AGS JH24

The AGS JH24 was a Formula 1 racing car from the Provençal team Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives (AGS), which won eleven grand prizes in 1989 and 1990 . The car was unsuccessful. The team achieved only one race participation with him; in all other attempts it failed with the JH24 due to the pre-qualification.

background

AGS went through a serious change at the turn of the year 1988/89. At the end of 1988, team founder Henri Julien sold his racing team to entrepreneur Cyril de Rouvre , who tried to introduce new organizational structures. A few months earlier, AGS had lost its long-time designer Christian Vanderpleyn : after designing all of the team's racing cars since 1970, Vanderpleyn moved to Coloni in the late summer of 1988 . His successor was Claude Galopin , who only began to build a new car after the change of ownership. Its completion was delayed until the summer of 1989. As a result, the team had to contest the first half of the 1989 season with last year's model JH23B .

technology

The JH24 was designed by Claude Galopin. It had a newly designed, stronger monocoque made from carbon fiber reinforced plastic . The car was designed to be compact. With a wheelbase of 2794 mm, it was one of the smallest vehicles of the 1989 generation. The engine was installed 2.5 cm lower than the previous model; this resulted in advantages in terms of weight distribution and handling. The suspension was initially taken over unchanged from the JH23B. In the winter of 1989/90, however, Galopin constructed a new suspension that was used in the first two races of the 1990 season and was later adopted by the JH25 .

The body of the JH24 was completely redesigned. The car had a pointed nose and a very low cockpit surround. As a novelty, there was a flowing engine cover with an airbox over the driver's seat. As with the predecessor, a Cosworth DFR engine prepared by Mader served as the drive ; the power was transmitted via a six-speed gearbox, which was completed in June 1989 and made its debut at the Canadian Grand Prix - at that time still in the JH23B.

The JH24 was technically immature. The cooling circuit was dimensioned too small, so that there were problems with the engine cooling in almost every race in 1989. There were also “serious deficits” in the area of ​​brakes.

AGS manufactured three JH24 vehicles during the year (chassis numbers 037, 038 and 039). The first copy was completed before the British Grand Prix and given to Gabriele Tarquini . The construction of the second car was delayed until the Belgian Grand Prix in September 1989, the third car was only built in autumn 1989.

Races

Not a single race participation in AGS JH24: Gabriele Tarquini

1989

AGS only contested the second half of the 1989 season with the JH24. Drivers were Gabriele Tarquini and Yannick Dalmas , who had replaced Joachim Winkelhock in the early summer of 1989 .

A particular problem this season was the pre-qualification, which had become necessary in view of the unusually large starting field. In it the weakest teams according to the preseason had to compete against each other. Apart from that, the requirement of pre-qualification also applied to teams that had only entered one car in 1988 but registered two cars in 1989: In this case, the newly registered second car was subject to pre-qualification. That also affected AGS: One car had to pre-qualify, while the second car - Tarquini's - had a safe starting position. However, since AGS was unable to achieve sufficient results with the outdated JH23B in the first half of the season, the car that had been set so far was also subject to pre-qualification from August 1989.

When the JH24 was finally completed in July 1989, the pre-qualification proved to be a particular hurdle. AGS did not manage to get the problems of the JH24 under control during the 1989 season. Given the still tight budget, there were almost no test drives, so the relevant data about the vehicle could only be collected at the racing events themselves. However, since both drivers with the untested and partly improvised car regularly failed the pre-qualification, the team had few opportunities to get to know the car and improve it.

In 1989 Tarquini and Dalmas failed to pre-qualify for every Grand Prix.

1990

AGS reported the JH24, which was only improved in the area of ​​the suspension, without explicitly designating it as a B version, for the first two races of the 1990 season. Tarquini and Dalmas were again the drivers. Tarquini again missed the pre-qualification in both attempts, Dalmas, however, managed to pass the pre-qualification at the Brazilian Grand Prix ; then he qualified for the last place on the grid, 3.8 seconds behind Ayrton Senna's pole time . In the race he retired after 28 laps due to a broken suspension.

After this race, the JH24 was replaced by the JH25 designed by Michel Costa.

Race results: overview

AGS JH24 - Cosworth DFR V8

driver	No.	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	Points	rank
1989 Formula 1 season																		1 /0	15th
Gabriele Tarquini	40								DNQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ
Yannick Dalmas	41											DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ

AGS JH24 - Cosworth DFR V8

driver	No.	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	Points	rank
1990 Formula 1 season																		0	-
Gabriele Tarquini	17th	DNPQ	DNPQ
Yannick Dalmas	18th	DNPQ	DNF

The rest of the season was driven with the successor model, the AGS JH25.

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Further use

Two of the three AGS JH24s were part of the inventory of the AGS racing school for a while in the 1990s. They were used by paying customers for private journeys on the Le Luc course . According to its website, the driving school has five copies of the JH24 in 2012 .

literature

• Kevin Blick: Damon for a day . Top Gear, issue 8/1998, p. 110 ff.
• Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. Cars, tracks and pilots. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .
• Allan Henry: auto course , yearbook 1988–1989. ISBN 2-85120-308-8 .
• David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars. Crowood Press, Marlborough 2001, ISBN 1-86126-339-2 (English).
• David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945 , Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7
• Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1st 2nd edition. Chronosports, St. Sulpice 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars 1906-2001, p. 8.
2. ↑ Cimarosti: The Century of Racing, p. 409.
3. ↑ Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945, p. 9.
4. ↑ Motorsport Aktuell, issue 23/1989, p. 24.
5. ↑ Motorsport Aktuell, issue 39/1989, p. 8.
6. ^ Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1, S: 105 ("graves déficiences").
7. ↑ Gabriele Tarquini only scored one world championship point. Since Minardi was able to score three points at the Great Britain Grand Prix in 1989, the Italian team positioned itself in front of AGS and took the last place of the teams whose start was guaranteed in the future.
8. ↑ AGS did not score a world championship point with the JH24. However, Tarquini finished sixth at the Mexican Grand Prix with the JH23B, so that the team ended the season with a world championship point in 15th place in the constructors' championship.
9. ↑ Top Gear, issue 8/1998, p. 110 ff.
10. ↑ s. Website www.agsformule1.com (accessed January 19, 2012).