the championship. By now the 8-cylinder Ford is unreliable and too short on horse-power compared with the rest of the field, so the only finish of note is achieved by Martini who comes 7th in Phoenix.

    1991: The agreement with Ferrari gives Minardi its finest season in F1. The M191 cars, driven by Martini and Morbidelli, prove to be competitive on more than one occasion. Pierluigi Martini does extremely well to finish fourth at Imola and in Portugal. The six points won leave the driver in 11th place in the World championship and give Minardi 7th place in the Constructors World championship.

    1992: The team abandons the too-expensive Ferrari engine for the Lamborghini V12. Gianni Morbidelli is joined by the Brazilian Christian Fittipaldi, the F3000 champion, who wins Minardi’s only point of the season, finishing 6th in his M192 in the Japanese Grand Prix.

    1993: The new car, the M193, is designed under the supervision of Gustav Brunner. In keeping with the latest trends, the new technical features are hydraulic suspension and a sequential gearbox. The Ford HB is chosen as the engine. Fittipaldi, confirmed for a second season, is joined by Fabrizio Barbazza who is replaced in the second half of the season by the ever dependable Pierluigi Martini. Even though the engines are short on horsepower, Fittipaldi (4th in South Africa and 5th in Monaco) and Barbazza (6th at Donington and Imola) win seven points which propel Minardi to 8th in the Constructors championship.

    1994: To ensure the team’s survival, Minardi enters into an alliance with Scuderia Italia; registration in the World Championship is made in the name of both teams. In spite of the customary Ford engines and Brunner’s departure for Ferrari, the Minardi-Scuderia Italia joint venture finishes tenth in the world championship, thanks to the points won by Martini (5th in Spain and France) and Michele Alboreto (6th in Monaco).

    1995: The M195 is a completely new car, with a semi-automatic gearbox and automatic clutch. The engines are Ford EDM V8’s. The team drivers are Luca Badoer and Pierluigi Martini, flanked by Giancarlo Fisichella as test driver. Halfway through the season Martini is replaced by the Portuguese driver Pedro Lamy, who wins the team’s only point, finishing 6th in the Australian Grand Prix.

    1996: With the termination of the alliance with Scuderia Italia, Minardi confirms Lamy’s place but at the last moment loses the support of the sponsors of the Japanese driver Taki Inoue. As a result, Fisichella, Giovanni Lavaggi and the Brazilian Tarso Marques take turns at the wheel of the second car. It is the very young Fisichella who secures the best result, finishing 8th in Canada. For the first time after five seasons, Minardi ends the season without any points.

    1997: At the end of the previous year an alliance formed by Gabriele Rumi, Flavio Briatore and Alessandro Nannini acquired the majority stake in Minardi. The new season also brings new technical partners, first and foremost Bridgestone and the Hart engines; the team’s collaboration with Magneti Marelli is also intensified. The drivers are the Japanese Ukyo Katayama and the Abruzzo-born Italian Jarno Trulli, who moves to Prost Grand Prix in the course of the season. His place is taken by the Brazilian Tarso Marques. The best results of the season, 9th place in Australia and Argentina, are achieved by Trulli at the start of the season.

    1998: For its 14th season in Formula 1, the team chooses the Ford V10 engine. The drivers are the very young Argentine Esteban Tuero and Shinji Nakano of Japan, previously with Prost. The Frenchman Laurent Redon is taken on as test driver and a work programme is implemented for the young Giovanni Montanari, competing in F.3000 with the Draco team. 1998 is an important year for the Fondmetal Minardi Ford team: Briatore and Nannini leave the company and their stakes are acquired by Gabriele Rumi, who becomes majority shareholder and embarks on an extensive restructuring and upgrading programme. In addition to a series of structural changes, the team is joined by new and highly skilled engineers on the technical side, chief among them the Austrian designer Gustav Brunner, who after four years returns to the Faenza factory as technical director. He is joined during the season by George Ryton as design consultant, Herbert Ehrlinspiel as composites manager, Gianfranco Fantuzzi as race engineer and other top-flight technicians, boosting the workforce from 85 to 110. Changes are also apparent on the logistics front: the factory in Faenza doubles in size and the composites department, equipped with a second autoclave, is moved to a new 1,000 sqm shed next to the site. In terms of development and aerodynamics research the Team, intensifies and reinforces its collaboration with the Fondmetal Technologies wind tunnel. The team’s technical partners for the current season are Fondmetal, Magneti Marelli, Bridgestone and Ford. The Team finishes the season in 10 th place, achieving the objective set at the start of the championship.

    1999: The big year. The team is further strengthened by the arrival of Cesare Fiorio as team manager and sporting director and by the agreement with Ford Motor Company that will supply and officially support Fondmetal Minardi with the V10-VJ engines. The car designed by Gustav Brunner is called the M01, a clear sign of the determination to start a new chapter.


    Related Links

    The official Minardi web site
    The official Marc Gene web site
    Minardi F1 Statistics on FORIX

    • [ Back to the Teams Index | Back to Atlas F1 News | Back to Atlas F1 Front Page ]

    © 2000 Kaizar.Com, Incorporated.
    Copyright & Terms