Minardi: the ultimate F1 underdog

Here was a team that made 340 Grand Prix starts, which puts it 11^th on the all-time list, but never won, or even came close to winning. Yet, Minardi was perhaps the most universally popular team in the F1 paddock throughout most of its 20-year tenure.

In all, from its debut in 1985 until its final race at the end of 2005, Minardi scored just 38 points, fewer than teams like Fittipaldi, Stewart and Wolf, which all had much shorter runs in F1. It’s precisely this fact that earned this small, privately owned team from Italy such a cult following. Minardi’s perseverance, even in the face of relentless struggle, was endearing to fans and competitors alike.

The team known as Minardi was formed in 1980 by Giancarlo Minardi, who’s grandfather was the owner of a Fiat dealership in Faenza, and his father experimented with building his own racing cars in the 1940s. Giancarlo’s racing efforts began in the early 1970s with an Alfa Romeo-engined Brabham BT28 in the Formula Italia series.

Throughout the ‘70s, Minardi worked with a long list of drivers that included Elio de Angelis, Clay Regazzoni and, most significantly, Giancarlo Martini, the uncle of Pierluigi Martini, who would become synonymous with Minardi in F1.

The Minardi name first appeared on a motorsport grid in Formula 2 in 1980 with backing from Italian motorsport mogul Piero Mancini, racing with a bespoke BMW-powered chassis from FLY Studios for the first time, with Miguel Ángel Guerra behind the wheel. The team’s roster of drivers grew over the next few seasons to include the likes of future F1 talents Michele Alboreto, Johnny Cecotto and Alessandro Nannini. In five seasons of F2, Minardi scored a single victory with Alboreto at Misano, and the decision was made to make the step up to F1 for the 1985 season.

Only a single car was entered for its debut season, and Pierluigi Martini, who had first raced for the F2 team in 1983, was awarded a full-time seat on the F1 grid for 1985 at the wheel of Minardi’s first F1 car, the M185.

Times were tough before the car even made it onto the track, a theme that would continue throughout the team’s two-decade run in the sport. The original plan was to run a turbocharged Alfa Romeo V8, but that was soon replaced by a V6 built by the newly formed Motori Moderni company formed by the ex-Alfa engineer Carlo Chiti. That engine wasn’t ready for the start of the season, though, so the M185 had to be reconfigured to squeeze an underpowered Cosworth DFY under the engine cover for the first two races of the season.

Despite that, Martini did at least qualify for every race except the Monaco Grand Prix, but poor reliability meant he only reached the chequered flag on two occasions, achieving a best finish of eighth place at the final round in Adelaide.

Never to be perturbed, Minardi expanded to a two-car entry for 1986, with a new driver line-up of F1 debutant Nannini and the experienced Andrea de Cesaris, but if anything the results were even worse. Both drivers finished once, albeit two and four laps down at the Mexican Grand Prix.

The 1987 season was a minor improvement, but a move to Ford engines in 1988 saw Minardi make substantial progress. The M188 was far more reliable than its predecessors, but the return of Martini for the fourth round of the season in Detroit saw the Italian score the team’s first ever F1 point. This race alone ensured Minardi claimed tenth place in the Constructors’ Championship, positioning the team above a host of privateers of a similar stature, the likes of Lola, Dallara, Coloni, Osella and EuroBrun.

Things got even better for Minardi in 1989 as the team ran consistently in the midfield and scored six points, the best result being a double points finish for Martini and Luis Pérez-Sala at Silverstone. That was and would remain the team’s best ever F1 result, matched once more during its final season in 2005.

Minardi enjoyed a period of relative success through much of the early 1990s. The team scored points in five consecutive seasons from 1991-’95 with Martini, Christian Fittipaldi, Fabrizio Barbazza, Alboreto and Pedro Lamy. Martini’s tally of six points in ’91 sealed the team its best ever Championship finish – seventh place ahead of the likes of Lotus, Brabham and Leyton House. Although those teams were all shadows of their former selves, to finish ahead of them in the Constructors’ standings was still quite the coup for the Italian minnows.

It was around this time that rising costs started to have a tangible effect on F1. The number of smaller teams in the paddock was greatly diminished by the mid-‘90s, and the gap in finances between the team in Faenza and the rest of the grid was growing year on year. Minardi eventually found itself horribly outmatched at the very bottom of the pecking order, and forced into a merger with BMS Scuderia Italia to try and keep afloat.

Bernie Ecclestone, who recognised the value of Minardi’s presence in the paddock, even managed to encourage Flavio Briatore to purchase a small stake in the team to help secure its finances.

Despite the struggles, Minardi continued to compete valiantly, balancing the books by cobbling together sponsorship deals and occasional, if hesitant, use of pay drivers to keep everybody’s favourite underdog on the grid. But the efforts yielded little in the way of reward, except for a single point scored by Marc Gene at the 1999 European Grand Prix.

In the years up until the turn of the century, Minardi had fielded at least one Italian driver in all but one season in 1998, but needs were getting more and more desperate. It was decided in 2000 to hire the services of Argentina’s Gaston Mazzacane, who brought with him a substantial amount of cash, but even his cash injection wasn’t enough. Giancarlo Minardi was faced with the difficult decision to sell up at the end of the year.

Minardi was in danger of dropping off the F1 grid, and perhaps you’d expect a team with no money and no speed to slip quietly into the history books. But this team was different, there was value in this Faenza outfit beyond success.

Paul Stoddart of Australia was the man who came to the rescue, and bought Minardi ahead of the 2001 season to keep the famous name on the grid. But even that new-found stability couldn’t help the team to better results, and Minardi remained pointless for another year, until the start aligned at the opening round of 2002.

Stoddart turned to a young Australian talent by the name of Mark Webber, who duly delivered on his first outing for the team, finishing in fifth to secure one of Minardi’s more memorable moments in its 20-year history. That was about as good as it would get, however, and Minardi would remain doomed to sit at the very back of the grid for its final years in the sport.

Gianmaria Bruni would be the final Italian to drive for the team in 2004, as Zsolt Baumgartner scored the team’s only point in what would be Minardi’s penultimate F1 campaign.

Throughout his time at the helm, Stoddart was relentless in his efforts to make F1 more affordable for small teams like Minardi to compete, but he was a largely a lone voice, and no such change ever materialised.

Minardi lined up on the grid for the final time in 2005, but not before it matched its best ever performance at that year’s US Grand Prix at Indianapolis. There is, however, an asterisk against this result, as it was the infamous six-car race, and the Minardi cars were still only able to finish fifth and sixth on the road.

The team was purchased by Dietrich Mateschitz’s Red Bull brand at the end of the 2005 season, and became Scuderia Toro Rosso from 2006. The name change was widely met with outcry by fans, who petitioned desperately to see the Minardi name retained, but this was unfortunately the end of the line for a team that had captured the hearts of F1 fans the world over.

There will never be another team like Minardi. No team will ever be able to replicate the stubborn passion of this underpowered and underfunded outfit. Racing for the sheer enjoyment, participating with pride and flying a flag with more emotion than any other team ever has.

The team at Faenza remains active as RB, and has won two races since the days of Minardi, both quite fittingly at Monza. Sebastian Vettel won for Toro Rosso in 2008 and Pierre Gasly took victory in 2020, both were victories that perfectly reflected what Minardi had always been about. Perseverance, and passion.

The 2025 Festival of Speed takes place on 10^th-13^th July. Friday and Saturday tickets are now sold out, but Thursday and limited Sunday tickets are still available.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.