Pierluigi Martini

Pierluigi Martini

Born	23 April 1961 Lugo, Italy
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Italian
Active years	1984–1985, 1988–1995
Teams	Toleman, Minardi, Scuderia Italia
Entries	124 (119 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	18
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1984 Italian Grand Prix
Last entry	1995 German Grand Prix

Pierluigi Martini (born 23 April 1961) is an Italian former racing driver. He participated in 124 Formula One Grands Prix (with 119 starts) between 1984 and 1995.

Early life

Martini's uncle, Giancarlo Martini, raced during the 1970s, including some non-championship races in a Ferrari 312T entered by Scuderia Everest, a team owned by Giancarlo Minardi. Pierluigi's younger brother, Oliver, is also a racing driver.^[1]

Formula One

Martini participated in 124 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 9 September 1984, driving for Toleman in place of suspended Ayrton Senna at the 1984 Italian Grand Prix. He scored a total of 18 championship points and was synonymous with the Minardi team (run by the same Giancarlo Minardi who had previously owned Scuderia Everest).

Martini driving for Minardi at the 1994 British Grand Prix

Martini driving for Minardi at the 1995 British Grand Prix

Indeed, aside from a single outing with Toleman and a one-season dalliance with Scuderia Italia, Martini's entire career was spent with the Italian outfit. He raced with the minnow team in three different stints, drove for them on their debut in 1985, scored their first point in the 1988 Detroit Grand Prix, their only front-row start at the 1990 United States Grand Prix (aided by special Pirelli tyres; several of their other drivers had surprise qualifying results that day), their only lap leading a race in the 1989 Portuguese Grand Prix, and their joint-best F1 result of 4th. However, Martini was also one of the drivers who tended to ignoring blue flags. Examples given are the 1991 Monaco Grand Prix when he held up Emanuele Pirro in the Dallara, Stefano Modena in the Tyrrell, and Riccardo Patrese in the Williams for several laps despite running towards the back of the field, and the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix where he blocked Gerhard Berger in the Ferrari when the Austrian tried to lap him. On both occasions Martini was called in for a 10 second stop and go penalty for ignoring blue flags.

Sportscars

After Formula One, Martini started a successful sportscar career. His first race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans was in 1996 with a Porsche run by Joest Racing. 1997 brought a fourth-place finish in a Porsche 911 GT1 which he also raced in the FIA GT Championship that year. In 1998, he joined the brand new Le Mans program of BMW Motorsports.

In 1999, Martini, Yannick Dalmas and Joachim Winkelhock won the Le Mans 24 Hours. The trio drove for BMW. The team had to fight both Toyota and Mercedes works cars and won the race by a lap from the runner-up Toyota.

Martini returned to motorsports in 2006, competing in the Grand Prix Masters series for retired Formula One drivers.

Racing record

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos.	Pts
1983	Minardi Team Srl	Minardi M283	BMW	SIL	THR	HOC	NÜR	VAL	PAU	JAR	DON	MIS 2	PER	ZOL	MUG	11th	6

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos.	Pts
1986	Pavesi Corse	Ralt RB20	Cosworth	SIL 19	VAL 10	PAU DNQ	SPA 11								3rd	27
		Ralt RT20						IMO 1	MUG 1	PER 2	ÖST 7	BIR 2	BUG Ret	JAR DSQ
1987	Pavesi Racing	Ralt RT21	Cosworth	SIL 5	VAL Ret	SPA Ret	PAU 7		PER 2	BRH 20	BIR Ret	IMO Ret	BUG 7		11th	8
		Ralt RT20						DON 8						JAR 9
1988	First Racing	March 88B	Judd	JER 8	VAL 11	PAU 3	SIL 10	MNZ Ret	PER 1	BRH 2	BIR 3	BUG	ZOL Ret	DIJ 10	4th	23

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	17	WDC	Points
1984	Toleman Group Motorsport	Toleman TG184	Hart Straight-4	BRA	RSA	BEL	SMR	FRA	MON	CAN	DET	DAL	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA DNQ	EUR	POR		NC	0
1985	Minardi Team	Minardi M185	Cosworth V8	BRA Ret	POR Ret																NC	0
			MM V6			SMR Ret	MON DNQ	CAN Ret	DET Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 11	AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA Ret	BEL 12	EUR Ret	RSA Ret	AUS 8
1988	Lois Minardi Team	Minardi M188	Cosworth V8	BRA	SMR	MON	MEX	CAN	DET 6	FRA 15	GBR 15	GER DNQ	HUN Ret	BEL DNQ	ITA Ret	POR Ret	ESP Ret	JPN 13	AUS 7		17th	1
1989	Minardi Team SpA	Minardi M188B	Cosworth V8	BRA Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret															15th	5
		Minardi M189					MEX Ret	USA Ret	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 5	GER 9	HUN Ret	BEL 9	ITA 7	POR 5	ESP Ret	JPN	AUS 6
1990	SCM Minardi Team	Minardi M189	Cosworth V8	USA 7	BRA 9																NC	0
		Minardi M190				SMR DNS	MON Ret	CAN Ret	MEX 12	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 15	ITA Ret	POR 11	ESP Ret	JPN 8	AUS 9
1991	Minardi Team	Minardi M191	Ferrari V12	USA 9	BRA Ret	SMR 4	MON 12	CAN 7	MEX Ret	FRA 9	GBR 9	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 12	ITA Ret	POR 4	ESP 13	JPN Ret	AUS Ret		11th	6
1992	Scuderia Italia SpA	BMS Dallara 192	Ferrari V12	RSA Ret	MEX Ret	BRA Ret	ESP 6	SMR 6	MON Ret	CAN 8	FRA 10	GBR 15	GER 11	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 8	POR Ret	JPN 10	AUS Ret		16th	2
1993	Minardi Team	Minardi M193	Ford V8	RSA	BRA	EUR	SMR	ESP	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR Ret	GER 14	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 7	POR 8	JPN 10	AUS Ret		NC	0
1994	Minardi Scuderia Italia	Minardi M193B	Ford V8	BRA 8	PAC Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	ESP 5													21st	4
		Minardi M194							CAN 9	FRA 5	GBR 10	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 8	ITA Ret	POR 12	EUR 15	JPN Ret	AUS 9
1995	Minardi Scuderia Italia	Minardi M195	Ford V8	BRA Ret	ARG Ret	SMR 12	ESP 14	MON 7	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 7	GER Ret	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	EUR	PAC	JPN	AUS	NC	0

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1984	BP Résidences Malardeau Scuderia Jolly Club	Xavier Lapeyre Beppe Gabbiani	Lancia LC2	C1	117	DNF	DNF
1996	Joest Racing	Michele Alboreto Didier Theys	TWR Porsche WSC-95	LMP1	300	DNF	DNF
1997	BMS Scuderia Italia	Christian Pescatori Antônio Hermann de Azevedo	Porsche 911 GT1	GT1	317	8th	4th
1998	Team BMW Motorsport	Joachim Winkelhock Johnny Cecotto	BMW V12 LM	LMP1	43	DNF	DNF
1999	BMW Motorsport	Joachim Winkelhock Yannick Dalmas	BMW V12 LMR	LMP	365	1st	1st

Sources

• ^ DRIVERS: PIERLUIGI MARTINI, GrandPrix.com

1. Nyberg, Rainer; Diepraam, Mattijs (2001). "Minardi's F1 debut was with a Ferrari!". 8w.forix.com. Autosport/FORIX. Retrieved 2011-02-02.

External links

• F1 Rejects article
• Driver Database Stats
• Racing Reference Stats