Piercarlo Ghinzani

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Piercarlo Ghinzani
Nationality  Italian
Formula One World Championship career
Active years	1981, 1983 - 1989
Teams	Osella, Toleman, Ligier, Zakspeed
Races	111 (76 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Career points	2
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1981 Belgian Grand Prix
Last race	1989 Australian Grand Prix

Piercarlo Ghinzani (born January 16, 1952 in Riviera d'Adda, Lombardy) is a former racing driver from Italy who currently manages his own racing team, Team Ghinzani, which was created in 1992 and is currently involved in several Formula Three championships.

Before his Formula One career, Ghinzani raced between 1976 and 1979 with Team Euroracing, in several Formula Three championships such as the European Championship which he won in 1977, the Italian Championsip which he won in 1979 and the British Championship^[1]. He also raced in Formula 2 in 1978.

[edit] Formula One career

He participated in 111 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on May 17, 1981. He spent much of the 1980s racing for the small Osella team, and he only ever took one points finish. Following sporadic F1 appearances in 1981, and racing in Group C as a team mate to Michele Alboreto and Riccardo Patrese Ghinzani's first full season with the Osella team was in '83. Despite achieving no points finishes he was retained for 1984. He suffered burns in a serious crash at the Kyalami circuit, but later that year scored his only career points in the Dallas GP, a race marked by high attrition and crumbling tarmac. Remaining with Osella for 1985, in the latter half of that year Ghinzani was drafted into the Toleman team to partner fellow Italian Teo Fabi. Despite the competitiveness of the car, he was hamstrung by reliability problems and unable to score a proper finish. The following year saw him return to the Osella team, while for 1987 he was contracted to the Ligier team, alongside former Grand Prix winner René Arnoux. The plans for the team to run Alfa Romeo engines were scuppered, however, by Arnoux's scathing pre-season comments, and the team had to hastily adapt their cars to fit Megatron engines. He occasionally ran in the points, notably in Germany, but suffered the indignity of being disqualified at Silverstone. 1988 saw Ghinzani run with Zakspeed, but his final season saw him reunited with Osella. In his final season he only qualified 3 times, and his final Grand Prix saw him hit from behind by Nelson Piquet in torrential rain.

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Pts
1981	Osella Squadra Corse	Osella FA1B	Ford Cosworth DFV V8	USW	BRA	ARG	SMR	BEL 13	MON DNQ	ESP	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	CAN	LVS		31st	0
1983	Osella Squadra Corse	Osella FA1D	Ford Cosworth DFV V8	BRA DNQ	USW DNQ	FRA DNQ														28th	0
		Osella FA1E	Alfa Romeo V12				SMR DNQ	MON DNQ	BEL DNQ	USE Ret	CAN DNQ	GBR Ret	GER Ret	AUT 11	NED DNQ	ITA Ret	EUR Ret	RSA Ret
1984	Osella Squadra Corse	Osella FA1F	Alfa Romeo V8 (t/c)	BRA Ret	RSA WD	BEL Ret	SMR DNQ	FRA 12	MON 7	CAN Ret	USE Ret	USA 5	GBR 9	GER Ret	AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA 7	EUR Ret	POR Ret	19th	2
1985	Osella	Osella FA1F	Alfa Romeo V8 (t/c)	BRA 12	POR 9	SMR NC														27th	0
		Osella FA1G					MON DNQ	CAN Ret	USE Ret	FRA 15	GBR Ret	GER
	Toleman Group Motorsport	Toleman TG185	Hart Straight-4 (t/c)										AUT DNS	NED Ret	ITA DNS	BEL Ret	EUR Ret	RSA Ret	AUS Ret
1986	Osella	Osella FA1F	Alfa Romeo V8 (t/c)	BRA Ret	ESP Ret	SMR Ret	MON DNQ	BEL Ret	CAN Ret	USE Ret	FRA Ret		GER Ret	HUN Ret		ITA Ret	POR Ret		AUS Ret	27th	0
		Osella FA1H										GBR Ret
		Osella FA1G													AUT 11			MEX Ret
1987	Ligier Loto	Ligier JS29B	Megatron Straight-4 (t/c)	BRA	SMR Ret	BEL 7	MON 12	USE Ret												24th	0
		Ligier JS29C							FRA Ret	GBR DSQ	GER Ret	HUN 12	AUT 8	ITA 8	POR Ret	ESP Ret	MEX Ret	JPN 13	AUS Ret
1988	Zakspeed	Zakspeed 881	Zakspeed Straight-4 (t/c)	BRA DNQ	SMR Ret	MON Ret	MEX 15	CAN 14	USE DNQ	FRA DSQ	GBR DNQ	GER 14	HUN DNQ	BEL Ret						33rd	0
		Zakspeed 881B													ITA Ret	POR DNQ	ESP DNQ	JPN DNQ	AUS Ret
1989	Osella Squadra Corse	Osella FA1M89	Ford Cosworth DFR V8	BRA DNPQ	ESP DNPQ	MON DNPQ	MEX DNPQ	USA DNPQ	CAN DNPQ	FRA DNPQ	GBR DNPQ	GER DNPQ	HUN Ret	BEL DNPQ	ITA DNPQ	POR DNPQ	ESP Ret	JPN DNPQ	AUS Ret	-	0

Sporting positions
Preceded by Riccardo Patrese	European Formula Three Champion 1977	Succeeded by Jan Lammers
Preceded by Siegfried Stohr	Italian Formula Three Champion 1979	Succeeded by Guido Pardini

[edit] References