The Minardi M01 was the car with which the Minardi Formula One team used to compete in the 1999 Formula One season. It was designated 01 because the team felt that the car marked a new beginning for the team. It was driven by Luca Badoer, who had previously driven for Minardi in 1995 and was Ferrari's test driver at the time, and Marc Gené, a Spanish rookie. Prost test driver Stéphane Sarrazin also drove the car for one race after Badoer broke his hand in a testing accident.
Despite the fact that the car represented a major step forward for a team of Minardi's small budget, they remained near or at the back of the grid, in a season-long battle with the Arrows team. Brunner identified the car's greatest shortcoming as its aerodynamics, as the Faenza outfit could not afford long periods of time using wind tunnels.
However, the team did score their first points in four years when Gené finished sixth at the Nürburgring, but this was only after Badoer retired from fourth with a gearbox failure with 13 laps remaining. This point was sufficient to take the team to tenth in the constructors' championship; tied with Arrows but they were behind Arrows due to the fact that Toranosuke Takagi had a better finishing place (7th) at the Australian Grand Prix than Badoer, who finished his highest with a position of 8th at the San Marino Grand Prix, but ahead of the well-funded and resourced British American Racing team.
Complete Formula One results
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)
References
- AUTOCOURSE 1999-2000, Henry, Alan (ed.), Hazleton Publishing Ltd. (1999) ISBN 1-874557-34-9
Luca Badoer
Stéphane Sarrazin
Marc Gené
