Piercarlo Ghinzani

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Piercarlo Ghinzani
Ligier, Zakspeed
Entries111 (74 starts)
Championships0
Wins0
Podiums0
Career points2
Pole positions0
Fastest laps0
First entry1981 Belgian Grand Prix
Last entry1989 Australian Grand Prix

Piercarlo Ghinzani (born 16 January 1952) is an Italian former

racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from 1981 to 1989
.

Ghinzani participated in 111

Ligier and Zakspeed, debuting at the 1981 Belgian Grand Prix. He scored his only points finish at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix with Osella, where he finished fifth. Ghinzani entered four editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 1980 to 1983 with Lancia
, but retired with mechanical faults in each.

Upon retiring from motor racing, Ghinzani founded the

eponymous racing team Team Ghinzani in 1992, which has since competed in A1 Grand Prix as A1 Team Italy from 2005 to 2009, as well as in several national and continental Formula Three
championships.

Early career

Ghinzani started his racing career in

Formula 2 in 1978, finishing fourth at Pergusa on a March-BMW, and in 1979 tried to qualify the Dywa at the Monza round of the 1980 British Formula One Championship.[3]

Formula One

Ghinzani achieved Osella's second and last points finish at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix

Ghinzani debuted in

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

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

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

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

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1980
Lancia Corse
 Italy Gianfranco Brancatelli
Finland Markku Alén
Lancia Beta Monte Carlo
 Gr.5 26 DNF DNF
1981 Italy Martini Racing Italy Riccardo Patrese
Germany Hans Heyer
Lancia Beta Monte Carlo
 Gr.5 186 DNF DNF
1982 Italy Martini Racing Italy Riccardo Patrese
Germany Hans Heyer 		Lancia LC1 Gr.6 152 DNF DNF
1983 Italy Martini Lancia Italy Michele Alboreto
Germany Hans Heyer 		Lancia LC2 C 121 DNF DNF
Sources:[5][6]

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 WDC Pts
1981 Osella Squadra Corse
FA1B
 Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 USW BRA ARG SMR BEL
13 		MON
DNQ 		ESP FRA GBR GER AUT NED ITA CAN CPL NC 0
1983 Osella Squadra Corse Osella FA1D Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 BRA
DNQ 		USW
DNQ 		FRA
DNQ 		NC 0
Osella FA1E Alfa Romeo 1260 3.0 V12 SMR
DNQ 		MON
DNQ 		BEL
DNQ 		DET
Ret 		CAN
DNQ 		GBR
Ret 		GER
Ret 		AUT
11 		NED
DNQ 		ITA
Ret 		EUR
Ret 		RSA
Ret
1984 Osella Squadra Corse Osella FA1F Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5 V8t BRA
Ret 		RSA
DNS 		BEL
Ret 		SMR
DNQ 		FRA
12 		MON
7 		CAN
Ret 		DET
Ret 		DAL
5 		GBR
9 		GER
Ret 		AUT
Ret 		NED
Ret 		ITA
7† 		EUR
Ret 		POR
Ret 		19th 2
1985 Osella Squadra Corse Osella FA1F Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5 V8t BRA
12 		POR
9 		SMR
NC 		NC 0
Osella FA1G MON
DNQ 		CAN
Ret 		DET
Ret 		FRA
15 		GBR
Ret 		GER
Toleman Group Motorsport Toleman TG185
L4t
 AUT
DNS 		NED
Ret 		ITA
DNS 		BEL
Ret 		EUR
Ret 		RSA
Ret 		AUS
Ret
1986 Osella Squadra Corse Osella FA1F Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5 V8t BRA
Ret 		ESP
Ret 		SMR
Ret 		MON
DNQ 		BEL
Ret 		CAN
Ret 		DET
Ret 		NC 0
Osella FA1H FRA
Ret 		GBR
Ret
Osella FA1G GER
Ret 		HUN
Ret 		AUT
11 		ITA
Ret 		POR
Ret 		MEX
Ret 		AUS
Ret
1987
Ligier Loto
Ligier JS29B
L4t
 BRA SMR
Ret 		BEL
7† 		MON
12 		DET
Ret 		NC 0
Ligier JS29C
 FRA
Ret 		GBR
EX 		GER
Ret 		HUN
12 		AUT
8 		ITA
8 		POR
Ret 		ESP
Ret 		MEX
Ret 		JPN
13 		AUS
Ret
1988 West Zakspeed Racing Zakspeed 881
L4t
 BRA
DNQ 		SMR
Ret 		MON
Ret 		MEX
15 		CAN
14† 		DET
DNQ 		FRA
EX 		GBR
DNQ 		GER
14 		HUN
DNQ 		BEL
Ret 		NC 0
Zakspeed 881B ITA
Ret 		POR
DNQ 		ESP
DNQ 		JPN
DNQ 		AUS
Ret
1989 Osella Squadra Corse Osella FA1M Ford Cosworth DFR 3.5 V8 BRA
DNPQ 		SMR
DNPQ 		MON
DNPQ 		MEX
DNPQ 		USA
DNPQ 		CAN
DNPQ 		FRA
DNPQ 		GBR
DNPQ 		GER
DNPQ 		HUN
Ret 		BEL
DNPQ 		ITA
DNPQ 		POR
DNPQ 		ESP
Ret 		JPN
DNPQ 		AUS
Ret 		NC 0
Sources:[5][7]

† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.

References

  1. ^ Brown, Allen. "European Formula 3 1977". oldracingcars.com. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
  2. ^ Piercarlo Ghinzani driverdb.com
  3. ^ Brown, Allen. "Dywa 1980 history". Old Racing Cars. Retrieved 23 February 2025.
  4. ^ Merlino, Michele. "Alonso closes in on Mansell's tally". Autosport Magazine. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  5. ^ a b "Piercarlo Ghinzani Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  6. ^ "Piercarlo Ghinzani". Automobile Club de l'Ouest. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  7. ISBN 978-1-902007-46-5
    . Retrieved July 30, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
Sporting positions
Preceded by European Formula Three Champion
1977 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Italian Formula Three Champion
1979 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Piercarlo_Ghinzani&oldid=1277235474"