19 December 1979 – 2019: 40 years of the Minardi Team

Wednesday December 19 forty years ago Gian Carlo Minardi’s sporting activity changed style and register. Up to that day the cars handled by the manager from Faenza ran under external “colours”, first of the Società del Passatore and then Scuderia Everest.

““On December 19, 1979 the Minardi Team was officially born, also thanks to Angelo Gallignani, President of Scuderia Everest and in 1980 we debuted on the track with our first Formula 2 racing car, the GM75 designed by Caliri and Marmiroli and entrusted to Miguel Angel Guerra, the first driver to race under the Minardi Team colours,” remembered Gian Carlo Minardi.

Despite the initial hardships the Argentine driver gained a good 9th place in the European Championship. In the following however the Minardi talent scout put under contract a certain Michele Alboreto who, at the wheel of the Minardi-Fly M281, took third place in Pergusa and the brilliant win in the race at Misano in the middle of a torrid August on the Riviera… but that is another story.

At the same time as the Minardi Team’s coat of arms- the blue trapezoid with the lion, Italian flag and yellow letters- also made its debut and accompanied Gian Carlo Minardi throughout his journey that culminated with 21 years in Formula 1 and 340 Grands Prix, numbers that today still legitimize the team from Faenza amongst the top ten teams that have raced the most grands prix in the history of F1 that next year will celebrate its 70th birthday.

“In that moment we became Constructors, certified by CSAI and FIA; and we grew from year to year until we became too big for Formula 2 but too small for Formula 1. In the 1980s F1 was everybody’s dream and it was at the peak of its fame and so taken by the decision to launch myself in that challenge to construct in 1984 the first prototype F1 car which debuted the following year in Brazil with Pierluigi Martini. All supported by a group of entrepreneurs from the Emilia-Romagna region who trusted me,” continued the manager from Faenza.

“In all those years we built our racing cars with great pride and satisfaction and for this reason, even today, I do not view positively the possibility of having an F1 starting grid made up of assemblers and/or clones”

“I am pleased that forty years later the name Minardi still lives in the memory of the fans as they have shown over the last four years during the Historic Minardi Day. I wish you all Happy Holidays and I will be waiting for you from Friday 24th to Sunday 26th April, always of the Imola Circuit for edition number five” ”