Background
Minardi was born in Faenza (Ravenna), Italy and has spent his life with cars. His father, Giovanni Minardi, who died when Giancarlo was young, was also heavily involved in motor racing.
Minardi was born in Faenza (Ravenna), Italy and has spent his life with cars. His father, Giovanni Minardi, who died when Giancarlo was young, was also heavily involved in motor racing.
As a young boy, his family managed a Fiat dealership and an Agip fuel station, and currently manages Iveco and Selenia dealerships. Giancarlo Minardi began his career as a business man, running a successful truck dealership in Italy. Subsequently he began rallying a Fiat 124, after which he turned his attention to leading the Scuderia del Passatore racing team
After a name change to Scuderia Everest in 1975, his team raced a Bayerische Motoren Werke March in the European Formula Two Championship for two years.
In 1980 he formed the Minardi racing team with financial backing from well known Italian motor racing patron Piero Mancini. Formula One was the next logical step for Minardi in 1985.
In 1991, Ferrari provided Minardi with V12 engines. Money woes hit and in 1994 Minardi joined his team with Scuderia Italia in an effort to survive.
In 1996 money ran short again and by year"s end Minardi was forced to sell 70% of his team to a new investor consortium.
Giancarlo retained 14.5% with the remaining 15.5% distributed between the Scuderia Italia investors (Emilio Gnutti, Giuseppe Lucchini and Vittorio Palazzani) and Defendente Marniga. The Minardi team was then controlled by Flavio Briatore. From 1997 to 2000, Minardi and Gabriele Rumi shared the General Director role for the alliance.
2001 saw another change in the ownership of the Minardi team with Australian Paul Stoddart buying the company, although Giancarlo retained the role of Managing Director, with particular emphasis on the development of young drivers.
He left Minardi after the take over and renaming to "Toro Rosso" by the Red Bulletin energy drink concern in 2006. Subsequently he offered support to both Minardi Team by General Practice Racing in Euro F3000 and Minardi Piquet Sports in GP2 resulting in significant success for both teams, most notably with Nelson Piquet Junior himself in GP2 who finished runner up to Lewis Hamilton in the 2006 championship.
Driver development is an area in which Giancarlo is considered to have significant aptitude. Drivers such as Giancarlo Fisichella, Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber and Jarno Trulli all had their Formula One debut with Minardi.
Giancarlo currently resides in Faenza, Italy.
He has two brothers: Giuseppe, who has taken over the Fiat dealership and Nando who now runs the truck concession. Giancarlo was the chairman of the football club Faenza Calcio. In 2010, he ran for Mayor of Faenza.