ALL QUIET ON THE MINARDI FRONT

The traditional grand prix alarm clock will not be sounding this year at Albert Park.

Howling V10-engined Minardi two-seaters have been a regular feature of The Australian Grand Prix weekend since 2009 but have been parked after coming to the end of their working life.

It means the early morning wake-up call, just after 7am for the four days of the AGP meeting, is over. And so, too, is the late-afternoon howl of an old-school naturally-aspirated grand prix engine.

There has been no official announcement from the AGP Corporation about the change, but Auto Action confirms the Minardi era is over.

It also means there will be no chance for the ultimate F1 thrill ride for the lucky passengers, who were cashed-up or important enough, who were able to ride in the back seat.

More than 1000 people got the ultimate thrill ride, as the program started with about 25 passengers from 2009 before building to more than 100 a year in the later days of the program.

Formula One even rolled the cars out at other events following the success in Australia.

The two-seaters were the personal project of Aussie entrepreneur Paul Stoddart, who had a fortune through scrapping and selling second-hand aircraft parts.

He became the owner of Minardi, where he provided test drives at one time for Will Power and Will Davison, and kept the two-seater project running after he had sold the team which is now known as AlphaTauri.

Shipping the two-seater cars to Australia became a regular job for Stoddart, who occasionally drove himself but usually relied on Zolt Baumgartner to handle the two-seater work.

Davison and Cam McConville were also enlisted to pilot the thrill rides, with McConville once even crashing after a suspension failure while television journalist Clint Stanaway was in the back seat.

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