Happy Birthday Minardi!!!!!

The GREATEST team ever to grace the track are 15 years old this very day. Here's to another 15 years of REAL RACING!!!

FORZA MINARDI!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!

(www.geocities.com/minardi_fan)!!!

Hey MF!! You forgot to bring the present: a factory engine.:( :( :(

C'mon Mr. Bounce - we made it this far, teams have come and gone but Minardi are STILL on the grid. The factory engine deal will turn up eventually and we will show the rest of the F1 teams what we can do, but until that day we can keep on doing what we do best - racing no matter what.

FORZA MINARDI!!!

Originally posted by Minardi fan
C'mon Mr. Bounce - we made it this far, teams have come and gone but Minardi are STILL on the grid. The factory engine deal will turn up eventually and we will show the rest of the F1 teams what we can do, but until that day we can keep on doing what we do best - racing no matter what.

FORZA MINARDI!!!

Well said MF. I mean just look at Arrows, prior to 2000, they were the worst team on the grid. Then last year they were(at times) competing with the likes of Bar, Suaber, Benneton, etc.

Minardi's time will come. They have dedicated so much of themselves and they have always stuck it out, no matter how bleak things have seemed.

Minardi= futur world champions(ok maybe that's a little over optimistic).

I was feeling kinda depressed when I read that Minardi weren't even able to test before Imola. :( :( :( Now having read your posts, I feel a little better. :) BUT only a little. Heck!! I have been dreaming of watching Alonso start from pole position in the Minardi.

That's more like it - show a bit of Minardi spirit man!!!

FORZA MINARDI!!!

The one in the background looks a lot like a Mclaren.

Oh, wait a minute, on closer inspection, I think it IS a Mclaren. Silly me!!.

Hey, I enjoy seing a diffrent car besides the Mclarens and Ferrari's but couldn't Minardi at least come up with a decent colour scheme. It would have to be one of the ugliest cars of the recent era. Look at Arrows, even when they dont have a competitive car they still turn out a great looking car...

The new Minardi livery is the best one on the grid - sleek and quick. Only the Jordan or Sauber rivals it for sheer loveliness. The Orange Arrows was great last year, but to be honest it's now a little dull.

FORZA MINARDI!!!

Aren't they 16 years old?

1985-2001?

Just a thought

Minardi are great. 15 years, no real success. They have passion and patience. They deserve a lot from F1.

Minardi Minardi Minardi
OI OI OI!

http://www.formula-magazine.net

Happy birthday Minardi - here's to the first point of the season, courtesy of Fantastic Fernando!:rotate:

Minardi must be 16 years old, the first season they competed in was 1985.

Anyway, the colour scheme is great! And happy birthday, Minardi!!! :rotate:

OK then, people... I have a plan!!

MINARDI THROUGH THE YEARS!!!

All of you, go out to forix or some encyclopaedaic F1 site and find pics of EVERY Minardi car (and if possible driver too). Then we can see how this awesome little team has progressed through the years. I'll start off then....

1985 Minardi had to change engines after just two races into the season (just IMAGINE having to do that today!!) from Ford to a Motori Moderni unit (WHO?? anyone know what a "Motori Moderni" is??). Here's a pic of the latter, so whilst not TECHNICALLY THE first Minardi, it'll do!!

And what a lovley car it is!! Waht are those exit air scoops atop the sidpods for??

1985 San Marino GP

1986: No finishes until the penultimate round, Mexico, where De Crasheris records their best result of the season, 8th, in this lovely car:

God bless this team...They have giving a lot to F1 by being there all these years and trying so hard...

I believe the Motori Moderni was built specially for them by some guy who lived just down the road or something, so it was basically developed in-house. It was tremendously unreliable and thirsty, and its' thirst causes Martini to drop out of 5th at the 1985 German GP

I used to have about 50 photos on my computer, before it decided to spontaneously delete everything on the hard drive. Now I'm digging through all my back-ups looking for them, and desperately trying to remember the address of the site I got the older ones from (Martini's unofficial site I think, anyone know the address?)

1987 : Minardi replace de Cesaris with Adrian Campos. Campos finishes just once all year. His team mate Alessandro Nannini finishes just 3 times. This pic is of Campos at Monaco

1988: Minardi abandon Motori Moderni for Ford Cosworth engines. Luis Perez Sala joined Adrian Campos, but Campos was replaced by Pierluigi Martini mid-season. The M188, designed by Giacomo Caliri was much better than the 87 car, and Martini scored Minardi's first-ever point in Detroit.

This is the M188, driven by Luis Perez Sala:

http://www.rivals.net/media/jpg/2000022401730873.jpg

1989 : Still using the Ford-Cosworth engines, Minardi keep the same line-up but bring Paolo Barilla in for Japan, replacing Pierluigi Martini temporarily. Sala takes one point in the British GP, while Martini takes an incredible 5 points, finishing 5th in the British and Portuguese Grand Prix, and 6th in the Australian race. Barilla retired in his only GP of 1989.

The pic is of Barilla in Japan.

1990: Still using the Ford Cosworth engine, the cars were driven by Pierluigi Martini and Paolo Barilla (later replaced be Gianni Morbidelli). Highest finish was Martini's 7th place in Phoenix.

http://www.rivals.net/media/jpg/2000022301910873.jpg

1991 : Minardi switch to customer Ferrari engines, hoping for better results. Drivers are Pierluigi Martini and Gianni Morbidelli with a one-off appearance by Roberto Moreno in Australia. Martini comes 4th in the San Marino and Portuguese Grands Prix, scoring Minardi's best ever result, Morbidelli fails to score a point.

This is Martini in the USA.

Isn't he gorgeous, hes deffinately a star of the future, and is gonna take minardi to the top :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

1992: Fittipaldi and Morbidelli drive the Minardis, now powered by Lamborghini engines. Zanardi drives one race for them. The team score one point - Fittipaldi at Japan. And this is the beauty they raced in:

1993 : Back with Ford engines, the Minardis are driven by Christian Fittipaldi, Pierluigi Martini, Fabrizio Barbazza and Jean-Marc Gounon. Fittipaldi drives 14 GPs, Martini and Barbazza 8 each and Gounon drives 2. Best finish is Fittipaldi's 4th in South Africa. His other points-scoring finish was 5th at Monaco. Barbazza scored 2 points by finishing 6th at Donington and Imola. Martini and Gounon failed to score.

1994 is the year of the beginning of the alliance with Scuderia Italia. The team is called Minardi-Scuderia Italia. The team ends up 10th in the championship. The drivers are Pierluigi Martini with two 5th places (Spain and France) and Michele Alboreto with a 6th place in Monaco.


It was also my first year as F1-fan

1995: A completely new car, the M195A, with a semi-automatic gearbox and automatic clutch, was powered by a Ford engine in 95. The car was driven by Luca Badoer and Pierluigi Martini. Martini was later replaced and his replacement, Pedro Lamy, finished 6th in Australia to score the team's only point of 95.

http://www.rivals.net/media/jpg/2000022300160873.jpg
^ Lamy at the Nurburgring ^

1996 : Minardi, having initially signed Taki Inoue, discovered that he couldn't produce the funds required. He was dumped before the first race in order for Giancarlo Fisichella to take the drive. Fisichella shared his drive with Tarso Marques and then the pay-driver Giovanni Lavaggi took Fisichella's seat to provide much-needed funds for the team. Meanwhile, Pedro Lamy completed his second season with Minardi. No points were scored, and the best finish was Fisichella's 8th in Canada. This car was a development of the M195 and was powered by Ford engines.

1997: Minardi struggled with the unreliable Hart V8 engine. Their drivers were Ukyo Katayama (cue big cheer from Minardi fan ;)) and Jarno Trulli, who moved to Prost mid-season to replace injured Olivier Panis. Trulli got the best results of the season, with 9th in Australia and Argentina, but his replacement, Tarso Marques, didn't do very well.

http://www.rivals.net/media/jpg/2000022201530873.jpg

1998 : Returning to Ford engines, Minardi sign Shinji Nakano and the young Argentinian Esteban Tuero. No points but Nakano came 7th in Canada.

We can't stop the thread here!

1999 : Minardi run promising Spaniard Marc Gene alongside Luca Badoer. Running 4th at the Nurburgring, Badoer retires with mechanical failure. However, Gene manages to fend off Eddie Irvine for 6th place and one point.

2000: Minardi continue with the services of the ever-improving Marc Gene, and Argentinian new-boy Gaston 'Marzipan' Mazzacane. No points, but Gene put in a stunning drive at Austria to finish 8th, and prove how talented he really is. And here is the luscious machine they drove:

And to bring us up to date...

2001: Minardi struggle to find funds during the off-season until Australian businessman Paul Stoddart buys the team. He signs the talented (*ahem*) Tarso Marques and the stunning 19-year-old Fernando Alonso (who quickly develops a fan club in the 10 Tenths F1 Forum ;)). Marques is pretty slow, but Alonso qualifies 19th on his debut and races to a superb 12th. And here's the man himself in Brazil:

http://www.minardi.it/images/foto/2001/20010207m.jpg

.....OK, with all this history in place, I shall now start another couple of threads where we can VOTE on what we all think is the best (driver and car). Bear with me one moment whilst I try to work out how to do my first POLL!!!:)

I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed to this "tour" of Minardi through the years! :rotate:

A good I dea, I thought. (you know me, never one to ring my own bell)

A couple of things this thread has proved - i) Minardi have always fielded bloody gorgeous cars, and ii) there's a whole lot of love for Minardi out there - it's just some of us aren't afraid to show it!

FORZA MINARDI!!!

(And Kimi, of course. ;))

You people, i don't know what to think. Minardi can't even be considered the underdog cause they suck so much. True enough, gotta give them a break for staying so long and i always cheer for them. Minardifan, you definitively are an optimist and i respect that.
by the way, that sleek black livery they have is SWEEET!

When I saw that picture with the Mclaren in the background I thought the Minardi had an edited helmet to show Villeneuve's instead... Of course it's Alonso...

Minardi don't suck, it's the engine which does...

C'mon ,now you lot (exept Minardi Fan and anyone on his/hers side) are being totally unfair, something will turn up they will get a good engine and they already have Paul Stoddard as chairman hopefully they will be in force to score some points soon and maybe even win some gp's!!!!!????

didn't put Martini his Minardi second on the grid in Phoenix 1990?

He sure did, outqualifying the likes of Senna, Prost and Piquet in the prosess. In the race he finished just outside the points, in 7th place, as Ralf's Girl said.

He did indeed, just 0.067s behind Berger's pole time, albeit in a weather-affected session. He also led the 1989 Portuguese GP for a glorious lap before finishing 5th. Whatever happened to Pierluigi, he seemed to just disappear from F1?

And Berger only got pole AFTER the 60 minutes were up on his last run. MARTINI: YOU ARE GOD!!!

Peir Martini. Possibly the greatest F1 driver ever to live. Ever. Which is why I veoted for him on "Who's the greatest Minardi driver ever!" topic. If you havn't voted yet, please do :) So ner.