Pierluigi Martini

Interesting facts

He carried on a family tradition: his uncle raced a Ferrari in the 1970s for Scuderia Everest, run by Giancarlo Minardi - who later signed Pierluigi to his own team, with which Martini's career was tied almost entirely, across three separate spells. In 1983 he swept both the Italian and European Formula Three titles in a single season with four wins. He scored Minardi's first-ever championship point at the 1988 Detroit Grand Prix, then led a lap at the 1989 Portuguese Grand Prix - the team's only moment ever at the front. He earned a reputation for ignoring blue flags, holding up faster drivers at Monaco in 1991 and in Canada in 1995, both times drawing penalties - asked about the 1995 San Marino incident, he simply replied, 'What should I apologise for? My lines are always clean.' After his F1 career ended, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright in 1999 in a BMW V12 LMR alongside Yannick Dalmas and Joachim Winkelhock, beating the factory Toyota and Mercedes by a full lap. Pierluigi Martini raced in Formula 1 from 1985 to 1995, across 9 seasons as an Italian driver. He scored a total of 18 championship points over his career.