Piercarlo Ghinzani

**Piercarlo Ghinzani** (born 16 January 1952) is a retired Italian racing driver.

## Early racing career

The spirit of competition, it is said, resides in doing your best rather than necessarily winning. Look no farther than Italian driver Piercarlo Ghinzani, from Riviera d'Adda near Bergamo, for an example of sheer dogged perseverance in the face of adversity and a remarkable lack of success. Here's a man with 108 F1 entries, 66 starts, a best qualifying position of 13th, and only 2 points to show for it! Ghinzani's perseverance was evident from the beginning of his career. He began racing in Italian Formula Ford 1600 in 1970 and Formula Italia in 1971 before progressing to Italian Formula Three in 1972. While the youthful hotshots work their way up the ranks as soon as they can, Piercarlo spent five years in the category from 1972 to 1976.

Furthermore, results were slow to come. In 1975, he finished seventh in the championship with a CRS 001 Toyota, with 6 points. In the same car, he finished fifth in the European Formula 3 championship at the Lotteria di Monza, and the two points put him equal 20th in the series. Only in 1976 did he begin to make a name for himself, placing second in the Italian F3 championship behind Riccardo Patrese for the Scuderia Angeleri team. Ghinzani also improved in the European championship, placing sixth with 11 points after finishing third in Enna and Vallelunga and fourth in Kassel-Calden. However, switching to the AFPM team led by Paulo Pavanello to focus on the European series paid out handsomely in 1977. He won three times at the Nürburgring, Zolder, and Imola in his March 763 Toyota, and with 61 points, he was crowned European F3 champion.

Ghinzani stayed with Pavanello's Euroracing team in 1978 but moved into the F2 championship with a March 782 BMW, seemingly having finally attained the top of F3 in Europe after spending so long in that category. Piercarlo was no better than a high-midfield runner because the learning curve was too steep. Only a fourth-place finish at Enna late in the season earned him 3 points, putting him in a tie for 16th place in the title race. Ghinzani was depressed, so he returned to F3 for 1979. Not European F3, mind you, but Italian F3, with a Euroracing March 793 Alfa Romeo. It would have been unimaginable for him to do anything other than win the title, which he did, but not without a battle, collecting 63 points to Michele Alboreto's 47.

After his single-seater career failed, he turned to sports cars in 1980, driving a Lancia Beta Montecarlo for both the works Lancia team and the Jolly Club team in six rounds of the World Championship for Makes, alongside Eddie Cheever, Markku Alen, Gianfranco Brancatelli, Martino Finotto, Bernard Darniche, and Andrea de Cesaris. Ghinzani finished 5th and 6th in a few races before retiring at Le Mans. Despite making his Formula One debut in 1981, he was still devoted to sports cars that year, piloting the Lancia Beta Montecarlo for the works Martini team and the GS Tuning outfit. Retirements plagued his efforts in seven rounds of the World Championship for Drivers and Makes, again with a slew of co-drivers including Alboreto, de Cesaris, Patrese, Beppe Gabbiani, and Hans Heyer, including at Le Mans, with 4th at the Nürburgring leaving him a distant equal 262nd overall with 9 points.

Ghinzani competed full-time in the World Endurance Championship in 1982 in the works Martini Lancia LC1 sports prototype, a car that Teo Fabi, Patrese, Heyer, and Alboreto also used at various periods. Unfortunately, reliability was poor, and Piercarlo's car retired in all but one race, including Le Mans. But in the other race, in Mugello, Ghinzani and Alboreto cruised to victory, with Piercarlo setting the fastest lap of the race. He finished 15th overall with 21 points. Ghinzani would combine his sports car duties with a full-time F1 ride for the first time in 1983. Despite the fact that the Martini team had a new LC2 chassis for him and his usual team-mates, his season (which included a one-off outing with the Scuderia Mirabella team in their Lancia LC2 with Giorgio Francia and Paolo Barilla) was even more miserable and retirement-ridden than 1982, with his best finish a lowly 11th at Spa.

## Formula One

Ghinzani, as previously said, made his Formula One debut in 1981. The Osella team had signed Miguel Angel Guerra to accompany Beppe Gabbiani in their two cars, but after the Argentine was injured, they sought to sign Francia, only for the Italian's credentials to be unsatisfactory for FISA. Ghinzani was granted two drives in Belgium and Monacoin the FA1B chassis with a Cosworth engine. Piercarlo did well enough merely to qualify at Zolder, finishing 24th on the grid. But perhaps the occasion was a bit too much for him, because during the race he spun and had to pit, wasting important time. He finished 13th, but he was four laps down. Then, predictably, he failed to qualify on the streets of Monaco. After that, Francia was cleared to drive, but he only had one taste of the cherry before being replaced by Jean-Pierre Jarier for the rest of the season.

As previously said, it was back to sportcars for 1982, but Ghinzani's F1 debut had placed him on the map, and Osella offered him a full-time ride for 1983, and Piercarlo pounced at the chance to make the year a busy one, juggling some sportscar drives. Osella rolled out a new FA1D chassis for him and teammate Corrado Fabi, again to be combined with a Cosworth engine, but at this stage turbo engines were quickly becoming dominant, and Ghinzani failed to qualify in the first three events at Rio, Long Beach, and Paul Ricard. By round four, Osella had struck a deal to use Alfa Romeo V12 engines, resulting in yet another new car, the unique FA1E. Ghinzani, however, found qualifying difficult and missed out three more times before ultimately making it to round 7 in Detroit. After that, he DNQed again in Canada and Holland, but in other races, he climbed into the grid from the back, finishing 23rd at Monza. However, due to engine, gearbox, and throttle issues, his sole classified finish this season was 11th in Austria.

Licking their wounds, Osella reduced their entry to one car for 1984, and Ghinzani was their guy. A new FA1F chassis and lighter 1.5 litre Alfa Romeo V8 turbo gave new optimism, and it proved to be a step up. Only once at Imola did the car fail to qualify, but it was generally in or near 20th position on the grid. Piercarlo qualified 19th in Monaco and Montreal and began 18th in Dallas. That race at Fir Park would also be his highlight of the season, if not his entire F1 career. Ghinzani maintained the car on the track and finished fifth, despite being two laps down, to earn two valuable points in a race of attrition. He even finished ahead of Nigel Mansell in his Lotus. According to Tom Prankerd, Piercarlo's drive was dubbed "one of extraordinary skill and determination" by Motor Sport. There were additional sevenths at Monaco and Monza, but the rest of the season was marred by accidents, particularly gearbox issues, and Ghinzani finished 19th in the World Championship.

Osella kept the Alfa Romeo V8s in 1985, and for the first two races of the year, he ran the FA1F before introducing the FA1G. Still, reliability was terrible, Piercarlo was involved in far too many accidents for his satisfaction, and the Osella was far from a competitive package. Ghinzani did to qualify for Monaco, but he finished 15th in France, 12th in Brazil, and 9th in Portugal, despite being 6 laps behind winner Ayrton Senna. Osella's lack of progress was usually attributed to a lack of funding, and following the British GP, the team replaced their steadfast driver with Huub Rothengatter. After missing the German GP, Ghinzani was given a lifeline by Toleman, who entered a second TG185 with a Hart 1.5 litre turbo for him. This drove the Italian to as high as 14th and 13th on the grid at Brands Hatch and Kyalami, respectively, but four engine problems in seven races meant he never finished.

Piercarlo returned to the familiar surroundings of Osella after Benetton purchased the Toleman team and swiftly replaced Ghinzani with Gerhard Berger. With money running out, Osella struggled on with the FA1G and the thirsty and unreliable Alfa turbos. Despite narrowly missing the grid in Monaco, more engine issues, suspension breakdowns, and driver errors meant he only finished once this year, in 11th place in Austria, where he was six laps behind. With such poor results, it's no surprise Ghinzani was enticed back into a few sports car outings the following year. He shared a Joest Porsche 956 with Kris Nissen and 'John Winter' at the Nürburgring, and a Techno Racing Alba AR3 with Luigi Taverno and Giampiero Lauro at the Spa-Francorchamps. But the pinnacle came at Fuji, where Ghinzani recreated his former magic and won the race in a Joest Porsche 956 alongside Barilla, giving him joint 22nd position in the World Sportscar Championship.

On the strength of that, one could be forgiven for assuming that Ghinzani's career was finally taking off at the age of 35 in 1987. He left Osella to join Ligier, which was having their finest season in a long time in 1986. In addition, unlike Osella, the French team had secured a works Alfa Romeo turbo agreement. There was every reason to be optimistic until, during pre-season testing, new teammate René Arnoux publicly attacked the new engines, prompting Alfa to withdraw. The team was able to secure a supply of second-string Megatron 1.5 litre turbos for their JS29B chassis. However, a fresh quandary arose when the new engines disrupted the car's handling and produced a number of concerning and potentially catastrophic suspension problems at Imola. Ghinzani's career was no longer on the rise; instead, it was lurching from disaster to disaster. He had every right to be furious at Arnoux.

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Notes

* † - Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.