F1 | Gp Baku, PRESENTATION by Minardi

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This weekend Formula 1 will be back with the fourth Grand Prix on the Baku street circuit which last year, against all predictions, gave us a race that was full of twists which in fact ignited the rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel who were the protagonists of a contact behind the safety car with the Ferrari driver reacting to the excessive braking by the British driver which caused a collision between the two.

The race was won by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo in front of Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll.

Due to the very shape of the circuit it will be a weekend conditioned by the presence of the safety car, even if it does not present any specific technical characteristics for both the aerodynamics and the tyres with Pirelli bringing the Soft, SuperSoft and UltraSoft mixes.

Unlike the expectations at the beginning of the season, we come to this round with Mercedes running on the defensive and without a win, unlike Ferrari which managed to make the most of its opportunities with Vettel’s two wins and Raikonnen’s third place in China where Red Bull was very good at exploiting the mistakes of the others.

In recent days much has been said about Ferrari’s tactics concerning Kimi Raikonnen but we must not forget that the Finn’s contract renewal is dictated by internal conditions and therefore I do not understand this bad mood. The priorities are the team’s objectives and those who work for the team must adapt to the team’s choices. Right or wrong, Sebastian Vettel is the number one driver, just as Lewis Hamilton is Mercedes’ lead driver. Despite the unexciting start to the season by Mercedes and its champion, it will be a very tight fight between the two drivers and I am convinced that the Brit will manage to overturn the situation.

Gian Carlo Minardi

The Historic Minardi Day celebrates the Champions of Motorpsort

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Even the third edition of the Historic Minardi Day celebrates the Champions of Motorsport who will be present during the weekend beginning on Friday afternoon with the challenge between drivers and VIPs at Faenza’s ”Le Cicogne” Golf Club. This challenge will also have as protagonist rally driver Prisca Taruffi who is also a great enthusiast and champion of golf. She will also be at the Imola circuit on the Saturday.

During the long weekend in the pits of the Enzo and Dino Ferrari Circuit we await many important names who contributed to the history of the team founded by Gian Carlo Minardi. People such as Pierluigi Martini who ran more than 100 grands prix with the team from Faenza including its debut race in the Brazil Grand Prix in 1985 with the M1985 and Alessandro Nannini, Alfa Romeo’s lead driver who debuted in F1 with the Minardi Team in 1986 and who also defended the colours in the following year before going to Benetton and winning the Japanese Grand Prix and who only last year spoke of the Minardi Day with these words “I love Gian Carlo Minardi. I raced for him for seven years (editor’s note: betweenF2 and F1) I could not be at the first edition but I have already reserved a place for 2018”. Promise kept!

Gianni Morbidelli will also be there on the Friday and Saturday. He came to Faenza in 1991 to drive the Ferrari powered M191 together with Pierluigi Martini and the year after in the M192 with the V12 Lamborghini engine before continuing his career with Arrows and Sauber. He was also Ferrari’s test driver when he substituted Alain Prost in the 1991 Adelaide Grand Prix,

Ferrari’s historic test driver Luca Badoer will be there on Sunday 6th. He drove for the Minardi Team in the 1995 and 1996 seasons and was already been a protagonist in the second edition. “I experienced fantastic years with Gian Carlo and am tied closely to him and to his team. I owe him a lot. It was a great event that not even rain ruined or stopped. I came as a guest but it would be fantastic to come back in racing overalls and helmet” was Luca’s comment last year.

Coming back to join us will also be Miguel Angel Guerra, Gian Carlo Minardi’s fist driver under contract, Tarso Marques, Luis Perez Sala, Roberto Moreno, Giovanni Lavaggi who will take to the track in his LMP1, as well as racing engineers Gabriele Tredozi (who has been present in all the editions with his PS04B) and Aldo Costa who will drive the Mercedes W04 on Sunday.

Together with the Minardi drivers will also be many of Gian Carlo’s friends who have written many important pages of motorsport history, amongst who are Riccardo Patrese 257 grands prix and 1992 Vice World Champion), Emanuele Pirro who last year saw his dream of driving a Minardi come true “I waited 55 years to drive a Minardi and I finally managed to do so. We are celebrating the story of a man and a team who wrote motorsport history, a story of passion, tenacity and challenging difficulties”, said the winner of five 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Gabriele Tarquini (78 F1 GPs as driver for Alfa Romeo, BMW, Honda, and SEAT with which he was the 2009 WTCC World Champion), Andrea Bartolini (2019 GIA GT and GT1 World Champion with the Maserati MC12), Matteo Bobbi (GT World Champion), Alex Caffi, Carlo Facetti whose wins include the 1980 24 Hours of Le Mans at the wheel of the Lancia Monte Carlo and BMW’s flag bearer Roberto Ravaglia who won with the team from Bavaria the 1987 world championship, two European Championships (1986 and 1988), three Italian Championships (1990, 1991 and 1993), a German Championship (1989) and two 24 Hours at Nürburgring (1989 and 1995) and three 24 Hours at Spa-Francorchamps (1985, 1988 and 1994), ex-F1 driver Siegfried Stohr who will be the protagonist at the Briefing Room on Saturday 5th at 5.00pm when he will present the book “Piloti d’altri tempi” (Drivers of other times) and at 11.00am engineer Mauro Forghieri will present the book “Capire la Formula 1. I segreti della sua evoluzione dagli anni ’60 a oggi” (Understanding Formula 1. The secrets of its evolution from the ‘60s until the present day) which will be followed by a number of other appointments.

On Saturday 5th Mercedes – AMG Petronas Motorsport driver Valtteri Bottas will join us at the Circuit for a round of autographs from 2.00pèm to 3.00pm.

On Sunday 6th ex F1 driver Nick Heidfeld, the protagonist of the Formula E Championship, will take to the track in the Mahindra Racing M4Electro.

Ex Scuderia Everest driver Roberto Farneti will bring the wonderful March-Bmw Schnitzer 732 that belonged to Ernesto “Tito” Brambilla onto the track. There will also be room for karting with the very young Andrea Kimi Antonelli from Bologna.

TICKETS HISTORIC MINARDI DAY
It is possible to purchase tickets for single days or for the whole weekend through TicketOne, or directly at the Circuit. The tickets give access to the paddock and the pits of the Enzo and Dino Ferrari International Circuit and all the events in the programme, as well as to be able to take laps of the track aboard a Supercar driven by professional drivers.

SOCIAL MEDIA & WEBSITE
In order to always keep up to date with the numerous new developments tied to the third edition of the Historic Minardi Day visit our website and the social channels by using the official hashtags #HMD e #HistoricMinardiDay
Here are the addresses:

WEBSITE:
http://minardiday.it/

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/minardiday/

TWITTER:
https://twitter.com/minardi09

Karol Basz at Monza for his debut in the Super Trofeo Lamborghini

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The Monza circuit will inaugurate Karol Basz’s new course in the European Super Trofeo Lamborghini Championship which this year will run its tenth season. The season of seven rounds, including the World Final al Vallelunga, will begin this week at Monza followed by Silverstone, Misano, Spa-Francorchamps, Nurburgring and Vallelunga.

The 27 year old Polish driver will wear for the first time the colours of Imperiale Racing and will share the cockpit of the new Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO number 44 with Vito Postiglione in the Pro class. The car is equipped with completely redesigned aerodynamics compared to last year’s model. This will be the first important appointment for Karol as he has not yet had the opportunity to test the powerful car from Sant’Agata Bolognese.

After his positive debut in GT cars in last year’s Italian Gran Turismo Championship – Super GT Cup in which he set pole position and three podium finishes, all with a Lamborghini Huracàn, Karol is called to take another important step forward in his Gran Turismo career.

“I am pleased to come back to racing and to make my debut in the Super Trofeo Lamborghini with Imperiale racing and with an expert driver such as Vito Postiglione. If in the next rounds I will also have learn the circuits, this weekend I will be able to concentrate only on the new “Lambo” as I already know Monza’s secrets”.

“A new season is beginning for Karol which is becoming a new step forward in his career towards professionalism. Last year he managed to amaze us by quickly setting pole position on debut and then with a number of podium finishes. Now he is called to an even more demanding challenge but he has his papers in order for a season at the highest levels,” commented managers Giovanni Minardi and Alberto Tonti.

The two rounds of 50’ each will start on Saturday 21st beginning at 3.10pm and Sunday 22nd at 12.20pm.

F1 | Gp China, THE POINT by Minardi “Verstappen the championship’s inconsiderate referee”

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The design of the grand prix changed with the entry of the safety car after the accident between the two Toro Rosso cars caused by Gasly’s great mistake. Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull achieved a strong win as well as putting up the race’s fastest lap thanks to great intuition and perfect execution of the two consecutive pit stops by the mechanics.

They were also helped by luck because both Ricciardo and Verstappen were in the right place at the right time. When the safety car took to the track Mercedes and Ferrari had already crossed the line and they had no chance to enter pit lane.

In any case, this result will give Homer’s men something to think about since they are letting escape (with one foot already in Italy) a driver who was the author of a great error free race, unlike his companion.

With an impetuous act Verstappen managed to ruin not only what good had been done up till then in his Shanghai weekend, but he was also the inconsiderate referee of the world championship who heavily conditioned Sebastian Vettel’s performance and result. The Ferrari driver managed only in part to limit the damage. I found the 10” penalty inflicted by the Dutchman’s commissars light, after they compared the contact with the Gasly-Hartley episode (with the Frenchman receiving the same penalty). It was a pity that Verstappen ruined the race for the championship leader. The commissars should use a heavy fist with repeat offenders and evaluate not only the gravity of the act, but also the consequences of the incident.

After the first three grands prix the championship is becoming increasingly interesting with five drivers within a handful of points and a fascinating battle between three teams with Red Bull growing, Ferrari with both cars on the front row of the grid for the second consecutive time and Mercedes still without a win.

We also saw an intense grand prix in the rear with an overtaking manoeuvre in the limit by Alonso at the expense of a Vettel in difficulty with the car. A race within the race which ended with three different drivers of as many teams on the podium (Ricciardo-Bottas-Raikonnen). The Finn sacrifices himself for the team by delaying his stop and then defended the result with a strong race which finished on the podium.

In two weeks we will be in Azerbaijan, a very insidious circuit which last year was the stage for the contact between Vettel and Hamilton during the period with the safety car that ignited the rivalry between the two. Between the two litigants Ricciardo emerged as the winner in front of Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll.

Gian Carlo Minardi

Karol Basz to debut in the Super Trofeo Europa Lamborghini with Imperiale Racing

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After his excellent debut last season in the Italian GT Championship at the wheel of the Lamborghini Huracan, this year Karol Basz is called to take another important step forward in his Gran Turismo career.

The 27 year old driver from Krakow will be at the wheel of the Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO of Imperiale Racing in the Super Trophy dedicated to the car maker from Sant’Agata Bolognese. The car is equipped with aerodynamics that have been completely redesigned compares to the previous version.

As usual the Monza Circuit will see the start of the European series which has reached its tenth edition in the setting of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup to be run on the weekend of April 21-22. The series will continue in England at the Historic Silverstone Circuit (May 19-20) and then at Misano in June for the third round, Spa-Francorchamps (July 26-27) and Nurburgring (September 15-16).

In his European debut Karol Basz will share the cockpit of the “Lambo” with Vito Postiglione. “I am really happy to begin this collaboration with Imperiale in the Super Trofeo Europa and am excited to share the cockpit with an expert and fast driver such as Vito Postiglione. I expect that the season will not be easy since there will no time to organize tests before the debut at Monza and I will also have to learn some tracks such as Silverstone which I will study on the simulator, but I am ready,” commented the satisfied Polish driver followed by Minardi Management.

“We are very happy to have reached this agreement with Imperiale racing. Despite the fact that this is once again a debut, there are the foundations for doing well at Monza. Last year Karol surprised everyone by taking pole position on his debut. Reaching the Super Trofeo Europa represents another piece in his career,” commented managers Giovanni Minardi and Alberto Tonti.

F1 | Minardi “A heart stopping beginning but the teams are looking for their dimension”

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We are approaching only the third grand prix, to be held in China this weekend, yet between Australia and Bahrain the twists and moments of high tension were not lacking. Just look at the reliability problems with the gearbox suffered by the two Mercedes drivers, the mistakes by Red Bull, the finish at Sakir with only a 6 tenths of a second gap between Vettel and Bottas and passing through the wonderful surprise Toro Rosso.

We are in a period in which the teams are looking for their dimensions since the world championship began after only eight days of tests, conditioned by bad weather and rain. It was certainly not enough. The real forces at play have not yet emerged. We have had fluctuating performances between qualifying and the race, even though Ferrari scored two well deserved wins with Sebastian Vettel. Ferrari exploited 101% of the potential of its car and its driver who covered an impressive number of laps never done with the Softs.

However, analyzing the times Mercedes is still very fast, above all with the Medium mixes, and in China Pirelli will up put up the Softs and Ultra Softs. Therefore it will be interesting to see the behaviour and strategies that will be adopted on a track that traditionally favours Toto Wolff’s men.

Toro Rosso was very good at exploiting Red Bull’s debacle with Gasly, the protagonist of an exceptional weekend. His sequence of laps was impressive and this allowed him to safeguard the result from any charge by Magnussen and to grab an incredible fourth place. I hope that they can continue on this road and that the air of Motor Valley also does well for the Honda Power Unit.

The most interesting new developments compared to last season came from the second part of the grid with the TR surprise together with excellent performances from Haas and a good defence by Renault with McLaren which is now in third place on the championship ladder. The results of Force India’s after two seasons in fourth place and from Williams are decidedly below expectations.

These augur well to be able to witness again such interesting and adrenaline charged grands prix with a notable compaction of the grid. At Sakir qualifying gave us twenty cars within a gap of 3”.

Gian Carlo Minardi

From the F1 Surtees's Cooper T51 to Formula E | Between the Present and the Future the 2018 HMD narrates half a century of racing competitions

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“Without the Past there is no Present and Future” These are the first words that Gian Carlo Minardi pronounced when speaking of the Historic Minardi Day to be held on May 5th and 6th at Imola’s Enzo and Dino Ferrari Circuit which this year celebrates its third edition.
“Never before have we covered such a wide span of time beginning with the 1960s up to the present day with the World Champion Mercedes W07 Hybrid and Formula E which will be on show at Brisighella at the Bandini Trophy” continued Gian Carlo Minardi.
During the weekend more than a hundred vehicles are expected which tell nearly half a century of sporting competitions. It begins with the 1963 Cooper T51,  the first F1 car bought by world champion John Surtees to start his career in the world Championship, and then the Ferrari B2 of a decade later, the ’72 Martini Racing Tecno, the Surtees F5000, the 1976 6 wheeled Tyrell P34 and Theodore TR1, continuing on to the March 761, the Minardi M185 which debuted in the Brazil Grand Prix at the Jacarepaguà Circuit with Pierluigi Martini tgether with its “sisters” M186, M189, M193, PS04B and the Alfa Romeo powered Benetton, Fondmetal, Dallara, Osella, Fittipaldi F8 driven in 1980by Emerson Fittipaldi and Keke Rosberg, Damon Hill’s 198 Jordan, the Arrows A11 designed by Ross Brawn, A20 and A21, the latter driven by Jos Verstappen in the 2001 world championship, the Ferrari F92A and world champion F2002 with Michael Schumacher, the STR03 Toro Rosso with which Sebastian Vettel had his first F1 win at the Monza track and the STR13 and the Mercedes W04 that won three grands prix in 29013 will be taken on the track by Aldo Costa. Together with the Formula 1 cars, there will be room reserved for cars from F2, F3, F3000 and Formulas Abarth and Italia which trained champions. In addition, there will be GT cars and Prototypes from the main constructors such as Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, BMW, Caterham, Lamborghini, Lavaggi, Lotus, Lucchini and Jaguar

The historic cars of the 1st Savio Circuit Trophy will wind their way around the roads of the wonderful medieval hamlets, before returning to the Circuit next to the Santerno River with a gara di regolarità turistica that will begin on Saturday May 5th in conjunction with the Historic Minardi Day.

From this year the Minardi Day and the Bandini Trophy will combine their synergies. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes – AMG Petronas Motorsport’s driver will receive the coveted prize which this year reached its 25th edition. The Finn driver, who will also be present on the Saturday afternoon at the Circuit for a round of signing autographs, will drive to Brisighella’s Spada Amphitheatre at wheel of the world champion Mercedes WO7 from Faenza’s Piazza del Popolo to receive the trophy at 6.00pm. Amongst those awarded that evening will be ACI President and FIA Vice President Angelo Sticchi Damiani, Aldo Costa the F1 world champion’s designer, Roccardo Mosconi, Lewis Hamilton’s track engineer and Dilbagh Gill, team owner and CEO of Team Mahindra, the protagonist of the Formula E championship which this year will be in Rome for the first time. At the wheel of the M4ELECTRO will be Nick Heidfeld who will put on an electrifying show amongst the streets of Brisighella, exploiting the 200 KW of power which is able to reach 100 km/hour in less than 3 seconds.

“We await you all at the Imola pits to experience together half a century of Motorsport” concluded Gian Carlo Minardi.

TICKETS
It is possible to purchase tickets for single days or for the whole weekend through TicketOne, or directly at the Circuit. The tickets give access to the paddock and the pits of the Enzo and Dino Ferrari International Circuit and all the events in the programme, as well as to be able to take laps of the track aboard a Supercar driven by professional drivers.
SOCIAL MEDIA & WEBSITE
In order to always keep up to date with the numerous new developments tied to the third edition of the Historic Minardi Day visit our website and the social channels by using the official hashtags #HMD e #HistoricMinardiDay
Here are the addresses:
WEBSITE:
http://minardiday.it/
FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/minardiday/
TWITTER:
https://twitter.com/minardi09

F1 | Gp Bahrain, THE POINT by Gian Carlo Minardi “Vettel’s and Ferrari’s fantastic win”

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It was a weekend in search of perfection, maturity and safety which gave us a winning Ferrari beginning with qualifying and ended with Vettel in front of Bottas and Hamilton. It was an exciting grand prix with the last eight heart pounding laps in which Sebastian Vettel showed us that he is a four times world champion, as Lewis Hamilton showed in Australia when he put up an incredible lap in qualifying.

Ferrari’s German driver crowned his 200th GP in the best way possible by taking his 47th win. The men from Maranello did not make a single mistake in strategy by setting the race on the direct rival, Lewis Hamilton, since the world championship will be a fight between the two. The accident in the box with Kimi Raikonnen was a pity which put a partial damper on the celebrations, but these things are part of this sport. I extend my best wishes to the mechanic for a speedy recovery.

This race must give those who disparage this Formula 1 something to think about because on a true track we saw good overtaking manoeuvres and the final ladder for the race which had twenty cars within 3” and a gap of barely 6 tenths of a second between first and second placed cars. Even though Red Bull was missing, Ferrari and Mercedes knew how to entertain by keeping us in suspense until the last lap.

The extraordinary fourth place by the Toro Rosso-Honda partnership was the result of a fantastic qualifying session by Gasly, who was also the author of a race start worthy of a champion and who exploited to the max the car and strategy by putting together a series of fast laps between the 37th and 47th laps to give himself a safety margin in the case of an attack by Magnussen.

With these premises I am anxious to watch the next 19 grands prix and in only a week the engines will be turned on again in China.

Gian Carlo Minardi

WSK Super Master Series | Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished the championship in third place.

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A week after a solid performance on the Sarno track which was conditioned only by the penalty inflicted in the Final after the finish Andrea Kimi Antonelli came back to Naples’ International Circuit for the fourth and final round of the WSK Super Master Series.

It was not an easy weekend for Energy Corse’s young driver from Bologna who in any case closed the mini championship in third place overall in the 60 Mini category after filing away the final appointment in sixth place in the Final and fifth place in the Pre-Final.

“We’re sorry for how this Championship finished because in all the rounds Andrea showed that he deserved final victory. Despite an unfavourable weekend he continued to fight on the track without losing heart and we file away the WSK Super Master Series with third place in the ladder. Now we are concentrating on the Italian Championship,” commented managers Giovanni Minardi and Albert Tonti.

WSK Super Master Series | At Sarno Andrea Kimi Antonelli confirmed that he is a protagonist

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Two weeks after his authoritative win on the La Conca track, Andrea Kimi Antonelli confirmed that he is one of the protagonists of the WSK Super Master Series.

On Naples’ International track during the round that had been cancelled due to snow Energy Corse’s flag bearer greeted the weekend with a win in the Pre Final after having won third place in the Qualifying heats which was the fruit of a first and a second place in the Eliminatory Heats, together with a fifth and the ninth position won in the first and last rounds respectively.

In the Final the young driver of Bologna made himself the protagonist on a good struggle with Stenshome and crossed the finishing line in third place, but the race marshals punished the driver’s actions with a 5” penalty which took him hack to ninth place.

“The weekend began with some difficulties, but continued with steady growth with a win in the Pre Final that was not easy and third place in the Final. Unfortunately the struggle with Stenshome was considered irregular and therefore a five second penalty was inflicted. In a week’s time we must have a perfect weekend in order to finish in the best was possible a championship in which Andrea was constantly the lead player,” commented Giovanni Minardi and Alberto Tonti.

In a week’s time Andrea Kimi Antonelli will be in action once more in Naples’ International Circuit for the fourth and final appointment of the WSK Super Master Series where he will be in second place on the ladder with a gap of eight points from top place.

Foto: Energy Corse/KSP