After the end of the 1995 season, on Ferrari's private test track at Fiorano, the Minardi M195 was made available to a group of young drivers in the hope, on Giancarlo Minardi’s part, of discovering a new talent to entrust with one of his cars. That talent was found in a young Italian from Rome: Giancarlo Fisichella. And so began the journey toward the 1996 Championship, marked by the usual challenges that the small Faenza-based team was accustomed to facing. A major blow came in 1995 when Mugen-Honda terminated its engine supply contract with the team, choosing instead to power Ligier. Ligier’s management structure included Flavio Briatore, who was using the French team to secure access to the powerful Renault V10 engines for his Benetton cars. This strategic maneuver had serious repercussions for the Italian team, which was forced to fall back on the more affordable, though underperforming, Ford-Cosworth ED engines.
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| MINARDI M195B, Pedro Lamy Catalunya-Barcelona, Spanish GP 1996 |
At the beginning of 1996, Giancarlo Minardi was faced with the difficult decision of whether to continue in the top-tier open-wheel racing series or to shift his efforts to the German DTM, a touring car series experiencing rapid growth in the mid-1990s. Fortunately, given that his team, under a different name, is still present in Formula 1, Minardi chose to stay in F1. Despite countless difficulties, he confirmed his technical staff, with technical director Aldo Costa working alongside designer Mauro Gennaro and aerodynamicist Mariano Alperin. The partnership with Ford was renewed, supplying the budget-friendly Ford-Cosworth EDM V8 engine (2994 cc), which for this season was upgraded to Spec 2 and later to Spec 3. However, these were little more than simple updates with no significant performance gains. Output remained consistent with 1995 figures, around 630 hp at 13,200 rpm, well below that of any other engine on the grid.
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| MINARDI M195B, Giancarlo Fisichella Magny-Cours, French GP 1996 |
Due to chronic budget constraints, the Minardi car for the 1996 season was merely a simple update to the previous year's vehicle to comply with new technical regulations. Accordingly, the name remained M195, with the addition of a "B" to designate the updated version. The most notable differences on the new M195B included a slightly more tapered nose, newly raised cockpit sides to better protect the driver’s head and neck in the event of a side impact, and the appearance of aerodynamic appendages between the front wheels and sidepods—the so-called bargeboards. At the rear, the engine cover was widened to almost entirely enclose the suspension, and additional flaps were mounted in front of the rear wheels, a common feature on all 1996 cars. Beneath the updated exterior, however, nothing changed compared to 1995: the same carbon fiber monocoque chassis, the same double wishbone push-rod suspension at both the front and rear, and the same six-speed semi-automatic gearbox with reverse, derived from X-Trac.
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| MINARDI M195B, Pedro Lamy Melbourne, Australian GP 1996 |
Alongside confirmed Portuguese driver Pedro Lamy, who had earned the team's only point in 1995, the promising young Italian Giancarlo Fisichella made his Formula 1 debut at the season opener in Melbourne, Australia. However, he had to relinquish his seat for the following two South American Grands Prix to Brazilian "pay driver" Tarso Marques. The same situation occurred in the final five races of the season, when the young Roman had to give way to another Italian driver, Giovanni Lavaggi, whose personal sponsors secured him a seat in F1. The poor competitiveness of the M195B meant the drivers had few opportunities to shine, and the 1996 season turned out to be even worse than the previous one. For the first time since 1987, the small Italian team failed to score a single point. Lavaggi even failed to qualify on three occasions. Lamy reached the finish line only 8 times in 16 races, while Fisichella, in his 8 starts, retired 5 times, although he did achieve the team's best result of the year with an 8th place finish in Canada, at the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit. Worst of all was Marques, who retired from both of the races he participated in.
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| MINARDI M195B, Giovanni Lavaggi Hungaroring, Hungarian GP 1996 |
With a car that was both underperforming and unreliable, the Minardi team at least managed not to finish last in the Constructors' Championship, claiming 10th place ahead of Forti, which had to withdraw from Formula 1 midway through the season.
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