The friendship with Ayrton Senna
Gian Carlo Minardi met Ayrton Senna in the early Eighties, when the Brazilian champion was racing in Formula Ford. Having caught the eye of Paolo Barilla, then a pilot of the Faenza team, Minardi himself was informed about Senna; Minardi then offered Senna about 50 million lire to run for him.
In a recent video interview released on Ayrton's birthday, Minardi said: "Ayrton thanked me, because I had been the first to make him a proposal of this kind, but he had other plans: he wanted to become world champion by 1988, something that eventually occurred ".
Minardi and Senna saw each other very often. Ayrton visited Gian Carlo during his Formula 2 races in England, and his father Milton spent a lot of time in the Minardi motor room. The Brazilian champion was very fond of the cuisine of Romagna. 1993 was a difficult year for Senna, due to Ron Dennis. Minardi said that at that time Ayrton often called him on the phone, and that he himself had conceived the famous formula employed by Senna with the McLaren team, that is, to agree on a race-by-race payment. According to the manager from Faenza, Ayrton told him: "I beat Fangio's record or I win five world titles, then I will run a year for you to make Minardi great".
This never happened, following the fateful accident of Imola in 1994.