Piercarlo Ghinzani

Piercarlo Ghinzani, an Italian driver born in 1952, made seventy-nine Formula 1 starts between 1981 and 1989, a career spent almost entirely in the lower reaches of the grid. Six of his eight seasons were with the small Osella team, punctuated by single-year spells at Ligier in 1987 and Zakspeed in 1988 before a return to Osella for his final campaign.

His association with Osella began in 1981, and after missing 1982 he raced on with the Italian outfit through the mid-1980s. The 1984 season stands alone in his record: it produced his only two championship points and his only classified finish in the standings, nineteenth place.

Every other season of his career — seven of the eight — ended without a point, a reflection of machinery that was rarely capable of running near the front. Even so, he kept his place on the grid for the better part of a decade.

Ghinzani's seventy-nine starts for a return of two points make him one of the more striking examples of 1980s Formula 1 perseverance: a driver whose longevity owed more to persistence with underfunded teams than to opportunities in competitive cars.