Pierluigi Martini Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1961

Piero was born on April 23, 1961 in Lugo di Romagna in Italy. His uncle, Giancarlo, had been a semi-successful Formula Two driver in the 1970s, although his biggest claim to fame was crashing a Ferrari 312T at the 1976 Race of Champions.

Answer: Formula Fiat

Piero made his Formula Fiat Abarth debut in 1980, competing in only four races before making a jump into the Formula Three category.

Answer: 3

Piero's first year in Italian F3 came in 1981, where he finished 12th in the championship without much real success. 1982 was much better for Piero, with wins at Misano, Imola and Monza helping him to third in the championship and a contract with Pavesi in the European F3 Championship for 1983.

Answer: True

Incredibly with little European racing experience, and minimal F3 experience in Italy, Martini won the 1983 European F3 Cup with four race victories, just pipping John Nielsen for the title. Mixed in with this was a Formula Two debut with Minardi.

Answer: Toleman

After Ayrton Senna was suspended, Martini was given the call up by Toleman to give one of their Hart-powered machines a run at Monza. But, unsurprisingly with no experience and no preparation, Martini failed to qualify. But this would not have prepared him for the season to come...

Answer: Minardi

In what could only be described as a horrible first year for any rookie, Martini was saddled with a bad Minardi chassis and a woeful Motori-Moderni turbo engine yet it was Martini who was given most of the blame. Amazingly, Martini only failed to qualify once - at Monaco.

But he rarely got out of the back 6 in qualifying (highest of 19th twice) and retired a staggering 12 times in 15 races. Highest position was 8th in Australia, mostly due to the high attrition.

Answer: Pavesi

Piero had won the 1983 European F3 title with Pavesi, so it was only natural that he would rejoin the team in his first F3000 assault. After a slow start, Piero started to regain his confidence and by season's end finished runner-up to Ivan Capelli, having won three races, though he was disqualified from Jarama.

Answer: 6th

The Minardi team of 1988 was quite different. Gone was the awful Motori-Moderni engine and in the back was a Cosworth V8. And Martini performed wonderfully all weekend, qualifying in 16th position, keeping his nose clean all race and eventually finishing the race in 6th position, the first point for Minardi.

Answer: 5

Piero was saddled with the older Minardi M188Bs for the first few races, but once the new M189 made its debut in Mexico, the team started to make progress. At the British GP, Piero finished in 5th place, 9th in Germany and Belgium, 7th in Italy, 5th in Portugal, and 6th in Australia.

Answer: 2nd

Piero had shown excellent qualifying form at the tail-end of the 1989 season, qualifying 5th in Portugal, 4th in Spain and 3rd in Australia. The only way was up, and amazingly a Minardi started in 2nd place at the American Grand Prix in 1990, thanks to Martini... and a bit of luck thanks to rain on Saturday! The race didn't go as well for Piero, finishing 7th.

Answer: Imola and Portugal

The season wasn't the success that Minardi and Piero would have hoped for, but Martini did manage to finish fourth on two occasions, the team's best ever finish. Martini finished fourth in Imola in wet conditions and fourth at Estoril, Portugal, only ten seconds behind Alesi in the Ferrari.

Answer: Scuderia Italia Dallara

After four seasons at Minardi, it was off to new pastures for Piero who followed the Ferrari engines to Dallara. It proved to be an ill-advised move, where the car was not really up to standard most of the time and Piero only managed two sixth places in Spain and Imola.

Answer: Canada

Piero's long grand prix career continued past the century-mark at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 1994, where he qualified his Minardi in 15th place and finished in 9th.

Answer: Hockenheim

Increasingly frustrated by the lack of pace from Minardi, it was clear that by halfway through the season that Piero had lost his motivation, and it was with some sadness that he was replaced by the team after the German Grand Prix.

Answer: BMW

Partnering Yannick Dalmas and Jo Winkelhock, Piero shared a BMW LMR V12 to victory, covering 367 laps of the famous Le Mans circuit after qualifying 6th.