From a base near his Fiat dealership in Faenza, Gian Carlo Minardi began running cars in Formula 2 with a Chevron chassis and a Ferrari engine. He has always had close ties with Maranello and in 1976 fielded an ex-works F1 Ferrari in Scuderia Everest colours. He became a constructor in his own right in 1980 building an F2 chassis to be driven by Alessandro Nannini.
The move to F1 came in 1985 when Minardi fielded just a single car, driven by Pierluigi Martini. in October 2005 Red Bull announced to have bought the team to rename it to Scuderia Toro Rosso.
Minardi’s 21-years in Formula 1 was nothing spectacular in terms of podiums, race wins or championship wins, the general report card of a Formula 1 team. They had none of these with their highest finish in a race being 4th and winning zero championships. To put things to perspective, in their 21-years in Formula one, they scored 38 points in over 345 races which averages at 1 point scored every 10 races! Then how is it that a team associated with the term “shoestring budget” with barely any performance over 21-years gather such strong fan following across the world ? And remember, they gave Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber the chance to be part of the F1.
In these following pages, a little history of the 21 years in Formula 1
Part 1: Minardi in F1 1985-1987 Read it here
Part 2: Minardi in F1 1988-1989 Read it here
Part 3: Minardi in F1 1990-1992 Read it here
Part 4: Minardi in F1 1993. Read here
Part 5: Mianardi as Scuderia Italia 1994 and 1995. Read here
Part 6: Minardi in F1 1996. Read here
