Minardi announce Cosworth engine deal

The KL Minardi Formula One team is today very pleased to announce that it has reached agreement with Cosworth Racing for the supply of its highly competitive V10 engines in 2003. The contract is initially for one year, with future options. The move re-establishes long-held, and successful, links between the Italian team and the British-based specialist engine manufacturer, now wholly owned by the Ford Motor Company.

The Faenza squad made its debut in the 1985 Formula One World Championship with a Ford Cosworth-powered car, and Cosworth, or Cosworth-derived engines have been used by the team in all but six of the intervening 17 seasons in which it has competed at the highest level of motor racing. In a 12-year span, between 1988 and 1999, Ford Cosworth engines helped Minardi score a total of 21 World Constructors' Championship points.

Cosworth Racing also has very close links with Paul Stoddart's European Formula Racing operation. The Minardi Team Principal purchased the rights to the company's VJ and JD Formula One engines, and established the European Engine Division at his Ledbury facility, in the UK, to maintain and develop the V10 units. Badged as a "European" engine, the VJ was fitted to the 2001 Minardi PS01, while the slightly older Cosworth JD provides the power for the eight two-seater Formula One chassis used in the exciting and innovative Minardi F1x2 programme.

"We at Cosworth Racing are delighted to be working with Minardi again," says company Commercial Director, Bernard Ferguson. "We have enjoyed a strong relationship over the years, which has been built on mutual trust and respect. I am sure the team is set to go from strength to strength, and we are proud to be the engine of choice at this exciting time for Minardi. "

Paul Stoddart comments, "The KL Minardi team is extremely pleased to have concluded an agreement with Cosworth Racing, which sees the company become our official engine partner for 2003. The decision renews valued links the team has built up with Ford and Cosworth Racing over the years, and will provide KL Minardi with what is clearly the most competitive power unit in its 19-year history in Formula One. In combination with the latest chassis, I'm sure we will have a very strong package for next season.

The first Cosworth Racing V10 engine will be delivered shortly to Minardi's Faenza factory, where work on the 2003-specification chassis is now under way and progressing well.

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