JULY 31, 1995

Minardi to get Ferrari V12s

GIANCARLO MINARDI and his Minardi Scuderia Italia partner Giuseppe Lucchini are rumored to be close to a Ferrari V12 engine for 1996; but there is opposition to the deal from Ferrari's competition director Jean Todt, who wants to concentrate all Ferrari's efforts on winning.

GIANCARLO MINARDI and his Minardi Scuderia Italia partner Giuseppe Lucchini are rumored to be close to a Ferrari V12 engine for 1996; but there is opposition to the deal from Ferrari's competition director Jean Todt, who wants to concentrate all Ferrari's efforts on winning.

Minardi is, however, extremely well-connected within the Fiat empire (which owns Ferrari). He is a member of the family which runs the oldest Fiat dealership in Italy, dating back to 1927; and he has used Ferrari engines on several occasions since 1976 when Enzo Ferrari gave Giancarlo a contemporary F1 Ferrari to use in a driver evaluation program. There were F2 engines in 1978 and V12 F1 engines in 1991.

With Ferrari moving on to V10 engines, however, the Ferrari factory will have a stock of V12s. These are currently rebuilt by a company called Oral Engineering in Modena, which employs ex-Ferrari engineering legend Mauro Forghieri. This company could continue to prepare V12s for Minardi.

The money from the deal would be used to help Ferrari raise the budget needed to pay Michael Schumacher.