Piercarlo Ghinzani
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![]() Ghinzani in a Toleman during practice for the 1985 European Grand Prix | |
Born | Riviera d'Adda, Lombardy, Italy | 16 January 1952
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Formula One World Championship career | |
Nationality | ![]() |
Active years | 1981, 1983 – 1989 |
Teams | Osella, Toleman, Ligier, Zakspeed |
Entries | 111 (74 starts) |
Championships | 0 |
Wins | 0 |
Podiums | 0 |
Career points | 2 |
Pole positions | 0 |
Fastest laps | 0 |
First entry | 1981 Belgian Grand Prix |
Last entry | 1989 Australian Grand Prix |
Piercarlo Ghinzani (born 16 January 1952) is a former racing driver from Italy. He currently manages his own racing team, Team Ghinzani, which was created in 1992 and is currently involved in several Formula Three championships.[1]
Early career
[edit]Ghinzani started his racing career in Formula Ford. He then graduated to Formula Three, racing with the Allegrini Team. In 1976 he switched to Team Euroracing, and won the European Championship in 1977, giving March, who was supplying the chassis, its first European Formula Three title.[2] In 1979 he won the Italian Championship.[3] He also had a one-off in Formula 2 in 1978, finishing fourth at Pergusa on a March-BMW.
Formula One
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Ghinzani_Osella_FA1F_1984_Dallas_F1.jpg/220px-Ghinzani_Osella_FA1F_1984_Dallas_F1.jpg)
Ghinzani debuted in Formula One on 17 May at the 1981 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, when Enzo Osella asked him to replace the injured Miguel Angel Guerra. In 1983 Ghinzani was invited to test for Tyrrell. Despite lapping faster than Michele Alboreto, Danny Sullivan, Chico Serra and Stefan Johansson, Ken Tyrrell deciced to retain Alboreto and Sullivan, and Ghinzani signed with Osella for his first full Formula One season. Despite achieving no points finishes, Ghinzani stayed with the team for 1984. After qualifying 20th for the second race of the season at Kyalami in South Africa, he crashed in the morning warm-up at high speed through the Jukskei Sweep. His Osella hit the wall and with almost a full fuel load of 220 litres, went up in flames and he suffered burns to his hands and face that kept him out of the race. He recovered to score his first and only career points when he finished fifth at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix in a race marked by high attrition, crumbling tarmac and oppressive heat.
After beginning 1985 with Osella, halfway through the season Ghinzani was hired by the Toleman team to partner fellow Italian Teo Fabi. Although the car at times displayed flashes of competitiveness (Fabi managed to qualify on pole in Germany), it was marred by unreliability problems, and both drivers were forced to retire for the rest of the season. In 1986 he returned to Osella, but his second stint with the team, which was running a turbocharged Alfa Romeo V8 engine, was unsuccessful.
For 1987 Ghinzani was contracted to the Ligier team, alongside former Grand Prix winner René Arnoux. The team planned to run the new turbocharged 4 cylinder Alfa Romeo engines, but those plans were scuppered by Arnoux's scathing pre-season comments that likened the engine to dog food, leading Alfa's parent company Fiat to pull the plug on the engine project. This forced the team to hastily adapt their cars to fit Megatron engines. (The Megatron was actually the BMW engine used by Brabham and previously by Arrows and Benetton before BMW retired from the sport). However, while both the Alfa and Megatron were 4-cylinder engines, their respective plumbing was completely different, forcing the team to miss the opening race of the season in Brazil while the rear suspension was re-designed to fit the new engine. Ghinzani occasionally ran in the points for Ligier, notably in Germany, before being forced to retire. During qualifying for the British Grand Prix, Ghinzani's Ligier ran out of fuel in front of the pits. His mechanics jumped the pit wall, refuelled him on the track and then push-started him, a clear violation of the rules leading to Ghinzani's exclusion from the remainder of the event. Before the incident, the Italian had set a time which would have put him 19th on the grid.
In 1988 Ghinzani drove for the German Zakspeed team, which ran its own 4 cylinder turbo engine, though generally without success. His best finish for the year was 14th in the German Grand Prix at a wet Hockenheim. Despite being one of the few teams to use turbo powered engines in 1988, Ghinzani and his teammate, young German Bernd Schneider, struggled to qualify for races and were often slower than the atmospheric cars.
Ghinzani's final Formula One season was 1989, where he once again raced with Osella as teammate to young Italian driver Nicola Larini. Ghinzani announced his decision to retire from Grand Prix racing before official practice of the final race of the 1989 season in Australia. He had qualified 21st, but his race ended when his Osella was hit from behind by the Lotus of triple World Champion Nelson Piquet on lap 19.
Ghinzani holds the record for the most Formula One appearances without qualifying in the top ten.[4]
Sports cars
[edit]In 1982 Ghinzani drove for the Lancia Sports car racing team, winning a Group C World Championship event with Michele Alboreto at Mugello in 1982. He competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times between 1980 and 1983 but failed to finish on all occasions.
Team Ghinzani
[edit]In 1992 Ghinzani founded Team Ghinzani. The team Ghinzani have raced in Italian, German and Formula 3 Euro Series since 2000 and also entered Italian Formula 3000/Euro Formula 3000 between 1999 and 2002. Since 2005–06 season, the outfit has managed A1 Team Italy in collaboration with Arco Motorsport, in the A1 Grand Prix series.
Racing record
[edit]Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
[edit]Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
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1980 | ![]() |
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Lancia Beta Monte Carlo | Gr.5 | 26 | DNF | DNF |
1981 | ![]() |
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Lancia Beta Monte Carlo | Gr.5 | 186 | DNF | DNF |
1982 | ![]() |
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Lancia LC1 | Gr.6 | 152 | DNF | DNF |
1983 | ![]() |
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Lancia LC2 | C | 121 | DNF | DNF |
Complete Formula One World Championship results
[edit](key)
† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.
References
[edit]- ^ https://www.grandprix.com/gpe/drv-ghipie.html [bare URL]
- ^ Brown, Allen. "European Formula 3 1977". oldracingcars.com. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
- ^ Piercarlo Ghinzani driverdb.com
- ^ Merlino, Michele. "Alonso closes in on Mansell's tally". Autosport Magazine. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
- ^ a b "Piercarlo Ghinzani Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
- ^ "Piercarlo Ghinzani". Automobile Club de l'Ouest. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
- ^ Small, Steve (2000). "Piercarlo Ghinzani". Grand Prix Who's Who (Third ed.). Reading, Berkshire: Travel Publishing. pp. 228–229. ISBN 978-1-902007-46-5. Retrieved July 30, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
- 1952 births
- Sportspeople from the Province of Bergamo
- Living people
- Italian racing drivers
- Italian Formula One drivers
- British Formula One Championship drivers
- European Formula Two Championship drivers
- FIA European Formula 3 Championship drivers
- Italian Formula Three Championship drivers
- A1 Grand Prix team owners
- 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
- Osella Formula One drivers
- Toleman Formula One drivers
- Ligier Formula One drivers
- Zakspeed Formula One drivers
- World Sportscar Championship drivers
- Japanese Sportscar Championship drivers
- Motorsport team owners
- Team Joest drivers