Another one of France's wasted generation
Author
- Mattijs Diepraam
Date
- 8W July 1998 issue, offers are kindly accepted to extend the length of this article!
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Who?Jean-Marc Gounon What?Minardi-Ford M193 Where?Suzuka When?1993 Japanese GP |
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Why?
This is Gounon's debut F1 race for Minardi, replacing Christian Fittipaldi. Here we see him entering the daunting 130R corner at Suzuka.
This former French F3 champion had made quite a name for himself in F3000, winning races for Lola, which was definitely not the chassis to have. So cash-ridden Giancarlo Minardi, attracted by Gounon's French government anti-tobacco law funds, decided to give the talented 30-year-old a shot in one of his cars. His two races for Minardi were meant as a precursor to a full F1 campaign in 1994 but this never happened. He got a second chance at Simtek, replacing the unlucky Montermini (who had stepped in to replace poor Roland Ratzenberger) but the car was hopeless.
Since then Gounon has been a faithful supporter of GT racing, first showing his skill in a Michelotto Ferrari in the BPR GT Championship, and lately in the FIA championship for Mercedes, pairing up with fellow lost talent Christophe Bouchut.