03.03.2004 MINARDI PRESENT THEIR NEW F1 CAR IN MELBOURNE AS TWO NEW SIGNINGS ARE ANNOUNCED

At the official launch of their new 2004 Formula One car in Melbourne today, just days ahead of the opening Grand Prix of the season, the Minardi Cosworth F1 Team announced that it has signed Bas Leinders as its official Test Driver for the 2004 season. The 28-year-old, from Wavre, Belgium, will participate in Friday testing during Grand Prix weekends as well as in scheduled test sessions for the Faenza-based team. Leinders boasts an impressive motor racing career, having secured championship titles in British and European Formula Ford, European Formula Opel, and German Formula 3 in a steady climb to the sport’s top levels. Most recently, he has raced in the highly competitive Nissan World Series, where he finished third overall in both the 2002 and 2003 seasons.

“I had always held out hope that I would make it to Formula One at some stage, and I am obviously very pleased that Minardi has now given me a chance to show what I can do,” comments Leinders. “I’m sure that my experience in a variety of single-seater race cars will allow me to adapt quickly to the demands of F1, so that I can start to provide the team’s engineers and the Bridgestone technicians with useful information on car set-up and tyre performance. Hopefully, what we learn in testing on Friday will then benefit the team’s performance in the race on Sunday.  It is the sort of work I really enjoy, and I’m certainly looking forward to my first run in the Minardi Cosworth.”

Team Principal, Paul Stoddart said, “Minardi is very pleased to have concluded a contract with Bas that will see him become our regular Friday test driver, running in a third chassis alongside Gimmi and Zsolt at all Grand Prix weekends. He has a lot of useful, and relevant, racing experience under his belt, as well as the added advantage of knowing many of the F1 circuits from his time in the International F3000 Championship. I’m sure he will prove to be a real asset to the team and help us to develop the Minardi Cosworth PS04B quickly, so that we can start to maximise its potential as early in the season as possible. With what I believe is a strong driver line-up now in place, we can start to focus on the serious business of improving our performance.”

At the same time Minardi announced it has also signed Tiago Monteiro as an official test driver for the 2004 season. As such, the 27-year-old, from Oporto, Portugal, will assist the team with its test and development programme in the course of the year, “dovetailing” these commitments with a full season competing in the Nissan World Series, where he will be driving for Carlin Motorsport. He will not take part in Friday test sessions during Formula One weekends.

Monteiro has certainly not trodden an “accepted” route to the top levels of motor racing, having started his career in 1997, in the French Porsche Carrera Cup, after being inspired by his father, was also a competitor in the series. Since then, Monteiro has raced successfully in a wide variety of categories, including the French F3 Championship, French GT Championship, Andros Trophy (ice racing), and FIA International F3000 Championship, while also competing in a number of significant one-off events, such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Macau Grand Prix, Korea Super Prix and Marlboro Masters. In 2003, he joined Fittipaldi Dingman Racing for a season in the hard-fought Champ Car World Series, once again proving himself to be both versatile and highly competitive.

“We’re very pleased to have signed Tiago as a test driver,” commented Paul Stoddart. “It is precisely because of his extensive motor racing experience, and his obvious adaptability to widely differing types of machinery, that we felt he could be of real assistance to us in developing the Minardi Cosworth PS04B this year. The new car has shown distinct promise in pre-season testing, but we are very aware that nothing in F1 stands still, we need to have a solid test programme in place in order to work on steadily improving the new chassis. We believe that Tiago, and fellow tester, Bas Leinders, will be able to help us achieve our goals in this area.”  

Meanwhile there was good news for the team on the funding front as they confirmed that bathroom manufacturer Wilux Benelux has become their new title sponsor, and team will be known officially now as Wilux Minardi Cosworth. The company first became involved in Formula One last season as a commercial partner of Minardi and now the Wilux “water-droplet” logo, along with the “Bathroom pleasure” slogan, will be positioned prominently on the Minardi Cosworth cars, as well as on the overalls and helmets of race drivers, Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner, plus official test driver, Bas Leinders during the year.