MARCH 2, 1998

Minardi's new look

MINARDI unveiled a completely new livery in Bologna last week, underlining the increased importance in the team of Gabriele Rumi, who is the major shareholder in Minardi's holding company.

MINARDI unveiled a completely new livery in Bologna last week, underlining the increased importance in the team of Gabriele Rumi, who is the major shareholder in Minardi's holding company. The new car is silver-grey in color (as was Rumi's last F1 car the Fondmetal) and features sponsorship from a variety of companies including Doimo and Roces, which backed the team last year, Argentine companies Telecom, Visa and the Telefe TV station, former Prost backer Avex and Japan's Musashi.

The Ford V10-powered M198 will be driven this year by Argentina's Esteban Tuero and Japan's Shinji Nakano with Frenchman Laurent Redon, as expected, being confirmed as the Minardi reserve and test driver.

At the launch at Bologna's Industrial Heritage Museum in Italy, the team announced a scheme which links the team with Bologna University, one of Italy's oldest and most famous educational establishments. Each year one student from the FacultyÊofÊEngineering and one from the Faculty of Economics will be taken on by the team for a six month work experience period. This is expected to lead to increased recruitment by the team from the university.

Ferrari engineer Gustav Brunner will shortly join Minardi as technical director.