Minardi M02

The Minardi M02 was the car with which the Minardi Formula One team competed in the 2000 Formula One season. It was driven by the young Spaniard Marc Gené, in his second year with the team, and the Argentine rookie pay-driver Gastón Mazzacane.^[1] As ever, the car was a neat and tidy design, but hampered by a lack of power and testing mileage. The new yellow colour scheme turned heads, but did little to improve the team's fortunes, as they eventually finished a de facto tenth in the constructors' championship, with no points but ahead of Prost due to a better finishing record.^[2] The team therefore qualified for some of the sport's television revenues in 2001.

At the end of the year, Telefonica pulled out of sponsoring the team,^[3] while Fondmetal boss Gabriele Rumi was forced to sell the team due to ill health, leaving team founder Giancarlo Minardi with the task of finding the budget for 2001. Fortunately, the team was eventually bought by the Australian entrepreneur, Paul Stoddart.^[4]

Complete Formula One results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

^[5]

References