The car that almost propelled Minardi into extinction

Initially part of the boom of Italian teams entering Formula 1 in the 1980s and early 1990s, Minardi somehow managed to achieve far greater longevity than its compatriots ever managed.

Eventually morphing into a synonym for underdog, the Minardi name was frequently accompanied by the words "plucky" and "minnow" as it continued to tread water amid a period in which F1 teams' budgets sky-rocketed thanks to the greater involvement of manufacturer teams. The team's 20-year stay in the top tier of racing came to an end after its sale to Red Bull to form the Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) team but, after a series of financial withdrawals, Minardi's tenure was perilously close to the end following the 2000 season.

At the turn of the millennium, Minardi was in surprisingly rude health. Its 1999 season had been a surprising one and, although the M01 chassis was usually relegated to battling the Arrows cars at the back of the field, the team had secured its first point since 1995 courtesy of Marc Gene's famous sixth place at the bizarre European Grand Prix. Such prizes were scarce in Minardi's lifetime, and the team managed just 38 points in its 20 years in F1.

Gene was sensibly retained for 2000, not only thanks to his point-scoring exploits, but also thanks to the greater involvement of Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica in the team. Having slowly increased its presence on the M01 throughout the '99 season, Telefonica put in a much greater budget for the new year, and drew a commanding amount of livery space as a result. The neat silver-and-blue scheme that had enrobed the car for the previous two seasons was disposed of, as Telefonica presumably equipped the paint shop with a mass of lurid yellow highlighter pens to cover the car.

Perhaps the M02 looked more at home on the courts of Wimbledon than a race circuit, but its chartreuse livery certainly turned heads. The intermittent flashes of blue were gloriously a la mode, and was swarmed by a litany of small Italian businesses bearing their names on the car.

More finance came courtesy of second driver Gaston Mazzacane, a mullet-toting F3000 racer whose surname had the unfortunate Italian translation of "dog killer". Minardi had found funding from the PSN group, a start-up Latin American cable network which had stipulated that the team hired a driver from South America. Despite having only managed just two points in his second-tier career, Mazzacane was promoted to the race line-up after a spell as Minardi's test driver.

In addition to the Telefonica cash, Gabriele Rumi's Fondmetal business continued to hold its majority share in the team, and his firm continued to bolster Minardi's technical team with a range of consultants - including ex-Tyrrell and Ferrari designer Jean-Claude Migeot. Although Minardi now had effectively two small technical operations, the relationship was fractious and Minardi's engineers and Fondmetal's consultants didn't exactly see eye-to-eye.

"It was not a big programme," recalls Migeot, "but the job is always the same: You have to build a model, develop all the important parts of the car and the money was not bad at least the second year when you had Telefonica - it was just, no engine again. So the team was chasing a better engine, more sponsors and more budget. Rumi took Gustav Brunner (to Minardi), and Gustav took Nigel Cowperthwaite as an aerodynamicist - and that didn't glue with my aerodynamicists. So I have more memory of [arguments] in meetings than aero talks!"

That engine in the M02 was, although badged as a Fondmetal, essentially a reworked 1998-spec Ford VJ engine that the Stewart team had used. Although Rumi had lobbied Flavio Briatore for a supply of Supertec engines after Williams had begun its works deal with BMW - and BAR did likewise with Honda - the ex-Renault units instead went to Arrows. Minardi was left to do battle with the old Ford units, which were by now underpowered.

Weaknesses aside, the M02 was an incredibly neat car. Gustav Brunner, long famed for his ability to pen a tidy machine on a small budget, had designed Minardi's new charge with a distinctive pointed nose - which transitioned into the suspension keel more smoothly. The chassis bulkhead had drawn inspiration from Adrian Newey's most recent McLaren designs, featuring fins along the flanks to fulfil the dimensional requirements. The sidepods were also neatly folded in at the rear to enhance the "Coke-bottle" effect of the rear bodywork.

The lack of engine development, at a time when such luxuries were unrestricted, had hermetically sealed Minardi to the back row. The rather hefty cooling package that the Fondmetal-tweaked Ford required was more weight that Minardi could do without

Perhaps with a more powerful engine, the Minardi M02 could have joined the cut-and-thrust of the midfield battle, but the three-year-old lump in the back became a millstone around its neck. The Melbourne season-opener was encouraging, however, as Gene plonked his yellow peril in a rather impressive 18th place on the grid - just fractions away from Jean Alesi's Prost and the BAR of Ricardo Zonta. Mazzacane's performance was somewhat more auspicious, qualifying last - nearly a second behind fellow rookie Jenson Button, who had an equally fraught qualifying session.

Gene, despite an early collision with Prost debutant Nick Heidfeld, bagged a ninth-place finish, which quickly became eighth after Mika Salo was disqualified thanks to his Sauber's illegal front wings. Mazzacane had, as a result of Gene's contact, been running ahead of his more experienced team-mate throughout the race before his gearbox gave up the ghost.

Nonetheless, Minardi spent the early part of 2000 in optimistic form. The troublesome gearbox that had swiped a strong debut result from Mazzacane's clutches was to be overhauled, as the team had been hard at work with partner CRP on a new titanium unit. Expected to be stronger and lighter, the new transmission could offset the weighty engine in the back - which was about 20kg heavier than the contemporary Ford Cosworth V10 units. Even more pertinently, Minardi's oft-empty coffers were expected to get a boost as its sponsors conspired to build an all-Spanish superteam.

"It should have become a very big, big event with Telefonica," Migeot explains, "because the plan was to sell the team to Telefonica and move it to Barcelona. Joan [Villadelprat] was to be the team principal - so that would have been interesting."

Rumours had touted an all-Spanish line-up featuring Gene and Arrows' Pedro de la Rosa. But meanwhile, Telefonica had been able to lend support to F3000 racer Fernando Alonso, a prodigious 19-year-old driving for the Astromega team (pictured above).

But relying on Rumi's funds for the time being, Minardi wasn't able to get much more out of the M02 throughout the year. The car was at least reliable; Gene impressed in qualifying in Brazil and once again dragged it to 18th on the grid, but was then outqualified by Mazzacane next time out at Imola. Minardi locked out the back row in qualifying at the unconventionally-early British Grand Prix, although Gene was just fractions away from Alex Wurz's Benetton. But the team could make no inroads into the top six, even in the attritional early rounds.

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The new titanium gearbox arrived in Spain, perhaps tying in with the increased support from Telefonica, but by then Minardi's rivals had flexed their financial muscles and tacked more performance onto their cars - something the little Italian outfit simply could not afford to do.

At this point the lack of engine development, at a time when such luxuries were unrestricted, had hermetically sealed Minardi to the back row. The rather hefty cooling package that the Fondmetal-tweaked Ford required was more weight that Minardi could do without.

Sure, Brunner and the design team had innovated, and the weight that he and his engineers could control was brought as low down as possible; Minardi positioned the rear wheel brake calipers at the bottom of the disc to break from the three- or nine-o'clock position most teams used, but the M02 was too far gone at that point to realistically break into the midfield.

But against the Prost AP03, which ended 2000 similarly pointless, Minardi's more reliable machinery helped Gene bag a second eighth-place finish in Austria to overhaul the French outfit in the constructors' championship. Mazzacane surprised many throughout the year too, and although the Argentine driver was often found propping up the rest of the field, his steady approach meant that he often stayed out of trouble.

Mazzacane's crowning glory was arguably his race at Indianapolis, an unfamiliar circuit for each driver, and after outqualifying Gene by three-tenths of a second, he later found himself resisting Mika Hakkinen's McLaren for fourth position after a multitude of cars made pitstops early on in the race. Amazingly, Hakkinen was unable to clear Mazzacane until the Minardi driver made his own stop on lap 14, proving himself to be less hopeless than many had originally anticipated.

Arguably, Minardi's season fizzled out thereafter, and despite celebrating its 250th grand prix that year in Belgium, Mazzacane's Indy heroics were the last flashes of promise before a dull pair of races ended the season - Gene retiring from both.

Despite Telefonica's intent to bring Minardi over to Spain and turn it into something of a national team, CEO Juan Villalonga - who had long championed the company's F1 venture - was accused of insider trading. Although he was later cleared of all allegations, Villalonga came under pressure from Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar to resign from Telefonica's board, and Telefonica ended its F1 involvement with Minardi altogether at the end of 2000.

Meanwhile, Rumi left the team having been diagnosed with terminal cancer, leaving Giancarlo Minardi with his eponymous team facing extinction. Mazzacane's sponsor PSN intended to buy up the shares left by Rumi, but without the capital needed to fund an F1 team, it almost pulled down the curtain on Minardi's 15-year stay in the championship. But at the 11th hour, Australian airline entrepreneur Paul Stoddart saved the team - much to the delight of everybody in the F1 paddock.