April 5, 1990, is a very important date for Italian motorsport. On this day, it was announced that starting from the 1991 racing season, Scuderia Ferrari would supply its V12 engine to Gian Carlo Minardi's Minardi Team. For the first time in its history, Ferrari would provide another team with its power unit, although the agreement involved a hefty payment of 11 billion lire (equivalent to 5.7 million euros) and required Minardi to effectively become a sort of junior team for the Maranello outfit. In practice, however, Ferrari offered no real support to the small team from Faenza, forcing them to sign contracts that restricted certain commercial partnerships and, more significantly, taking over the three-year sponsorship deal with Pioneer. This sponsorship was something Gian Carlo Minardi had been working on for a long time and was deemed vital for securing the funds necessary to develop the new M191.
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| MINARDI M191, Gianni Morbidelli Spa-Francorchamps, Belgian GP 1991 |
The young engineer Aldo Costa, in his second year as technical director at the Faenza team, was once again the designer of the M191, which was based on the solid foundation of the previous season’s M190. Working alongside him as aerodynamic engineer was Rene Hilhorst, also in the early stages of his Formula 1 career. The drivers for the 1991 season were Italians Pierluigi Martini and Ferrari’s third driver, Gianni Morbidelli. However, Morbidelli was called back to Ferrari to replace Alain Prost in the final race of the season and was in turn replaced by Brazilian Roberto Moreno. Thanks to the slim and light physiques of the two drivers (Martini weighed 68 kg and Morbidelli 65 kg), Costa was able to design a compact and extreme chassis, resulting in a very well-balanced car, although it still lacked a raised nose.
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| MINARDI M191, Gianni Morbidelli Monza, Italian GP 1991 |
The car, conceived and fully developed around the Maranello engine and the Minardi gearbox, underwent continuous and substantial aerodynamic and mechanical development throughout the season. This placed a heavy technical and, above all, financial burden on the Faenza team, stretching its resources beyond their limits. The M191 was a good car capable of decent performance, although at the start of the season it was fitted with Ferrari’s older 036 V12 engine from 1989, with no further updates. The main issue with the M191 was the Minardi gearbox, which was not robust enough to handle the power of the Ferrari V12, and the traditional clutch system, which did not function properly with an engine designed to work with the semi-automatic gearbox used in Ferrari’s own cars.
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| MINARDI M191, Pierluigi Martini Interlagos, Brazilian GP 1991 |
Despite everything, on April 28th, a Sunday heavily affected by rain, at the team's home track in Imola during the third race of the season, came the first major highlight: Martini delivered a brilliant performance, finishing fourth in a race he drove for over two-thirds without a clutch. This meant he risked gearbox failure and couldn't even stop for a tire change. Only mid-season did the team receive the updated 037 engines used by Ferrari in 1990, and the improvement in performance was immediately noticeable, with consistent top-ten qualifying finishes in the last eight races. Another milestone for the Faenza team came on July 15th at the French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours, when Minardi reached the 100 Grand Prix milestone, finishing the race in ninth place.
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| MINARDI M191, Gianni Morbidelli Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1991 |
Martini’s fourth-place finish in Portugal later in the season allowed Minardi to score a total of 6 points and secure seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship. Nonetheless, the season fell short of expectations, and at the end of the championship, the partnership between Minardi and Ferrari came to an end, leaving the Faenza-based team burdened with a debt of over 8 billion lire (about 4.15 million euros) to settle before the 1992 season.
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