For the 1991 season, Minardi team owner Giancarlo Minardi secured a supply of Ferrari V12 engines to replace the Cosworth V8 units the team had used since 1988. The engines supplied, designated 036, were those Ferrari had used during their 1989 season and had received no further development since. Later in the 1991 campaign, Minardi received the 037 specification, corresponding to Ferrari's 1990-spec unit. While these were hand-me-down powerplants by the standards of the front-runners, a V12 from Ferrari represented a significant upgrade in prestige and competitive potential for a team of Minardi's size and resources.
The chassis was designed by Aldo Costa, who would later go on to a distinguished career at Ferrari and Mercedes. Costa's work at Minardi during this period is often cited as evidence of his early engineering talent.
The M191 debuted at the 1991 United States Grand Prix in Phoenix, with Italians Pierluigi Martini and Gianni Morbidelli as the two drivers. Martini, a long-serving Minardi stalwart, was the team's points scorer: he finished fourth at the San Marino Grand Prix and repeated that result in Portugal. These two fourth-place finishes were the foundation of Minardi's seventh-place finish in the 1991 Constructors' Championship — the best the team ever achieved in its history.
Morbidelli qualified well on occasion — his best grid position was eighth, achieved at both San Marino and Japan — but failed to score points across the season. His best race result was a seventh place at the Mexican Grand Prix. He was promoted to Ferrari's race team following the mid-season sacking of Alain Prost and drove for the Scuderia at the Japanese Grand Prix. Brazilian Roberto Moreno replaced Morbidelli for the final race in Australia, where he finished sixteenth.
An updated version of the chassis, designated the M191B, was fitted with a Lamborghini V12 engine and used for the first four races of the 1992 Formula One World Championship. Morbidelli returned to the team and recorded a seventh place at the Brazilian Grand Prix — his only classified finish with the M191B. New signing Christian Fittipaldi, making his Formula One debut, finished eleventh at the Spanish Grand Prix in his only completion with the updated car. The M191B was replaced by the purpose-built Minardi M192 from the fifth race of the season onward.
The M191 featured a predominantly blue livery with yellow and white striping. Primary sponsorship came from SCM Group, along with a number of additional smaller backers.
The Minardi M191 stands as a high watermark for the Faenza-based team. The combination of Aldo Costa's chassis design, the Ferrari V12 engine, and Pierluigi Martini's consistent racecraft produced Minardi's finest Championship result. The car also served as an early showcase for Costa's engineering ability and was part of a period when small Italian constructors could still aspire to genuine midfield competitiveness. The subsequent M191B campaign, transitioning to Lamborghini power, was a brief bridge before the team pursued a new design path for 1992.