# Piercarlo Ghinzani

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 Formula One Grands Prix for Osella, Toleman, 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 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. In 1979 he won the Italian Championship. He also had a one-off 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.

## Formula One

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.

## 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 | Gianfranco Brancatelli Markku Alén | Lancia Beta Monte Carlo | Gr.5 | 26 | DNF | DNF |
| 1981 | Martini Racing | Riccardo Patrese Hans Heyer | Lancia Beta Monte Carlo | Gr.5 | 186 | DNF | DNF |
| 1982 | Martini Racing | Riccardo Patrese Hans Heyer | Lancia LC1 | Gr.6 | 152 | DNF | DNF |
| 1983 | Martini Lancia | Michele Alboreto Hans Heyer | Lancia LC2 | C | 121 | DNF | DNF |
| Sources: ||||||||

### 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 | Osella 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 |
| 1983 | Osella Squadra Corse | 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 | | NC | 0 |
| 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 |
| 1985 | Osella Squadra Corse | Osella FA1G | Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5 V8t | | | | MON DNQ | CAN Ret | DET Ret | FRA 15 | GBR Ret | GER | | | | | | | | | | NC | 0 |
| 1985 | Toleman Group Motorsport | Toleman TG185 | Hart 415T 1.5 L4t | | | | | | | | | | AUT DNS | NED Ret | ITA DNS | BEL Ret | EUR Ret | RSA Ret | AUS Ret | NC | 0 |
| 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 |
| 1986 | Osella Squadra Corse | Osella FA1H | Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5 V8t | | | | | | | | FRA Ret | GBR Ret | | | | | | | | | | NC | 0 |
| 1986 | Osella Squadra Corse | Osella FA1G | Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5 V8t | | | | | | | | | | GER Ret | HUN Ret | AUT 11 | ITA Ret | POR Ret | MEX Ret | AUS Ret | NC | 0 |
| 1987 | Ligier Loto | Ligier JS29B | Megatron M12/13 1.5 L4t | BRA | SMR Ret | BEL 7$^†$ | MON 12 | DET Ret | | | | | | | | | | | | NC | 0 |
| 1987 | Ligier Loto | Ligier JS29C | Megatron M12/13 1.5 L4t | | | | | | FRA Ret | GBR EX | GER Ret | HUN 12 | AUT 8 | ITA 8 | POR Ret | ESP Ret | MEX Ret | JPN 13 | AUS Ret | NC | 0 |
| 1988 | West Zakspeed Racing | Zakspeed 881 | Zakspeed 1500/4 1.5 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 |
| 1988 | West Zakspeed Racing | Zakspeed 881B | Zakspeed 1500/4 1.5 L4t | | | | | | | | | | | | ITA Ret | POR DNQ | ESP DNQ | JPN DNQ | AUS Ret | NC | 0 |
| 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: |
$^†$ Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.