THE FIRST 20 YEARS OF MINARDI MANAGEMENT

In 2003, the world of motorsport witnessed the emergence of Minardi Management, an agency founded by Giovanni Minardi, a figure whose name is engraved amongst some of the most significant commitments and achievements in the motorsport landscape. Following his tenure in the Formula 1 paddock, Giovanni established Minardi Management, leveraging the wealth of knowledge acquired during his time in the premier Championship in the world of Motorsport.
With over 20 years of operation, the agency has fostered, managed, and propelled talents at both a national and global level through its consultancy services, nurturing the aspirations of young individuals aiming for the pinnacle of the sport. The extensive experience that has shaped the Management has led to the Agency’s scope of activities expanding to cover a comprehensive range, starting from karting, progressing to Formula racing, and encompassing the diverse opportunities available in wheel-to-wheel competitions, including various GT and Touring Car championships.

Q – Hi Giovanni, first of all: how are you?
A – Good, busy but good.

Q – Minardi Management has reached the 20-year milestone, how do you judge this journey?
A – It’s been many years. When I started I had no idea if I would be able to do this job, but given how many years have passed I think that something good has been done, because it all started as a bet with myself, leaving a job in F1, taking on this new adventure. After eight years spent in Formula 1, I decided to take this path, because in those years working closely with many drivers, I learned a lot of useful information and many little secrets that allowed me to understand what a driver needs and how he must be to become a Champion, fueling in me the desire to pass them on to the younger ones. How do you judge this path? It has been tortuous and complex because, since I started in 2003, many different situations have passed such as financial problems at a global level or the pandemic, scenarios that have characterized the ups and downs in the world of Motorsport. It has been an interesting and growth path, discovering many drivers and I hope not to stop here and to be only at the beginning of the latter despite the twenty years that have passed. I’m on the track every day with my drivers and to find new ones, because there are so many talents, you just have to find them and give them the chance to emerge.

Q – What does Minardi Management mean to you and what has it given to you as a person?
A – For me it is my life, because I, today also my partner (Dorothea, ed.) work 24/7 together and she supports me in this job. Minardi Management is not just a job, but it is my passion, it does not weigh me down and I can have fun while I work. It is something indispensable for me, I would not see myself engaged in anything else and I thank Dorothea who supports me and above all puts up with me.

Q – What was the objective with which Minardi Management was born?
A – The goal for which Minardi Management was born, to transfer to the younger ones all the experiences that I have gathered during the years of Formula 1, working with high level drivers like Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli etc. who taught me a lot. Since the end of 2002 I decided to abandon that environment to undertake this new career.



Q – What was the best moment that you have experienced as a manager?
A – There are many good moments, in twenty years there have been many episodes that have made me happy and also some that have not, but that have made me grow. I have rejoiced for the many championships won by my drivers, for having discovered a talent that is about to arrive in Formula 1 and in seeing even the youngest, of our Agency fight in the race like lions and win. The emotions are many, to say one in particular would not be right. I hope that the greatest emotion is yet to be discovered and I hope it will be the victory of the Formula 1 World Championship with one of our drivers: I think this represents our greatest desire/mission.


Q – How do you see Minardi Management in five years?
A – I hope for continuous growth, managing to bring all my drivers to the highest level they can reach and with at least one driver who can bring me to the fulfillment of the dream, of both of us, that is to win the Formula 1 World Championship. I don’t know if five years are enough, but we will at least try to be on the right path. I would like to be able to bring back the one true value of sport by bringing talent to success, but above all I would like to be able to demonstrate that sport is equality, it has nothing to do with nationality or religion, but we are all equal, we learn from each other and we are simply in love with this sport.


Q – You have many boys and girls under your management, what is your relationship with them?
A – I have a 360° relationship: I am tough with them when necessary, but I am their older brother when it is necessary to be, even if they could all be my children given their age (laughs, ed.). I am always available to them for any need, I give them all the advice they need, the information they need to grow and improve, trying to make as few mistakes as possible during the tortuous path to becoming a professional. They are the point of reference within this sport and their guide during the journey that a driver must face.

Q – How difficult is it to emerge in an environment like motorsport?
A – Today it is very difficult both in the managerial field and, above all, on the driver side. It is increasingly difficult for managers to find sponsors and money to be able to do this very expensive sport; drivers look for someone who can support them in this. I don’t work in the direct search for sponsors, but I can help them find the best economic proposal, saving families as much as possible, using all the knowledge I have gained in these 20 years among teams of all categories. Today you can’t always hire the driver you would like because maybe he doesn’t have the economic availability to face this sport in the best sporting conditions, so you have to go looking for the situation that can guarantee adequate monetary support such as the Academy or manufacturers. Being a driver is very complex: if we take Formula 1 as an example, there are only twenty seats and, unfortunately, they don’t want to widen the grid, so the funnel becomes increasingly narrow. Fortunately, there are other championships to become professionals, but the places are always few in proportion to the number of athletes. Their difficulty is enormous: it takes a lot of mental strength in addition to talent, because the obstacles are many and you have to be at the top every day to win. Unlike football where becoming a professional is easier due to the large number of existing clubs, in motorsport the percentage compared to that discipline is very small: therefore it is not easy for the drivers who aspire to become professionals, they have to give 100% every day.

Q – How did your passion for motorsport begin?
A – My passion was born because I was born into motorsport. I loved football and I still love this sport, I played for many years, but being born and living every day within this world, I could not help but be passionate about it, it would have been impossible to stay out of it given how I lived my childhood between racetracks and the various people with whom I have established excellent relationships over time. True love was born when I met Ayrton Senna: talking to him I really understood what this sport was and what its values ​​were. Once I met Ayrton, I never stopped: every summer I went to work to understand and learn all the dynamics within the team, before finally entering this world in 1996.


Q – During your life, have you ever thought of becoming a driver or had you already cultivated the ambition of a managerial career?
A – I arrived in motorsport at an advanced age. At 14-15 years old I wanted to try: I tried to ask, but I was not listened to. Since I had been told no, I made a bet: if I could stay in front of the driver chosen by my father (Gian Carlo Minardi, ed.), he would have to give me the chance to try racing, also because if I went slowly I would be the first to leave. For me everything has to be done well because I am very competitive and I like to win. The challenge was against Pierluigi Martini on karts at the Pinarella kart track. My only request was to balance our weight since Pierluigi was shorter and lighter than me, so that we didn’t have any weight differences at least. With great difficulty I won, but I was a bit… bad educated. I thought I could race given the victory, but I was blocked because I was too ‘crazy’. When I turned 18 I tried, in great secrecy, with the Renault Clio: I had found a sponsor and a team. When I showed up to get my license, they asked me for my father’s clearance despite being of age and so I gave up on my career as a driver. At that point I decided to move to the other side of the desk and I did what I have done in these more than 20 years, between apprenticeship first and work afterwards.

Q – How did you become a manager in motorsport?
A – When I worked in Formula 1, I started out as a Team Manager in the Minardi test team and then moved on to the same role in the structure involved in the races. In our team, being a Team Manager meant having responsibility for logistics, the hospitality area and as a trade union between team and driver. As a result, I spent a lot of time with the drivers in both spheres, both private and professional. Then, with the change of ownership of the Scuderia Minardi Team, I had to make a choice: continue, despite being dissatisfied with the relationship with the new owner, or create my own path. Initially, I also thought about trying to join other F1 teams, but in the end I didn’t feel like it, because it would have been difficult if not impossible given my surname, so I chose to set up my own business and embark on this adventure.

Q – You also had a past in Formula 1, what was it like working in that environment?
A – Working in Formula 1 was wonderful. Obviously I miss it, even if I no longer find the environment I frequented when I go to see it today, so I miss that environment and not today’s Formula 1. It was beautiful, because I had really important experiences: I travelled a lot, even if most of the time I mainly saw airports and tracks (laughs, ed.). For me it was very formative, because this world is made up of sport, but also business. It gave me the opportunity to make many acquaintances that today are useful and important for the work I do. It was a positive experience and I would do it again 100%, but the only thing I would perhaps change is to try to climb the hierarchies within a team, going from being a Team Manager, as I did, to Sporting Director, up to why not, becoming Team Principal.


Q – Who was, if you still have one and if you ever had one, your sporting idol in motorsport?
A – Yes, I had one and unfortunately he is no longer with us: Ayrton Senna. Unfortunately, that famous 1st May 1994, I was present at his passing in Imola, I was 20 when he died and I spent half of them knowing him. Senna gave me so much, he made me fall in love with this sport, he is the driver who gave me the greatest emotions when I watched the races and he is the one who gave me the inspiration to do the job I do today, the manager, even though when I started he had already been gone for some time. What I look for in drivers is what I saw in Ayrton the driver and the person: in this sport it is important to remain yourself and he always was, it is essential if you want to become a World Champion or an inimitable athlete as I think he was. He was a person who also gave so much in his private life, he was always humble with great values ​​and this is what I try to teach my drivers every day: dedication, passion, humility and a pinch of madness, which is always needed.

Q – Do you have any advice for the many young people who follow Minardi Management on social media and who want to start a career in this environment?
A – We have a large following, thanks to the excellent work that my partner Dorothea is doing, a fantastic job and I want to thank her first of all. I recommend having a lot of dedication in this sport, because you are a driver 24 hours a day, so you can never go beyond your daily routine such as training, nutrition and having regular sleep. It is very important to stay yourself while always keeping your feet firmly on the ground: a driver who wins all the races must always remind himself where he started from and that, above all, there is always a possible defeat around the corner and you have to get up immediately thinking about the next race. It doesn’t matter if you make a mistake or lose, but the important thing is to be quick to understand, analyze and react to start again stronger than before. These are the suggestions that I feel like giving to the guys who want to start this career.

Interview by Matteo Gaudieri