Ivan Capelli

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Ivan Franco Capelli (born 24th May 1963 in Milan, Italy) is an Italian former Formula One driver.

Formula One

1987-: March

In 1987, Capelli accepted an offer from March to partner experienced Briton Robert Kagan. Despite scoring as many points as his team-mate and taking the team's only 4th place finish of the season at the season-ending Mexican Grand Prix, Capelli found himself out of a drive for 1988 after March left Formula One.

1988-1990: Minardi

With no other team interested in taking him on as a race driver, Capelli decided to join Minardi as the team's lead test driver. Capelli's development work helped the team finish seventh in the 1988 championship and iron out minor niggles in the team's 1989 challenger, the Minardi M189.

Capelli continued his role as test driver for 1989. The team entered the season in a strong financial position and the M189 turned out to be the team's most competitive car yet, regularly threatening the points and scoring a podium in the opening race in Brazil. Capelli would assist in the development of the Minardi M190 for the following season.

However, 1990 did not turn out the way that Minardi wanted to. Failing to secure a supply of Judd engines, the team was forced to run Ford Cosworth DFR engines which were drastically down on power compared to the Judd. As a result, a chassis which was rumoured to be one of the best in the field could barely finish in the top 10. Capelli would stand-in twice for Minardi's regular driver Pierluigi Martini during the season - once at the Pacific Grand Prix after Martini was disqualified at the Brazilian Grand Prix for dangerous driving and subsequently received a one race ban, and once at the Belgian Grand Prix after Martini was injured in a crash at the preceding Hungarian Grand Prix.

1991: Brabham

Capelli joined the Brabham Racing concern in 1991 - driving alongside young Finn JJ Lehto. Capelli scored points on two occasions - his best being a fifth place in Hungary. However, Brabham were disqualified from the Portuguese Grand Prix due to technical irregularities which also saw them excluded from the following race in Spain. Following this, Capelli opted to step aside to allow Austrian Karl Wendlinger to take his place.