After accumulating heavy debts from Ferrari and Lamborghini engine supplies over the past two seasons, the Minardi team faced a significant deficit at the beginning of 1993 and risked bankruptcy. Despite this, the arrival of Austrian engineer Gustav Brunner in mid-1992 and the improved performance of the M192, which allowed Fittipaldi to claim sixth place in the penultimate race of the season, helped to brighten the situation, and expectations for the new season became positive once again. Thus, a new car, the M193, was planned, fully designed by Brunner under the technical direction of Aldo Costa.
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| MINARDI M193, Fabrizio Barbazza Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1993 |
Given the precarious financial situation of the small Italian team, the new M193 was, by necessity, a very simple single-seater and lacked the costly electronic systems that had by then become widespread among top teams. The shape, designed by chief aerodynamicist Rene Hilhorst, largely followed that of the previous car, although the nose was slightly lower and more pointed. The air intakes at the entrance of the side pods were smaller, in line with the reduced size of the radiating masses required by the Ford-Cosworth V8 engine that powered the Faenza-based cars in 1993. After the unsuccessful and expensive experiences with the more “renowned” Ferrari and Lamborghini engines, Giancarlo Minardi's team returned in 1993 to using the Anglo-American V8s in the customer-spec HBD version, which offered less power than the higher-performance HBA units used by Benetton, McLaren, and Lotus, but were much more reliable and, above all, significantly cheaper to maintain.
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| MINARDI M193, Christian Fittipaldi Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1993 |
As drivers, the team chose Brazilian Christian Fittipaldi, retained from the previous season, and Italian Fabrizio Barbazza, a driver with a solid past in America where, in 1986, he won the title in the newly formed Indy Lights series, a feeder category to CART based on identical cars. The following year, he moved up to the CART series, still racing for Frank Arciero's team. At the Indianapolis 500, he achieved his best performance with a third-place finish, his only podium in American open-wheel racing, and earned the Rookie of the Year title as the best debutant. Upon returning to Europe, however, he failed to secure notable contracts, and after several attempts in Formula 3000, Formula 1 with AGS, and Formula Nippon, he only managed to return to the top tier of racing thanks to Giancarlo Minardi. Nevertheless, halfway through the season, he was replaced by fellow Italian Pierluigi Martini, despite having scored two sixth-place finishes at Donington and Imola.
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| MINARDI M193, Fabrizio Barbazza Catalunya-Barcelona, Spanish GP 1993 |
Fittipaldi, who achieved a fourth-place finish at the season opener in Kyalami and a fifth place in Monaco, was also replaced in the final two races by Frenchman Jean-Marc Gounon. Despite all the challenges Giancarlo Minardi had to face, the M193 proved to be a good car. In fact, after the Monaco Grand Prix, the sixth round of the season, the small Faenza-based team was ahead of Ferrari in the constructors’ standings.
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| MINARDI M193, Christian Fittipaldi Montréal, Canadian GP 1993 |
Obviously, as the championship progressed, without the ability to develop the car or conduct any testing due to lack of funds, the M193’s performance was outpaced by nearly all rival teams. The seven points collected in the first six races remained the only points scored that season, but they were enough to allow Minardi to finish the championship in eighth place overall, the best season among the nine the small Italian team had competed in so far.
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