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Team Minardi - A team thats always seen the back side of the grid???

Read on and you'll regret telling someone "Minardi is the most lousiest team F1 could ever have"

Giancarlo Minardi lived in Italy and owned a Fiat dealership. He first started running cars in Formula Two that sported a Ferrari V6 engine. In 1985, Minardi entered Formula One. Only one car was used that had a Ford Cosworth engine only for the first two races. Since turbocharging was the way to go in those days, Minardi switched to Motori Moderni turbo engine in the third race and soon realized that the engine was a huge disappointment. From 1986 onwards, two cars were used at every race.

For three years Minardi continued with Motori Moderni turbo engines, but to no avail. They did not score a single point. In 1987, they decided to revert back to the Ford Cosworth engines. And this time they had it "all". They finished sixth out of nine in the 63 lap Detriot race and scored their first ever point.

They were still getting better at it. 1989 was when a Minardi car first lead a grand prix for one lap and also qualified in the top five three times that season. A big achievement for a small team like Minardi. The car finished fifth in the race and a superb seventh place in the Constructors' Championship at a time when there were 13 teams in Formula One.

In 1990, Minardi managed to qualify in the front row beside a McLaren [driver Gerhard Berger]. That same year, they qualified in the top ten positions at least five times more.

1991 the Ferrari engines came into play. Minardi started using them and found more better results. They had several top ten qualifying results and even managed to finish fourth in two races. This was supposed to be one of the BEST results of the team.

1992 the Ferrari engines were replaced by Lamborghini V12 engines and scored just a point that year. 1993 was a better year, where they scored seven points. They again managed a fourth position.

In 1994 they scored five points and since then the devil started playing his tricks. Minardi had the least powerful engines, financial problems. Due to which Ecclestone started investing in the team mainly because he was quite impressed with it. They rarely finished in the points. They'd always end up a lap or two behind ALL the cars. Recently, they are getting company with Jordan Ford which is also in the same boat. The best they could get was a fifth.

But the bottom line is, Minardi is the only team that has survived for so many years. Most of the backward teams from 1985 have vanished. I still love them and will continue cheering for them. They have a huge potential and I will not be surprised if they do give a tough time to today's front-running cars. Also notice that this years Minardi are not a bad lot compared to the front-runners last year but are unfortunately slow compared to the front-runners this year. And also they are one of the most reliable cars on the track. You'd see a McLaren going out much more often than a Minardi. And one things for sure - I'd love to see a Minardi on the front row than a McLaren, BMW or for that matter even Ferrari!

FACT - Ferrari have also copied technology from Minardi. Minardi were the first to introduce the all-titanium cased gearbox. Looking at Minardi, Ferrari too installed it in their car.

I have put a poll that asks you how much you like Minardi. You can also reply with any other comments you have on the team...

Minardi may be back runners but like you said they have survived everything. Other teams vanished but still Minardi lines up on the grid year after year. Minardi has also responsible for giving a chance to new talent who go on to become really good racing drivers , Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber being fine examples. I would be really sadened to see see Minardi go off the grid but I'm sure they will stay because they are fighters. I love and respect Minardi for that

Cheers to them

Dippy

yep so do i, they are doing the best with what they have they are as commited as any of the other teams, and they provide a stepping stone to some fine young f1 drivers!!..i truly respect any team that needs to juggle finance and over come so many hurdles to stay in f1.
wonder what a ferrari would do and how they would perform with a budget like minardis'.
anoop

Well, you have to award Minardi for pure consistency rl: rl:

Loved their spirit..which has deteriorated of late with all the public crying.

GTO

I respect team-Minardi, they have managed to stay in F1 fo a really long time consideing their financial position ... And like the others said, They are the one who bring fine talented drivers into F1.

its becoming tougher for them as the yrs go by..
bigger teams are pouring in 100s of million of dollars while minardi havent been able to up their $45 million yearly investment, making it close to impossible to get a decent result ( they managed only 1 point this yr )

but they have fought on.. Paul Stoddart is die hard F1 fan..
lets not forget the oppurtunities they give young inexperienced drivers
At one of the racers this yr upto 40% of the grid had raced in a minardi before !

they also do a fair bit of charity work.. raising money by offering a drive in their 2 seater cars..
at a charity event, a swiss millionaire paid $250,000 to them to take his wife for a spin !

they really are a unique team.. at the austrian gp they wrote in big letters "CHEQUE BOUNCED" across one of the sponsor logos when that sponsor hadnt honoured its payment to the team ! :)
(it was a large amount.. $10 million )

hope they stick around for a while yet

Remeber when the minardi's were 1-2 at the end of the first qualifying round at the french GP in 2003?? The track was soaking wet at the start of the session. And as usual minardis were running at the back end. However, when their turn came, they were able to use dry tyres which led both cars to finish 1-2. I've never seen the minardi camp as happy as they were that day. The following sessions were more 'normal' for the team, though.

I would love to see Minardi continuing in F1. They've hung on by the skin of their teeth for so long. The passion in that team is second to none.
It's not just Minardi, I really don't like to see any team pull out. Over the years, we've lost Lotus, Ligier, Pacific, Arrows, Jaguar, ... (the list is pretty long) and I haven't enjoyed that a bit.
Coming back to the poll, yes, I love Minardi.

Arrows was awesome!! they too were very good at it. Jos the Boss used to show up with very good speeds in the Speed Trap and also with some class racing.

Yeah, i would love to see minardi in F1 but in much better place or should i say competative position. First of all the only thing which is hampering their competativeness is monetary help they run on such low budget they always get good talented drivers viz. Alonso, Webber etc. They run on previous year's engines provided by Cosworth(currently).But both the drivers do complete the race.

Yeah Deeps that time they were so happy and over joyed and there was another incident I think during Malaysian GP when Minardi was running in 4th position and if it would have had rained at that time then they would have got that place coz they were running on wet tyres. There is no lack of committment and passion ofcourse they are Italians so no lack of passion. According to me David Coulthard's victory in Australian GP 2003 was over shadowed by Webber's 5th place in Minardi with a good fight with Mika Salo in Toyota.

Salute to Minardi.

I think Webber came 5th in the 2002 Aussie GP and that was won by MS

Dippy

Perfect! Michael Schumacher won the 2002 Aussie GP in which Mark Webber, driving a Minardi, fought off Mika Salo's Toyota. David Coulthard retired from that race.
Coulthard won the same GP in 2003 and no Minardi finished in the points - Jos "The Boss" Verstappen finished 11th. Mark Webber was driving a Jaguar and retired from the race.

Oh yeah .... my apologies .... 03-04 Webber was in Jag. and in 02 in Minardi Asiatech ..... im sorry

Topic revived.

Red Bull Racing has now taken over Minardi. The team has now been renamed to "Scuderia Toro Rosso". The name is a translation of "Team Red Bull".

As quoted by ITV-F1:

The former Minardi staff will form the core of the new team.

It may have spent much of its 20-year history near the back of the grid, but Minardi was never a laughing stock.

In fact the team earned widespread respect for getting within a few seconds of the top teams’ times on a tiny fraction of their budgets.

this fact puts it into perspective :

In 2004, at one particular race, 40% of the F1 grid comprised of drivers that had at one point in their careers drivenfor minardi ( it included the 2 drivers driving for minardi that yr )

pretty impressive huh !