23 replies to this topic

[deangelis86]

Piercarlo Ghinzani - now there's a name. Anyone know what he's up to now?

I reckon he was a very underrated driver. I always kept an eye out for Piercarlo, especially during 1989 where he turned in some amazing performances in the Osella.

A nice chap too. However, my friend and I at the time always used to label him 'The ass face of F1'.

Were we being a little unfair perhaps??

[Zawed]

Originally posted by deangelis86

I reckon he was a very underrated driver. I always kept an eye out for Piercarlo, especially during 1989 where he turned in some amazing performances in the Osella.

I thought Larini did a much better job in the Osella than Ghinzani did that year!

[deangelis86]

Certainly not disagreeing with you on that point - Nicola was superb that year and was the better driver.

I suppose you could say the main difference between Larini and Ghinzani was that Piercarlo never had the chance to show what he could do in a Ferrari....

[Frank de Jong]

Besides his (in my view) not-too-impressive F1 drivers, remember Ghinzani was a very respected F3 driver.

[Megatron]

My memories of him are taking a fine fifth place in the 84 Dallas race and then I remember two photos inparticular of him climbing out of smoking machines, the Ligier-Megatron and the Zakspeed 881.

[deangelis86]

One of my lasting memories of him was during practice for the 1984 South African GP, when his Osella just 'atomised' itself after it caught fire.

- There was just nothing left of it!

[Zawed]

When he signed for Ligier in 1987 he must have finally thought he got himself a decent car. Little did he know....

[FLB]

Certainly, he could have had a chance with Toleman in 1985 as well, most definitely his best IMHO.

Ghinzani's whole career was spent in the wrong teams, at the wrong time. Remember this is a man who made the mistake of signing to drive the dreadful Dywa, one of the most pathetic "F1" attempts in history, either at WC or national level.

He was caught in the whole Ligier-Alfa Romeo debacle of early 1987. He had just signed on. Arnoux called the engine "junk" on Italian TV, so Alfa called it quits two weeks before the season started. Having just been bought by FIAT, it was obvious the Quadrofoglio wasn't going to stay with Ligier for very long. There have also been stories that FIAT management didn't want anything to do with Arnoux as a consequence of his Ferrari days. Ligier had lost a factory deal and had to settle for underdevelopped, old BMW engines (Megatron).

Ghinzani was Euro F3 Champion in 1978.

[carlos.maza]

He also did a good job in F2

[Louis Mr. F1]

do you guys remember how his last F1 race ended?

he was driving the Osella in the very wet Australian GP in 89, at the end of the back long straight, he was rammed from behind by Piquet's Lotus, who couldn't see anything ahead of him.
Ghinzani spun his way out of F1 for good.
he was getting too old, i reckon.

[Megatron]

There was a time when both he and Osella had bright futures.

Osella got stuck with Alfa Romeo engines that got a little older every year until finally the turbos were gone and they switched to Cosworths.

He knew that the Zakspeed would be bad because it was nothing more than an 871 with some alterations. Facing the new 2.5 boost rule, they were usually slower than much of the atmo opposition.

[ghinzani]

Dont forget his sportscars prowess - put the Lancia LC2 on pole for its debut at Monza in 82 for instance.

[ensign14]

And had a couple of world sportscar championship wins when that was worth something.

[Fiorentina 1]

It's difficult to tell if Ghinzani was any good because he spent his career in F1 driving some of the worse cars in history. He was a really good shoe in F3 (Euro & Italian Champ), but got stuck in some of the worse cars in F1 at the worse time; Osella 81-86 & 89, Zakspeed 88 & Ligier 87. The only decent seat he had was Benetton in late 1985 for 1/2 dozen races, and to be honest didn't do anything with it. He had a few good drives, like Dallas 84 and in Monza 84 where he would have finished a fine 4th place. I always like Ghinzani, he was one of my favorite tailenders, maybe because he was around for so long. And, that in it self should say something. If he wasn't that good, why did he have an 8 year F1 career?

[HistoryFan]

Perhaps Ghinzani will make a comeback in F1 - as team owner! As he told me some weeks ago, Ghinzani planned his team entering Grand Prix racing perhaps in 2011 or 2012. I later ask him after the announcing split of FIA and FOTA in which series he would enter, he told me that his team could do both...

[Graham Gauld]

Piercarlo Ghinzani was a very good driver who did not get the breaks partly because he was the kid from the other side of the tracks and he was not a pushy person. I got to know him well during his period with Lancia as I was working alongside the team. On one occasion at Mugello during a private test day for Lancia Cesare Fiorio, the team manager, suggested I did a few laps of the circuit with Piercarlo and I can confirm he was very quick indeed. I have attached a photo I took as he was braking at the end of the straight from about 170 mph in the Lancia Turbo Group C1 car around 1961/2

[Vicuna]

Piercarlo Ghinzani was a very good driver who did not get the breaks partly because he was the kid from the other side of the tracks and he was not a pushy person. I got to know him well during his period with Lancia as I was working alongside the team. On one occasion at Mugello during a private test day for Lancia Cesare Fiorio, the team manager, suggested I did a few laps of the circuit with Piercarlo and I can confirm he was very quick indeed. I have attached a photo I took as he was braking at the end of the straight from about 170 mph in the Lancia Turbo Group C1 car around 1961/2

Ghinzani or Giacomelli?

Similar age, both with Alfa links, neither were fitness fanatics - but I would go for Bruno.

[bathceltic]

Massive fan.One of his greatest F1 drives was at Estoril in 85. He was the only pirelli shod finisher that day and Nigel Roebuck wrote in his report that he deserved a medal that day for finishing on the shocking Pirelli wets. Lots of you will have seen him getting the one lap to go signal from the flag man waiting to give Ayrton Senna the chaquered flag.

Edited by bathceltic, 09 October 2010 - 19:02.

[msan]

Team Ghinzani have raced in Italian, German and Euroseries Formula Three since 2000. Ghinzani entered Italian Formula 3000/Euro Formula 3000 between 1999 and 2002.

Since 2005–06 season, the outfit has managed A1 Team Italy in collaboration with Arco Motorsport, in the A1 Grand Prix series.

from wikipedia

[arttidesco]

I have attached a photo I took as he was braking at the end of the straight from about 170 mph in the Lancia Turbo Group C1 car around 1961/2

Fab photo and I know the Lancia LC2 could be quick but I doubt it was quick enough to time travel from earliest late '82 more likely '83 to 1961/62 could it ?

[ghinzani]

Massive fan.One of his greatest F1 drives was at Estoril in 85. He was the only pirelli shod finisher that day and Nigel Roebuck wrote in his report that he deserved a medal that day for finishing on the shocking Pirelli wets. Lots of you will have seen him getting the one lap to go signal from the flag man waiting to give Ayrton Senna the chaquered flag.

NSR was always a bit of a closet fan, one of the few things I agreed with him on at the time. Piercarlo persevered that day in estorilwhen other more exalted pirelli drivers just gave up.

[HistoryFan]

Team Ghinzani have raced in Italian, German and Euroseries Formula Three since 2000. Ghinzani entered Italian Formula 3000/Euro Formula 3000 between 1999 and 2002.

Since 2005–06 season, the outfit has managed A1 Team Italy in collaboration with Arco Motorsport, in the A1 Grand Prix series.

from wikipedia

Yes and they wanted to enter GP3 and in future F1:

Sources only German, but:
To GP3:
http://www.inside-ra...-briatoreq.html

To F1:
http://www.inside-ra...-in-die-f1.html

[bathceltic]

I feel 84 was when he could really get a rythm going. He drove really sensibly at Dallas, but I also witnessed a superb drive at Brands that year, and it took a recovering Patrese a long time to catch and pass him in the works alfa. He also was excellent at Monza that year. Also as people have mentioned his sports car exploits. Ghinzani fans should get hold of Nigel Trow's excellent book 'Lancia Racing'. It includes great pics and descriptions of the vaious drivers performances including Ghinzani. People forget that he outpaced Sullivan in the test for the 83 Tyrrell drive but uncle ken felt he should try something different from a 'quick' italian having already got one in Alboreto.

Edited by bathceltic, 10 October 2010 - 20:25.

[arttidesco]

This might be of interest to Pier Carlo Ghinzani fans I found it the other day, a days racing from Autodromo di Magione 8.7.1973.

The footage of the Autobianchi's is insane, but of particular interest there is a Formula Italia heat starts at 2m 56s at 3m 30s the winner is given as Pier Carlo Ghinzani with Franco Bracattelli 3rd. Giancarlo Martini won the 1st heat. The Final starts at 4m 42, worth checking for the pace car alone, 3 people in a Porsche 914 and only one of them sitting facing forwards ! Nice shot of PG at 5m 30 secs who seems to have finished out of the top 3 in the final.