Team Minardi spa

Taking one back to 1992, here is the Minardi-Lamborghini M191 driven by Christian Fittipaldi and Gianni Morbidelli. Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.

By Clyde Berryman
Photos by Gulay Berryman unless otherwise noted

No photos please

Massimo squires us out a back door and we take a few steps in the green grass and dew outside before approaching another building. He puts an upraised finger to his lips, implying we need to be extra quiet in here. No photographs either, please. My antennae go up. At last, I assume this is where the real “secrets” to Minardi’s performances must be kept! And as it turns out, this guess is probably not entirely off the mark.

Pierluigi Martini’s Minardi M189 model which raced in 1989-90, seen at the Goodwood Festival. Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.

By Clyde Berryman
Photos by Gulay Berryman unless otherwise noted

Read Part 1

The first stop on our factory tour, I quickly come to realize, is not the earliest stage in the actual car assembly process: we find ourselves in the carbon-fiber composite shop. But the revolution in composite materials has become the focus of modern Formula One chassis construction so it is appropriate that we start our tour here.