Piercarlo Ghinzani to auction his collection of old Formula 1 cars

Seven cars owned by the Italian, who contested 76 grands prix between 1981 and '89, are part of a competition car-only sale to be staged by Silverstone Auctions on July 23.

Ghinzani, 63, told AUTOSPORT: "I'm selling them because I don't really know what to do with them - I certainly don't have time to run them.

"Life changes and I am getting old!"

He explained that he had created his collection after he stopped racing and that the two Osellas and the two Formula 3 Marches that he raced in period are all runners.

The FA1E is the chassis that Ghinzani used at five grands prix over the first half of the 1983 season, yielding a single qualification in Detroit, rather than the subsequent Tony Southgate-designed car of the same nomenclature used from the British GP on.

A second Osella going under the hammer is a 1986-vintage FA1H powered by an Alfa Romeo V8.

It is unclear if Ghinzani raced this chassis on his return to Osella in '86: AUTOSPORT chassis records suggest it was driven by both Christian Danner and Allen Berg over the course of a season in which Osella ran cars badged as both the FA1G and the FA1H.

The third F1 car a Toleman TG185, chassis #1, in which Ghinzani was entered in the final seven grands prix of 1985. This cars comes without its period Hart four-cylinder turbo engine.

The two Marches are the cars in which Ghinzani respectively won the 1977 European F3 Championship and the 1979 Italian F3 title with the Euroracing team.

Both the March 773 and the 793 are runners and fitted with Toyota/Novamotor engines, although the later car ran with Alfa Romeo power in period.

Also part of the auction are a Formula 3000 Lola T96/50, which Ghinzani's team ran in Italian F3000, and a Corbari Engineering BB01-06 prototype, which are both being sold as rolling chassis.

The auction, which will take place in the Silverstone Wing, is open to the public on purchase of a catalogue.

The sale begins at 7:30pm, with viewing for one hour beforehand, on the eve of the three-day Silverstone Classic event.