Gianni Morbidelli

Starting in karting, Gianni Morbidelli would go on to win the EUR-AM championship in 1986 and then moved on to Italian F3, becoming Italian F3 and F3 European Cup champion in 1989. He participated in 70 F1 Grands Prix (with 67 starts) driving for Scuderia Italia (Dallara), Minardi, Ferrari, Footwork and Sauber.

Born in Pesaro, Italy, on the 13th January 1968, his father, Giancarlo Morbidelli, was the founder of the Morbidelli motorcycle company. He had a passion for motorbikes from a very early age and when he was three, his father gave him a small motorbike but he constantly fell off and hurt himself so his father bought him a kart when he turned eleven. “I had a cousin who raced in karting. So, for a bit of fun, with my father as the mechanic, we began racing karts.” He won the EUR-AM championship in 1986 then moved to Italian F3 in 1987 and in his debut year, with the Euro Racing Junior team Dallara F387 he took a podium finish at Mugello. In his second season, now with a Forti Corse Dallara F388, he was second at Imola, third at Mugello and Varano and won at Enna Pergusa and in International F3 rounds he was seventh and ninth at Macau and Nurburgring. He became Italian F3 and F3 European Cup champion in 1989, winning the championship title with Forti Corse’s Dallara F389. He won six races, at the Trofeo Parma (from pole plus fastest lap), Enna Pergusa and Monza (from pole) plus took three consecutive victories at Santa Monica (from pole plus fastest lap), Misano (and fastest lap) and Monza (from pole). He was fourth in an International F3 round at Monaco and in an Italian touring car round was eighth in a BMW M3 Evo at Pergusa.

At the start of 1990 he was hired by Scuderia Italia to replace Emanuele Pirro in the opening rounds of the World Championship but he failed to qualify the Dallara F190 at the US GP in Phoenix though was fourteenth at the Brazilian GP at Interlagos. During that time he signed as Ferrari’s test driver and alongside his test duties for them he raced Forti Corse’s Lola T90/50 in F3000, finishing third at Pau and Nogaro, fourth at Monza, seventh at the Grand Prix de Le Mans F3000 and eighth at Donington plus won at Pergusa to finish fifth in the championship. Alongside this he participated in four Italian Touring Car Championship races, driving an Alfa Romeo 75 Turbo Evolution for the CiBiEmme Sport team, and won twice at Misano (from pole plus fastest lap in one win) plus fourth at Imola and eighth at Misano. Late in the year he replaced Paolo Barilla at Minardi for the Japanese and Australian races but spun off at Suzuka and gearbox issues on lap 20 ended his run at Adelaide.

In 1991, Gianni did the first of two seasons with Minardi and in the first year with a Ferrari-powered M191 despite qualifying well on occasion (with a best of eighth on the grid in San Marino and Japan), he failed to score any points and suffered eight retirements. Finishes saw eighth at Brazil, ninth in Italy and Portugal, eleventh at Great Britain, thirteenth and fourteenth at Hungary and Spain, with seventh at Mexico his best result. However, there was a dream opportunity when he raced for Ferrari in the Australian GP (replacing Alain Prost, who had left the team) and he was running sixth when the race was stopped early due to the torrential rain, and half points were awarded. “I got a phone call from Guido Forti, who was for me like a second father: he followed me in Formula 3, he helped me get to Ferrari, a person who did a lot for me and was very generous. He rang me while I was on holiday in Port Douglas (after the Japanese GP) and said that the following week I’d be driving for Ferrari not Minardi. I thought he was joking, but he said “no it’s serious, are you up for that?” In the following year, with the team switching from Ferrari to Lamborghini engines, they ran an updated M191, designated the M191B, for the first four races though his only finish was seventh in Brazil. The team introduced the M192 and results with it included eighth in France, tenth in Australia, eleventh and twelfth in Canada and Germany, fourteenth in Portugal and Japan plus sixteenth in Belgium.

A lack of sponsorship led to him leaving Minardi and he contested Italian Touring Cars with Alfa Corse’s Alfa Romeo 155 where he was third and seventh at Varano and Imola and won at Magione.

He was back in the cockpit of an F1 car in 1994 when he joined Footwork Arrows for the first of two seasons with them. Driving the FA15, alongside Christian Fittipaldi, he suffered twelve retirements in sixteen races but scored points with fifth and sixth in Germany and Belgium.

In 1995 he combined the Italian Superturismo Championship and F1 and, racing BMW Italia’s 318is he was sixth at Misano, sixth and seventh at Binetto, fifth and fourth at Monza, seventh at Imola, fifth, fourth, fifth and seventh at Mugello, fifth and fourth at Magione, third and eleventh at Misano, won both rounds at Pergusa, was tenth and fourth at Varano plus sixth and fifth at Vallelunga. In the World Championship he retired the FA16 in the first two rounds in Brazil and Argentina then was thirteenth in San Marino, eleventh in Spain, ninth in Monaco, sixth in Canada and fourteenth in France. In mid-season the team were facing an increasingly difficult financial situation and he was replaced by Max Papis, missing seven races although he returned for the final three rounds. He retired in the Pacific GP at Aida with engine problems and spun off in Japan but took a career best third position in Australia. It had been a race of attrition and it was a fun post race interview as he described how he was running behind Olivier Panis’s oil leaking Ligier, willing his car to finish and later stated that “in a way, that moment was even more glorious because we were in big trouble financially.” That result, plus the sixth place in Canada, saw Footwork finish eighth in the Constructors’ Championship.

With no race seat available for 1996 he became a test driver for the Jordan F1 team. Contesting Italian Touring cars with BMW Italia’s 320i, he took fourth and two thirds at Pergusa, was disqualified and fifth at Varano then seventeenth and fifth at Vallelunga to finish eighth in the championship.

He was back in F1 in 1997 when he raced for Sauber, with the team using Ferrari customer engines badged as Petronas in deference to the team’s major Malaysian sponsor. The team started with Johnny Herbert and Nicola Larini but Larini left after five races and Gianni was brought in as a replacement from Spain, finishing fourteenth there and tenth in Canada. He then missed three races after breaking his left arm testing at Magny-Cours and was replaced by Norberto Fontana while he recovered. When he returned he was ninth in Belgium, twelfth in Italy, ninth in Austria and the Luxembourg GP at Nurburgring but then failed to start in Japan after breaking his wrist during practice.

Following this he retired from F1 and raced Volvo’s S40 in 1998’s British Touring Car Championship but though teammate Rickard Rydell won the title, Gianni did not score any wins or podiums. Finishes saw fifth and eighth at Silverstone, sixth, seventh and twelfth at Donington, tenth and thirteenth at Brands Hatch, sixth and ninth Oulton Park, seventh at Croft and eleventh Snetterton, sixth, eight and eleventh at Thruxton, with his best performance coming there when he charged from the back of the field to finish fourth.

He joined CiBiEmme Engineering in 2000, alongside Emmanuele Naspetti, to drive a BMW 320i in the European Super Touring Cup and third (with fastest lap) and fourth at Mugello, seventh at Pergusa, third and second at the A-Ring, ninth and third at Monza, seventh and fifth at Imola, third at Brno, fifth and eleventh at Vallelunga and eighth at Mobikrog (Slovenia). There were five wins, two apiece at Misano and the Hungaroring (plus fastest lap) and one at Mobikrog and he finished third in the standings, behind Fabrizio Giovanardi and Peter Kox.

2002 was a disappointing season with Carly Motor’s BMW 320i in the ETCC as there were only two finishes, where he was seventh and tenth at Magny-Cours. In July that year, he shared an American Viperacing Dodge Viper GTS-R with Shane Lewis in the Road America 500 Miles though they didn’t finish the race.

There was a break in 2003 and then he joined GPC Squadra Corse in 2004’s FIA GT Championship, driving a Ferrari 575 Maranello in six races and only competed in one ETCC round, finishing eleventh at Monza in a SEAT Italia Toledo Cupra. There was a diverse program in 2005, racing a Ferrari 575 Maranello, a Lamborghini Murcielago and Saleen S7-R. Moving back to touring cars for 2006 there were a couple of second place finishes in N-Technology’s Alfa Romeo 156 in the World Touring Car Championship. In 2007’s ADAC GT Masters series there were race wins at Monza and Lausitzring (teamed with Christopher Haase) with Reiter Engineering’s Lamborghini Gallardo to finish fifth in the standings. He had considerable success in that year’s Italian Superstars Championship, and would go on to win the title with an Audi RS4 and BMW M3 three years in a row from 2007. This was the fourth season of the Italian Superstars Championship and the inaugural season of the International Superstars Series. Despite not starting at Adria and retiring at Monza, he won the remaining six races at Magiore and Misano (both from pole plus fastest lap), Nurburgring (from pole plus fastest lap), Adria, Vallelunga (from pole) and Monza (from pole plus fastest lap) to take the Italian Championship for Audi. He took the following year’s Italian championship with Audi’s RS4, winning at Vallelunga, Magione and Valencia, second at Mugello and Monza and third at Varano, Misano and Adria. In 2009, he switched to ROAL Motorsport’s BMW M3 and won both the Italian and International Superstars Series though after three consecutive titles he dropped to sixth in the International classification in 2010. He spent three more seasons in the series, driving an Audi RS4 and Audi RS5, and in 2013 won both the Italian and International championships.

During that time he also entered the Speedcar Series in 2008 and 2009, winning the title in his second season, against drivers such as Johnny Herbert, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jean Alesi. He was third in Dubai, fourth and second in Bahrain, won and was second at Losail, seventh and second at Dubai then had two fifth places in Bahrain and won the title from defending champion Johnny Herbert by just two points.

He also competed in the Australian V8 Supercars Championship, taking part in the Gold Coast 600 at Surfers Paradise three years in a row from 2010 to 2012 with Triple F Racing’s Ford FG Falcon alongside Dean Fiore.

For 2014 he returned to the World Touring Car Championship with Münnich Motorsport’s Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 but though he won the second round at Hungaroring his best results in the rest of the season were fourths at Spa and Shanghai.

Following this came three seasons in the TCR International Series with WestCoast Racing and driving a Honda Civic TCR in 2015 he won three races and took five podiums, finishing fourth in the points. During the year, he also drove an Audi S3 for Munnich Motorsport in two rounds of the World Rallycross Championship. He continued with a Honda Civic in the second season and finished sixth in the standings with one victory and six podiums and in the final year, with the team running a Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, had two victories at Ochersleben plus two podiums and again finished sixth in the standings.

For 2018, he moved into the FIA World Touring Car Cup, driving an Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR for Team Mulsanne but left the team after five rounds. He rejoined WestCoast Racing in the TCR Europe Series for 2019 to race their Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR but there were no wins or podiums.