Minardi makes it onto track with new car

The first PS01 chassis to be completed had its maiden outing yesterday (Wednesday) at Varano in Italy and completed 30 trouble-free laps. Both Fernando Alonso and new-signing Tarso Marques had stints behind the wheel.

Minardi has struggled to ready two cars in time for the first race and, until six weeks ago, the Formula 1 minnow was without drivers, an engine supply or sponsors. New team boss Paul Stoddart, who bought the Faenza-based outfit last month, has secured a supply of the Ford Zetec-R V10 engines (re-badged as European) used by the team last year and signed both Alonso and Marques.

"It has all been a bit of a blur," said Stoddart. "This simply wouldn't have happened without a tremendous collective effort from everyone on the team. It has been a huge mountain to climb to ensure that we would be there in Melbourne, but we have made it."

As a result of the late changes in the team's engine supply the PS01's monocoque, which was designed by former Ferrari man Gustav Brunner, had to be modified to be compatible with the old Ford unit at a very late stage in the build of the car.

"I would particularly like to single out the efforts of the technical department," continued Stoddart. "They have done an almost unbelievable job to re-engineer the chassis so quickly to accept the power unit we will be using this year."