1999 Driver Profiles by Julie Gates

Team: Minardi

by Julie Gates

The Team: Considering the team ran on a mere £25 million, around a tenth of McLaren's budget, the second half of the season was promising from the Italian based outfit. Scoring a World Championship point, they achieved their goal of finishing in the top ten Constructors'. Modifications introduced at Hockenheim saw Marc Gene qualify a brilliant fifteenth - their highest slot on the grid this season. That race also witnessed both drivers' finishing in the top ten, quite an achievement for this team. Performing well at Luxembourg, Badoer was running in fourth position until his gearbox failed in the closing stages. Nonetheless, his team-mate went on to finish sixth, scoring their first point since 1996, and the only one this season. Suffering five mechanical failures in the second half of the season, they completed almost three-quarter of the race distances. However they usually occupied the last two rows of the grid, unless they delivered something special; lack of pace hindered the team's progress dearly.

Driver - Luca Badoer: Hasn't really delivered what people expected, though this could be due to the car's capabilities rather than his own. He has been unfortunate with reliability in his Minardi, suffering four retirements during the latter half of the season, hampering what progress he has made. His qualifying performances have shown little to get excited about and he has occasionally been out-paced by Marc Gene. He now looks unlikely to remain with the team for the 2000 season and is set to concentrate on his testing duties with Ferrari.

Driver - Marc Gene: Has arguably been the better driver of the team; securing their highest qualifying position of fifteenth at Hockenheim and their only point of the season at Luxembourg. He has been consistent, both in qualifying and race trim, suffering only one mechanical failure during the last eight races of the season. Finishing in the top eleven four times, he has proved himself a valuable asset to the team: impressive considering this was only first year of Formula One… a driver error in Italy, was the only self-inflicted mistake during the latter stages of the season. Overall, taking into consideration the team's budget and facilities, a respectable season. No fastest laps were set, but he has performed better than many anticipated and should be aiming for further successes in 2000.

Conclusion: Full of woe during the early stages of the season, the team turned their fortunes at Hockenheim, qualifying fifteenth, and seeing both cars finish the race in the top ten. A meteoric performance at Luxembourg earned their lone point. However, reliability has again hampered the team, seeing their cars break down on five occasions. Speed being another sore point, qualifying has usually been on the last two rows of the grid, although race performances have generally been better. Clearly with a lot of work to do for next season, they can be pleased with achievements this year, considering budget and facility constraints.

Grade: D+