| Career Summary | Picture Index |
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| Last updated: 14-March-2002 | |
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1976-82
The pasta man had money on his side, drives for Minardi in F2 |
You might be able to tell from the name that Italian Paolo Barilla came from the family which owns the Barilla Pasta Corporation, one of the world's largest, founded by his great-grandfather in 1877. A family quarrel had seen Paolo's father Pietro sell the company to an American multinational in 1971, which no doubt made the family a lot richer than what it already was.
We assume this windfall helped to fund Paolo's start in motor racing. Beginning like many others in karting, it was clear that he wasn't without talent. He won his 100cc karting category in the 1976 Italian championships, and by the 1970s he was in Italian F3 with the famous Ravarotto team, where he notched up a total of three victories. Come 1982, he joined Giancarlo Minardi's European F2 team, partnering Alessandro Nannini in driving the Minardi M282s, but he scored no points. |
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1983-84
Takes on the World Sportscar Championship with Mirabella and Lancia |
However, it would be in sports cars that he would really make his mark. In 1983, he joined the Scuderia Mirabella team, usually piloting his Lancia LC2 with Giorgio Francia. Driving in most rounds of the European Sportscar Endurance Championship (some rounds doubling as events of the World Sportscar Championship), despite good qualifying positions the car was beset by mechanical problems. The highlight was a 6th place at Spa. That year also saw a one-off works Lancia drive at Le Mans with Nannini and Jean-Claude Andruet. With 6 points, Barilla was equal 46th overall in the WSC.
The opportunity was a sign of things to come, as Barilla was signed up for the works team in 1984. The season started with a 3rd and a 4th at Monza and Silverstone, in a Lancia LC2-84 shared with Mauro Baldi. There was also a 3rd with Nannini at the Nurburgring, and a 2nd at Kyalami with Bob Wollek having started on pole. His Le Mans tilt, with Baldi and Hans Heyer, ended late with a camshaft belt failure after 275 laps. Overall, Barilla was 10th in the World Sportscar Championship with 49 points. In a year of the Porsche juggernaut there were nine Porsche 956 drivers ahead of him. |
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1985
Defects to Porsche, takes record breaking victory at Le Mans with Ludwig and 'Winter' |
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and that's exactly what Paolo did. For 1985 he went to the brilliant Joest team to drive one of their 956s, usually with Klaus Ludwig, although Heyer, Paul Belmondo, Marc Duez, and the late great 'John Winter' (whose real name, Louis Krages, few then actually knew) also partnered him. Barilla's greatest moment without doubt was victory at Le Mans, with Ludwig and Winter, where the combination won by three full laps having started 4th. In the process they set a record for the longest distance travelled over the 24-hour period.
There were also two 3rd places with Ludwig at Hockenheim and Spa, but the season tailed off dramatically. At round 9 of the WSC at Fuji, Barilla was one of the drivers involved in a mass walk-out in the early laps of the race when conditions became unbearably dangerous. Then in the final round at Shah Alam in Malaysia, Barilla and Winter were forced to sit out the race after a practice accident. In the WSC standings Paolo came 7th with 52 points. But to prove his talent, he also took part in two Interseries races late in the year in his 956, winning both convincingly. |
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1986-87
Prospers in the USA, but turns back on sports cars and targets F3000 |
1986 was then a very busy year for Barilla. He stayed with Joest in the WSC, and came 7th again with 44 points. He failed to defend his Le Mans title, retiring with engine problems. Instead, Barilla's highlight turned out to be a victory in the final round at Fuji, shared with Piercarlo Ghinzani. Joest also went to America to race unsuccessfully in the Daytona 24hr race, partnering Barilla in a Porsche 962 with Randy Lanier and Gianpiero Moretti. Barilla also did the Daytona 3hr race late in the year, coming 5th with Winter and Wollek.
Meanwhile, Paolo liked the American racing scene, and that year raced in IMSA in a 962 run by the Bridgestone/Bayside team, usually with Wollek, but also with Bruce Leven and Bill Adam. A win at Miami, plus a 3rd and a 4th elsewhere, helped put Barilla 19th overall. But with an eye to racing in single-seaters again, Barilla had a go in F3000 in the 1986 round at the Le Mans Bugatti track. There he flopped badly, failing to qualify. Undaunted, he turned his back on sports cars and concentrated on F3000 for 1987, but the best he could manage was 7th at Enna in a Pavesi Ralt RT21 Cosworth. |
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1988
Inconsistent in Euro F3000, makes trip east for Japanese Sports Prototype |
He continued in 1988 with the Cobra and Spirit teams, and had a very inconsistent time. Retirements, accidents and DNQs were mixed in with a brilliant 4th at Brands Hatch where he started 22nd. Those three points put him equal 17th overall. But if 1986 was hectic, 1988 was even busier. Apart from F3000, that year he also raced in Japan in the Japanese Sports Prototype Championship. He had already had a one-off appearance in that series in 1987, where he drove a Dome Toyota 87C with Yoshiyasu Tachi.
So for 1988, he was lured back for a works Toyota drive with the TOM'S team in an 88C chassis. Sharing the car variously with Tiff Needell, Stefan Johansson and Hitoshi Ogawa, it would be a frustrating season. As the top Toyota driver Barilla was only 15th with 21 points. Barilla's attempt at Le Mans with Needell and Ogawa ended in a dismal 24th place. Restoring his links with Joest, he also partnered Winter and Frank Jelinski in a Porsche 962 at the Sebring 12hr race that year, and came 2nd. For the Nurburgring 1000km, he was teamed with Wollek and Philippe Streiff, and came 3rd. Barilla also raced at the Daytona 24hr race in a March 86G with Moretti and Michael Roe, but retired early. |
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1989
Leaves Europe to stay in Japan, has limited success in Japanese F3000 |
For 1989, Barilla concentrated on Japan, and TOM'S gave him a new Toyota 89C-V to play with in the JSPC. Shared with Ogawa (and once also with Johnny Dumfries), he came 3rd at a Fuji round, and then won another race at Fuji having started 2nd on the grid. He was 12th overall with 35 points. But Le Mans was once again a failure, engine problems striking the car Barilla drove with Ogawa and Ross Cheever.
1989 also saw Barilla take part in Japanese F3000, but with minimal success - his only points finish a 2nd place behind Cheever in May. With those 6 points, he came equal 10th overall with Akihiko Nakaya and the late Jeff Krosnoff. But all this racing in Japan meant that he had local knowledge, and that would come in very handy indeed! Note: Insert "Twilight Zone" music here! |
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1989 Minardi Japanese GP nets Paolo an F1 debut - but not a memorable one |
During the 1989 season, Pierluigi Martini had gradually begun to perform heroics in his Minardi, with the help of Pirelli qualifiers especially, even leading the Portuguese GP for a lap, the first and only time that one of the cars from Faenza has had that honour. But it was also during that race that Martini ran over a kerb and damaged a rib, an injury which he aggravated a week later at Jerez. This meant that he was unable to take part at Suzuka, and Barilla, a good friend, was brought into the team, especially since he had local knowledge of the track.
Considering his recent lack of results in F3000, qualifying 19th on his debut was no mean feat, especially when he had the likes of Mauricio Gugelmin, Eddie Cheever, Derek Warwick and Jonathan Palmer behind him. But in the race his clutch would fail on him on the opening lap, and that was that. Martini subsequently returned for Adelaide, and promptly plonked his car third on the grid behind the McLarens. |
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1990 Minardi Martini makes Barilla look a touch ordinary, season goes downhill |
Nevertheless, with Luis Perez Sala licking his wounds and leaving Minardi after 1989, Barilla joined the team on a full-time basis, but judging by pre-season testing times, it appeared as though he would definitely be playing second-fiddle to his team-mate. It proved that way at the opening round at Phoenix, where Minardi ran their M189 chassis from the year before. Martini qualified a barnstorming 2nd, and Barilla started a respectable 14th, but retired at three-quarter distance having lost feeling in his left arm.
But in many ways Barilla's (and Minardi's) season would just go downhill from there. Again using an M189 in Brazil, Barilla started 17th but suffered a valve failure in his Ford Cosworth engine. After that the M190 was introduced, but sadly it was not as competitive as the M189 had been in 1989. Not only that, but while Pirelli's qualifying tyres had lost their edge, their race tyres were still not up to scratch. |
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1990
Poor Paolo slips slides his way down the pack |
It meant that Minardi fell back from being giant-killers to also-rans; Martini failed to score a point all season, and Barilla scarcely made an impact in an inconsistent season. A case in point was the debut race for the M190 at Imola. Off the pace, Martini was actually the last qualifier, 0.018s faster than Barilla. But Pierluigi had a nasty practice accident and withdrew, promoting Paolo up to the last spot on the grid. From there, he came home 11th out of 13 finishers at Imola, two laps adrift of Riccardo Patrese's victorious Williams.
After that he had a gearbox failure at Monaco, but in Canada, while Martini started 16th, Barilla missed the cut, only being 29th quickest in qualifying. He then came home 14th from 16th on the grid in Mexico, in a race of low attrition where there were 20 classified finishers, and where a breathtaking race at the front saw Alain Prost win from 13th on the grid, and Nigel Mansell pass Gerhard Berger on the last lap around the outside of the fearsome Peraltada corner. |
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1990
Eau Rouge smash leads to DNQs in following GPs |
Barilla then missed the grid again in France, where Yannick Dalmas' AGS pipped him for 26th spot by 0.082 of a second. Another uneventful race in Britain then saw Barilla start 24th and finish 12th, 2 laps down. Paolo was now really teetering on the edge of qualification. He missed out by over half a second at Hockenheim, and Hungary was another mindlessly lonely race, coming home 3 laps down on winner Thierry Boutsen in 15th place as the last car running on the track.
Then at Spa, after Nelson Piquet and Mansell collided at the first corner, forcing a restart, Barilla (who'd qualified 25th) lost it at Eau Rouge at the second start, hitting the barrier backwards. The gearbox and rear suspension was ripped off while a great big hole was knocked out of the armco. Severely shaken, Barilla did not take the third start. |
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1990
The decision to leave Minardi, and hence F1, is taken |
This tilted the balance, and from there Barilla was hopelessly uncompetitive. At Monza he once again failed to qualify, although only by 0.3s, but he missed out again at Estoril and Jerez. This was enough as far as he and Minardi were concerned, and for the last two races of the season he was replaced by Gianni Morbidelli.
As Minardi found themselves floundering in a year when they should have been consolidating instead, something had to give, and that something was Paolo, who'd been the weak link from the start. He had suffered the disadvantage of inexperience on Pirelli qualifiers, and he had to learn some of the tracks. Compared to Martini, he was perhaps also too tall to be an effective F1 pilot. |
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1991-1997
Races in a couple of sports car outings, links with Joest again |
Having sampled the pinnacle, and found that it was not as nice a place as he would have liked, Barilla pretty much turned away from motor racing after that. There would be a few more sports car outings in 1991, though. He firstly linked up with Joest Racing again at the 1991 Daytona 24hr race, driving a Porsche 962 with Wollek, Bernd Schneider and Massimo Sigala, but was forced out.
He then linked up with the Courage team to drive their 962, and at Suzuka came 8th with Eje Elgh. They were also entered for the round at Autopolis, and Barilla was also on the Le Mans entry list to drive the Courage Porsche, but he competed in neither. After that, with his racing appearances few and far between: in 1997 Paolo came 2nd at Mugello in a Ferrari F355 Challenge race, and David Hallam tells us that in 2002, he competed in the Paris-Dakar Rally, driving a Mercedes Unimog with Matteo Marzotto and Ferdinando Ravarotto as his co-drivers, placing 8th in the truck category. |
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Personal
Barilla family regains control of the company, with Paolo interim CEO |
On the other hand, Barilla found that he was needed back in the family business. His father Pietro had bought a major share of the company back in 1979, and throughout the 1980s it grew tenfold in Italy, where it acquired a third of the market share. Even through the worldwide recession of the 1990s, the company never posted a loss. But by 1995, Pietro was 82, and he handed over control to an American, Edwin Artzt. He stayed at the helm until 1999, when another American, Sharon Hintze, took over.
But her management style did not sit well with Paolo and his two brothers, and in the end she left after only a year in the job. The three brothers assumed control, with Paolo becoming CEO as a stop-gap measure before Giovanni Casteilucci stepped in, in February 2000. Nonetheless, the three brothers still own 51% of the company, and Paolo remains a Vice-President. |
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Personal
Barilla, the pasta company which supports worthy causes (Zanardi?) |
And what a company Barilla is. Producing 12 million tonnes of pasta in 1999, the Barilla company made sales of US$2.24bn last year, and has pre-tax profits of $115 million. In April 2000 it acquired the Swedish biscuit maker Wasa, and then paid $315 million for the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis. The company has also opened a $100 million factory in Iowa, in a bid to consolidate its market share in the USA, while also expanding into the biscuit and bakery industries.
But Barilla also gives back to the community. It has set up the Barilla Sports School in Italy, promoting participation in sports amongst Italian youngsters. It has also been a sponsor of various sportsmen, including none other than Alessandro Zanardi. In 1997, as Zanardi was heading for the CART championship, the company donated 195 cases of pasta to the Second Harvest group, the largest domestic hunger relief organisation in America. This equated to no less than 20,000 meals!!! Onya, Paolo! |
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