Manuel Valentini

Valentini at a pre-season test with Ferrari in 1994

San Vito, Italy

**Manuel Valentini** is an ex-Formula One driver who took five wins and 11 podiums throughout his career driving for Minardi, Margheriti and Williams. He is also the the 1992 Italian Touring Car Champion.

## Pre Formula One Racing Career

### **Italian F3: (1982 - 1985)**

#### 1982

Manuel's first appearance in world motorsport would come in 1982 after replacing Marco Torlini in the final two rounds of the Italian F3 championship. It is not known why the Coperchini Corse team chose him as the replacement but Manuel would fail to qualify for his first event and failed to finish the second event. He blamed his struggles on unfamiliar F3 machinery.

#### 1983

Valentini would end up making another unplanned appearance in the championship as Coperchini Corse's replacement driver again. He entered into the season opener after the team experienced contract issues with another driver. This time however Manuel would get his first race finish, crossing the line in 11th place.

#### 1984

1984 would be the Italian's first full season in Italian F3. He signed for the Arno Racing team where he would score several points finishes including a third place in the season finale at the Misano World Circuit.

#### 1985

Manuel would have another strong season in 1985, achieving more points finishes and podiums than the year before but still without seriously challenging for the championship.

### **British Touring Cars (1986)**

Upon his lack of success in Italy, Manuel turned his attention to the British Touring Car Championship for the 1986 season. He entered with the Brooklyn Motorsport team and would be driving a Ford Escort RS 1600i. His season would be successful and he would take one pole position at Silverstone and one win at Donington, but a lack of consistent finishes would leave him 4th in the championship by the end of the season.

### **Italian Touring Cars (1987 - 1990)**

#### 1987-1989

After the announcement of the creation of an Italian touring car championship, under the name of *The Italian Superturismo Championship*, Manuel was immediately interested. He entered using a BMW M3 in the S1 class, and achieved varying levels of success throughout his first years in the championship until his first major chance for the championship during the 1990 season.

#### 1990

Manuel would be in close contention for the championship throughout the 1990 season. The gap between himself and championship rivals Nicola Pirro and Paolo Ravaglia would never exceed more than 25 points. This would continue until the second last race of the season at Monza on 10th November, where Pirro and Valentini were involved in a major crash, causing Valentini major injuries to his legs and head.

### **Coma and injury recovery (1990 - 1991)**

Doctors at the local hospital would be forced to put Valentini into a coma after the injuries he sustained in the crash at Monza. Valentini had suffered a broken knee, jaw, a moderate **intracranial brain injury** and a skull fracture which would lead him to a five hour emergency surgery to a avoid any further damage to the skull. The true extent of his condition would remain unknown until he awoke from his coma four months later in February 1991.

It would take months for Valentini to fully recover from his injuries, despite his release from hospital in April. As such, the rest of 1991 would be spent recovering from the crash. However, not all of his injuries would be able to fully heal; the damage to his sight and hearing would be permanent.

The permanent effect of the injury to the brain would be much harder to quantify. The long-term effects would range from a lack of balance to noticeable Alexithymia. Following the incident Manuel consistently refused to comment on the full effects of the injury, only stating that it is a private matter and that his driving is and shall never be affected by it.

### **Return to racing (1992)**

While still on crutches Valentini would announce his return to the ISC, this time with the Alfa Corse team driving a Alfa Romeo 155 GTA. His season would get off to a rocky start; after two full race weekends with no points finishes onlookers were beginning to wonder if Manuel had lost his nerve as a driver after performances like these in the machinery he was racing with. Doubts were also raised if he could still handle the sport after photographers caught him distraught with his head in his hands behind the paddock after a race.

In a sudden change of fortune Manuel would start on pole at the third round at mugello and secured a dominant victory, leading from start to finish. This was a rare feat which he would shockingly repeat in the second race the day after. Valentini struggled to find that level of dominance later in the season, but he would still be a regular visitor to the podium and highly consistent finishes lead to him winning the championship by 11 points in the final race at Monza in a fantastic return to the sport. In doing so, he won the admiration of the Italian fans.

## Formula One

### **Minardi (1993)**

   After his success in touring cars Manuel had created a reputation in Italy and it was partly because of this that Manuel was signed to drive for Scuderia Minardi for the 1993 season, partnering Jan Krejči.

Valentini would struggle with the underwhelming and unfamiliar machinery, scoring no points all season, with his best finish of 11th place at both Monaco and Germany.

After being beaten by Krejči throughout the season he would not be re-signed and would be unable to find a full time seat for 1994.

### **Ferrari, Margheriti and Williams (1994)**

Following his struggles at Minardi, Valentini would sign as Ferrari's lead test and reserve driver for 1994. This move was clearly helped forward by his high standing in Italy. Despite being disappointed about his lack of competitive racing, Valentini was reportedly pleased to be working with the Ferrari team.

### **Ferrari Reserve (Rounds 1-2)**

Valentini would work as a test and reserve driver for Ferrari at the beginning of the 1994 season, He would not be called up to drive for the team but instead did extensive testing work for both the Pacific and Brazilian Grand Prix.

### **Margheriti (Rounds 3-4)**

Despite his contract with Ferrari, Valentini was picked up by Margheriti team boss Fabiano Margheriti after Alexander Parker's heavy crash at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Valentini would replace Parker for the San Marino and Monaco Grands Prix.

Valentini's first race of his reserve stint would begin at the San Marino Grand Prix. He was pleased with this, claiming his experience of the track from racing Italian touring cars would assist him in catching up to the pace of the rest of the field. His weekend would start off strong with what team boss Fabiano Margheriti described as "Very fruitful running" in the earlier practice sessions, with the team prioritising longer runs to help give Valentini the confidence for the race before transitioning to preperation for qualifying later on. Qualifying would also go well for Manuel. Despite a rough first lap he would eventually put a lap together and secure 6th place on the grid for Sunday. At the time this would be the Margheriti team's best starting position. On Sunday, Valentini would get a decent start and avoid the major lap one incident at *Piratella.* Throughout the early stages of the race he would fight his way up to 5th on track. Williams' Rolph Mills was involved in a major crash at *Tamborello* after colliding with Jack Wilson, promoting Valentini into fourth place. Valentini would hold onto this position until the end of the race, completing a fantastic return to the sport.

Following his successful weekend at Imola the team requested him to stay on for Monaco, which Valentini accepted. This proved to be the best option as Manuel would give the team their best qualifying result yet, starting on the front row in second place. Manuel would use his starting position to his advantage and take the lead after undercutting the polesitter Jack Wilson early on. He was posting consistently fast lap times and was extending his lead until he suffered a lock-up into turn one, leaving his car in the wall from what looked to be certain victory. Manuel would say following the race: "It's a horrible sort of incident; We were on track for a win today and it would have been the first for the team.To them I can only apologise."

### **Williams (Rounds 5 - 11)**

Williams had only entered one car into the Monaco Grand Prix as they had yet to find a suitable reserve driver to replace the injured Mills. Following his performances for the Margheriti team in Imola and Monaco, Williams deemed Valentini their best bet to aid their other driver Otto Makkinen and quickly hired the Italian for the Portuguese Grand Prix onwards. Despite his limited knowledge of the circuit, Valentini presented a confident atitude early on in the weekend and seemed to be adapting to the FW16's characteristics, settng the fastest time in the first practice session. The race weekend would progress well, and after fifth place in qualifying, Manuel found himself fighting for a top-three finish with Pakkinen, Wilson, and his teammate Makkinen. Valentini was ahead of Wilson in second place in the closing laps until Wilson swooped around the Italian's outside on the entry to turn one. Valentini secured third place, his first podium in Formula One.

The US Grand Prix weekend would start poorly for Manuel after he crashed heavily during the first practice session. However, the Italian would suffer surprisingly minimal injuries during the incident at the *Reyes Kink.* Following the crash he would describe the area of the track as "Extremely dangerous, with a lack of runoff like that it could seriously hurt someone, maybe even a fatal crash could be more likely." Valentini would only be able to take 8th place in qualifying as he was unable to put together a strong lap. Manuel would have a great start to the race, moving up three positions on the first lap. Through the team's strategy he would be 3rd by the halfway point of the race. Following this, he defended from the fast charging Jack Wilson, who was recovering well after an earlier incident with Danilo Koren. They battled until the end of the race, with Valentini narrowly taking second place on the line after an intense battle with the McLaren driver. Following two investigations by the FIA, Danilo Koren would be given two separate five second post-race penalties, dropping him down to 4th. This promoted Manuel to take the race victory, the first win of his Formula One career. However, the normal celebratory podium procedures would not go ahead. Alexsandro Pinho had suffered a huge crash on lap five of the race and had passed aways moments later from his injuries. The drivers only found out about Pinho's passing after the race finish. The usual champagne spraying and music on the podium was absent as Valentini's comments from earlier in the week proved to be correct following the fatal lap five crash at the *Reyes Kink.*

The German Grand Prix would be equally successful for Manuel. He took his first pole position on the Saturday, starting alongside Collin McDougall in his Tyrrell. The Williams team used an effective two-stop strategy to win and take the fastest lap on lap 12. Following this race, in an unsurprising turn of events, the Williams team announced that Valentini would continue to drive for the team instead of Mills returning as was originally planned following his unlikely championship challenge, much to the Englishman's dismay.

For the British Grand Prix Valentini would start on the second row alongside one of his championship rivals Jack Wilson. Tensions were high going into the race as with four rounds still go five drivers could win the championship, Including Manuel himself. The race would progress well for the Italian and he used his experience from winning at Donington in British Touring cars back in 1986 to extract as much pace from the car as he could. He eventually ended the race in a fierce, multi-lap battle against the rookie Alexander Parker and was beaten to the line by the young Englishman out of the final corner. Following this, In a incident not caught by trackside cameras, Valentini was reported to have crashed into Parker in a manner which onlookers described as 'Obviously intentional.' Despite a lack of video footage, the stewards were quick to punish the Italian with a qualifying ban for the next race in Belgium. In a sense of irony Parker would be penalised shortly after for track limit violations, pushing him back to 6th place and promoting Valentini to 3rd, nullifying the overtake.

### **Championship Decider and Final Races of 1994**

The Belgian Grand Prix would be difficult for Valentini. Following his qualifying ban he would be forced to start at the back of the grid. Because of this he would have to fight his way back up through the field, avoiding several collisions which took place, and eventually finished the race in 5th. Valentini was said to be very disappointed with the result after being informed his teammate Otto Makkinen had won the race and by extension the championship from starting 3rd on the grid.

Following this, Valentini would pick up 3rd in the Italian Grand Prix and 4th in the Japanese Grand prix, overall missing out on the championship to his Williams teamate Makkinen by 20 points and finishing in second for the jubilant Williams team.

### **Williams' Downfall (1995 - 1996)**

Following his successes in his first season for Williams, with the team taking 13 podiums and 5 wins on their way to the Constructors' Championship, Valentini would face a downturn in performance for 1995. The Italian was only able to secure 4th in the championship, with wins at both Austria and Monaco. Despite this he would still best his returning teammate Otto Makkinen with 79 overall points by the season's end.

Following the team's rough season, hopes were high for 1996 after retaining Valentini and hiring successful CART driver Florian Delacroix. Manuel finished on the podium at the season opener in Australia and won the Brazilian Grand Prix at the next event. However, this fortune would not last as they would be his only podiums of the season. He would finish 7th in the championship, only eight points ahead of his rookie teamate, who equally struggled with the underperforming FW18.

Following the downfall of the Williams team, Valentini declined any offers to say on with them for 1998 and left the sport claiming the lack of competitiveness in the car had caused his loss of interest in Formula One.

## Controversies

### **1993 Monaco Grand Prix**

After losing 10th place to Benetton's Timo Pakkinen on the last lap of the Monaco Grand Prix, Valentini blamed an engine misfire to be the cause of him losing the position. When the team later confirmed that no misfire had occurred he would claim that "The technicians should probably look again but then again, They are probably busy making Jan's car just perfect." He would later retract such statements but the comments most likely contributed, at least in part, to Minardi dropping the Italian at the end of the season.

### **1994 British Grand Prix**

After being overtaken by Alexander Parker at the final corner of the final lap of the British Grand Prix Valentini was described as having crashed into Parker. Onlookers described the incident as 'Obviously intentional.' Despite the incident not being caught on camera the stewards would penalise the Italian following the incident.