The “short of money” story continued in 1996.
Minardi still had to use the (revised and upgraded) Cosworth ED V8 engine and his designer Aldo Costa was off to Ferrari. That and not enough money meant they entered the Minardi M195B, a simple evolution of the M195. The only visible difference was the higher cockpit sides developed according new rules on driver safety and some aerodynamic modifications. The team’s engineering started to work on the 1997 car from July onwards!
The biggest changes during the year was the diminishing influence of Beppe Lucchini and the Scuderia Italia. Minardi and Luccchini had joined forces in 1993. During the year, Flavio Briatore, himself not involved as it seemed, would help to find new partners.
The ‘short of money’ story meant that the team started the season with Pedro Lamy and Taki Inoue as rent-a-driver. When his sponsor deal with Unimat did not came through one week before Australia, Gian Carlo, following his route looking for fast young drivers, looked for another promising driver. He used Giancarlo Fisichella, who had impressed in a testing session in 1995, for the first race. And then he found pay-driver Tarso Marques for the two South-America races.
Both drivers had to retire in Australia. Lamy had an accident because his seat belts had become loose and Fisichella had a clutch problem. Tarso Marques replacing with money Fisichella for the Brazilian and Argentina race ended both races with a spin. Lamy had a DNF in Argentina but finished 10th at Interlagos.
Both Minardi’s ended the race at the Nürburgring ( 2 laps down) and Lamy had a promising P9 at Imola after a 10 sec penalty for pitlane speeding. In the rain at the Monaco GP, both Minardi drivers clashed into each other in the first lap. Minardi was furious! In Spain they both had an accident in the rain. Fisichella had his best race of the season in Canada and finished P8. Lamy was 12th at Magny Cours and Fisichella 11th at Silverstone, his last race for the team. It is to note that Fisichella was faster in qualifications than Lamy on six out of the eight races.
Fisichella had teamed up with Flavio Briatore, Benetton team manager, driver-agent and notorious wheeler-dealer. He owned a great deal of the Minardi assets and promised Gian Carlo Minardi a renewed possible Mugen-Honda deal if he could bring Fisichella to Benetton.
In came, from Hockenheim onwards, Sicilian Giovanni Lavaggi with some extra cash of his own. He would not get through qualifying at Hockenheim but was tenth in his second race in Hungary. Pedro Lamy did not do much better with a P12 in Germany and a tenth place in Belgium ( no qualification for Lavaggi). Both cars retired with engine failures in Monza but crossed the finish line at Estoril. A non-qualification again for Lavaggi in Japan and a 12th place for Lamy.
Again a year with no points for Team Minardi. But the determination and the enthusiasm remained during the year!
