ATS Racing Team
|
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| Surname | ATS Racing Team |
|---|---|
| Companies | Auto technical special accessories GmbH |
| Company headquarters | Bad Dürkheim |
| Team boss |
 Günter Schmid
|
| statistics | |
| First Grand Prix | USA 1977 |
| Last Grand Prix | Portugal 1984 |
| Race driven | 89 |
| Constructors' championship | - |
| Drivers World Championship | - |
| Race wins | - |
| Pole positions | - |
| Fastest laps | - |
| Points | 7th |
The ATS Racing Team was a German motorsport racing team that was initially involved in Formula 2 and from 1977 to 1984 in Formula 1 . The team was initiated and led by Günter Schmid . Like the company of the same name, ATS , it was based in Bad Dürkheim .
In addition to Schmid, the owner of the team was the industrialist Erich Stahlschmidt from Werdohl in the Sauerland , who acquired the business shares from ATS co-founder Bruch and not only supported Schmid's racing plans, but made them possible. However, Schmid was the only team leader. He was a racing driver himself in the 1960s and had contested a number of races in Formula Vee. He drove his last races in 1972, when he was already working full-time for the rim manufacturer. Schmid then sponsored various national motorsport events before his company actively participated in motorsport to promote the ATS brand.
ATS in Formula 2
The racing team "ATS Wheels" made its first appearance as a motorsport team in the 1976 Formula 2 season. Hans Günter Schmid only played half-heartedly in the first year. Neither the technical or organizational basis nor the personnel structure was suitable for achieving sustainable success in Formula 2. In addition, ATS Wheels did not take part in all races of the Formula 2 championship; on the other hand, the team also appeared in individual races that were not part of the Formula 2 championship.
As an emergency vehicle, "ATS Wheels" reported a Lola T450 , a problematic, ultimately uncompetitive car that had only been produced in four copies for the 1976 season and, apart from ATS, was only used sporadically by private drivers. The car was powered by a conventional BMW engine, which in that season was at a disadvantage compared to Renault's competing engines . ATS initially reported the Finn Mikko Kozarowitzky as the driver, who had shown some acceptable results in the smaller classes in previous years.
Mikko Kozarowitzky competed for ATS Wheels in the opening race, the Germany trophy at the Hockenheimring. He qualified but didn't finish the race. The team skipped the next event in Thruxton. At the third championship run, the Gran Premio di Roma in Vallelunga, it started again, again with Kozarowitzky, who, however, could not qualify this time. Hans Günter Schmid then separated from Kozarowitzky, who subsequently made two (unsuccessful) attempts in Formula 1 with the private team RAM . For the following Formula 2 race, the Festival Prize of the City of Salzburg, ATS Wheels signed the American Teddy Wentz , who qualified but did not finish the race. After ATS Wheels had once again skipped the Grand Prix de Pau, the team again appeared in the Rheinpokal at the Hockenheimring , where Bertram Schäfer was now the driver. Schäfer did not take part in the race. For the subsequent races in Rouen, Mugello and Enna, ATS Wheels registered the sports car driver Reinhold Joest , who could only qualify for the race in Mugello. ATS Wheels again skipped the races in Estoril and Nogaro before the team returned to the final championship race of the year at the Hockenheimring with the Finn Mika Arpiainen . There was no finish here either. Shortly before that, ATS Wheels had taken part in the non-championship Coppa Santa Monica in Rimini; The driver here was Roland Binder, who also did not finish.
Overall, the Formula 2 season was sobering for ATS. Hans Günter Schmid took stock and told the trade magazine auto motor und sport that the financial outlay for a Formula 2 season was very high; For a similar amount, he could also bring a car to the starting line in Formula 1.
The corresponding possibility for this arose in the winter of 1976/77.
The Lola T450 used by ATS still exists. It is in the hands of a private racing driver who occasionally takes part in mountain races with it.
ATS in Formula 1
1977
ATS 'Formula 1 involvement began when Hans Günter Schmid took over the material from the American Penske team at the end of 1976 , which had announced its withdrawal from Formula 1 at the end of this season. In the 1977 season , ATS used the Penske PC4 chassis developed by Geoffrey Ferris in 1976 and driven by John Watson , a car that had won the Austrian Grand Prix in 1976. This gave the team a successful operational device, so that the starting position for Formula 1 involvement was significantly more favorable than it had been when entering Formula 2 a year earlier. In the first year, the car remained largely unchanged.
ATS made its debut in the fourth race of the world championship, USA West, in Long Beach . Initially, the driver was Hans-Joachim Stuck , who at the same time was given the opportunity to replace Carlos Pace , who had previously died in an accident, at Brabham . ATS therefore hired Frenchman Jean-Pierre Jarier at short notice , who, according to legend, was on a skiing holiday and had to travel to the team's first race immediately. In the debut race, Jarier qualified for ninth place on the grid (ahead of both Tyrrell and Hans Joachim Stuck in the Brabham). He finished the race one lap behind in sixth place and scored the first world championship point for the new racing team in its first race. In the other races, however, there were no more World Championship points. Instead, the season was difficult. On the one hand, the team suffered from the fact that the chassis became increasingly obsolete; on the other hand, according to observers, the organization of the team was not optimal. For the British Grand Prix, ATS hired Geoffrey Ferris as a one-time technical advisor, in order to receive some information from the vehicle's author about the optimal set-up and the like. As a result, the effort did not pay off. For the remaining races, ATS continued to work without a continuously responsible technical director.
Jarier drove the Penske PC04 with start number 34 up to and including the Italian Grand Prix. During this time he was able to qualify regularly, with the exception of the Spanish Grand Prix, but did not get beyond the second half of the starting field in qualifying. Jarier crossed the finish line in six races; the best result was eighth place in the Swedish Grand Prix. At the Grand Prix of France, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, it failed with either an engine or gearbox defect.
ATS brought a second car to the start for the German Grand Prix . This is where the German touring car driver Hans Heyer started for ATS. He did not qualify, but still started illegally. In the official documents the note is noted: “Managed somehow to start”. The stewards only noticed this when he gave up due to an error in the power transmission. At the Grand Prix of Austria, the Netherlands and Italy, Hans Binder started in his place , who finished twelfth in Austria and eighth in Italy.
ATS did not take part in the last three races of the year, which took place overseas, for reasons of cost.
1978
the initial situation
Hans Günter Schmid tried in the winter of 1977/78 to strengthen the material basis of his team. To this end, he took over a lot of material from March , a British racing car manufacturer that ran its own Formula 1 team from 1970 to 1977, but at the end of 1977 had declared its withdrawal from factory Grand Prix racing. ATS took over the technical equipment, the factory buildings in Bicester and also the membership in the FOCA from March . Also part of the deal was an agreement with Robin Herd , one of the founders and co-owners of March Engineering , to redesign the existing Penske car for ATS. The result was the ATS HS1 . The name HS should make the alliance between Robin Herd (H) and Hans Günter Schmid (S) clear to the outside world. The HS1 was a car that was essentially based on the substance of the Penske PC4 built in 1976 and had undergone changes, especially in the area of the body. The HS1 did not have an effective wing profile on the underbody and was therefore not a wing car . This alone set clear limits to the car's competitiveness. A conventional Cosworth DFV engine served as drive , the tires came from Goodyear . A total of three HS1 vehicles were produced.
The 1978 season turned out to be an unsteady year for ATS. There were numerous changes in team management and also among the drivers.
For the first time, ATS competed as a team with two cars. Jochen Mass (start number 9) was registered as the first driver . For the second car, ATS initially considered Bruno Giacomelli , who had been recommended to the team by Robin Herd . Giacomelli canceled at short notice, however, because he was involved in the Alfa Romeo Formula 1 project that was under development ; in his place, ATS finally hired Jean-Pierre Jarier again , who took the starting number. 10 received.
They run
Jarier and Mass achieved their best qualification results in the opening race in Argentina : Jarier started 11th and was 12th in the race; From 13th on the grid, Mass finished 11th. Mass achieved his best race result of the season with a seventh place in the Brazilian Grand Prix . However, this race caused some unrest in the team. Mass had badly damaged his car during training. Hans Günter Schmid then assigned him Jarier's car for the race himself, who in turn - although he had a significantly better starting position - could not take part in the race. Jarier retaliated in his own way in the following race, the South African Grand Prix : He achieved the highest speed of all drivers at 281 km / h on the long straight between Crawthorne Corner and The Kink. In the race itself, he finished eighth and achieved his best result of the season here.
The qualification results got worse and worse over the course of the season. Up to the German Grand Prix , Mass (with the exception of the Monaco Grand Prix) managed to qualify for the races regularly; however, he increasingly had to limit himself to positions in the last third of the starting field.
Already in the spring of 1978 there was some unrest in the team. Jean-Pierre Jarier was replaced by Alberto Colombo at the Belgian Grand Prix after a dispute with Schmid . Neither in Belgium nor in the following race, the Spanish Grand Prix , the Italian was able to qualify; he was always the slowest participant in the qualification. Hans Günter Schmid therefore replaced him at the Swedish Grand Prix with the Finn Keke Rosberg , who had previously shown a few outings with an inferior car in the Theodore Racing team. Rosberg stayed with the team for the first three races. He was able to qualify regularly and saw the goal in Sweden and France, if only as 15th and 16th respectively.
Keke Rosberg returned to Theodore Racing for the home race of ATS, the German Grand Prix. For this one event, Jean-Pierre Jarier took his place again, although he was unable to qualify for the race. Jochen Mass qualified for ATS for the last time in this race. He started the race in 22nd place, but collided with Hans-Joachim Stuck in the Shadow on the first lap , whereupon the two German drivers retired. In the following two races, the Austrian and Dutch Grand Prix, Mass then missed qualifying by a considerable margin.
At the Austrian Grand Prix , Hans Binder drove the second ATS, which Michael Bleekemolen took over on the occasion of the Dutch Grand Prix . The Dutchman had been successful in Formula Vee and Formula 3, but had no Formula 1 experience. In the 1977 season he tried to start a private march for the RAM Racing team at the Dutch Grand Prix , but was by far the last to qualify and did not take part in the race itself. Michael Bleekemolen was just as unable to qualify as Hans Binder and Jochen Mass , so not a single ATS took part in these events. After Jochen Mass broke his leg during a private test drive on the Silverstone Circuit , Hans Günter Schmid separated from him. His car with start no. 9 was taken over by Michael Bleekemolen for the last three races of the season, while the second car with start no. 10 at the Italian Grand Prix Harald Ertl and at the overseas races in the USA and Canada, Keke Rosberg finally drove again.
A new car
Over the course of the year, it became apparent that the cars used so far represented the team's greatest problem areas. In their conception, they were now almost three years old and did not allow any ground effect to arise, so that they had significant disadvantages compared to the younger competition. As early as the spring of 1978, ATS commissioned the designer John Gentry to design a new car based on modern design features. Gentry designed the car together with Gustav Brunner , who worked here for the first time on a Formula 1 car. The car, which was given the designation D1, was completed in the summer of 1978. Outwardly, the D1 copied the current Lotus 79 , the car that had become the measure of all things in 1978. The D1 had wing profiles in the side pods; In contrast to the Lotus, the conception of the ATS was only half-hearted: There were various attachments of the car in the side pods, including the exhausts, parts of the suspension and the oil tank. They significantly disrupted the air flow under the car, so that a useful ground effect could hardly occur.
The D1 was completed in a single piece in the summer of 1978. Michael Bleekemolen tested the car at the Dutch Grand Prix at Circuit Park Zandvoort , but only achieved disappointing results. The team then continued to use the well-known HS1.
At the US Grand Prix, the D1 was launched in a slightly revised form. The side pods were now largely - if not completely - freed from annoying attachments, so that the ground effect could be used. The D1, still a one-off, was given to Keke Rosberg , while Michael Bleekemolen still had to be content with the old HS1. Rosberg qualified the new car for 15th place on the grid when it was first used. However, he did not finish because the power transmission collapsed on lap 21. At the last event of the year, the Canadian Grand Prix, Rosberg started the race in 21st place. He saw the target, but was 12 laps behind and was not classified.
Overall, the team suffered from personal and technical inconsistency in its second season, which prevented better results in the long term. The new, quickly presented but not yet fully developed D1 chassis did not change anything.
1979
In the 1979 season , only one car was used with Hans-Joachim Stuck at the wheel.
the initial situation
Hans Günter Schmid once again focused on change instead of continuity. In terms of personnel, he hired Fred Opert, who had his own team (Fred Opert Racing) in Formula 2 until the end of 1978 . Opert became the team manager of the ATS racing team. Furthermore, with Nigel Stroud, a new technical director was hired to replace John Gentry. One of his tasks was to develop a new car over the course of the season that could be fully used as a ground effect car.
Until the completion of this car, which was planned for the summer of 1979, ATS used a vehicle called the D2 as a transitional model, a car that had been developed in Italy during the winter break. The designer was Giacomo Caliri , an engineer who began to design Formula 2 cars for Minardi around the same time . The D2 was de facto based on the design of the D1, but in some details it copied the Lotus 79, the world champion car of 1978. However, the D2 should prove to be a problematic car; Hans-Joachim Stuck described it as "impassable" during the season.
They run
The races of the 1979 season were not very successful for the team. At the world championship races, Stuck was mostly able to qualify with the D2 - apart from the Grand Prix of Great Britain. However, Stuck and the ATS D2 were usually only found in the last two or three rows. An exception was the Monaco Grand Prix, where Stuck started the race in 12th place.
In the races themselves, the team achieved almost nothing with the D2. In the first 10 races of the year in which the team entered the D2, Hans-Joachim Stuck only saw the finish twice. He finished 14th at the Spanish Grand Prix and finished eighth in the Belgian Grand Prix that followed, although no fewer than 13 other drivers had previously been eliminated. Stuck himself failed in the other races either with a technical defect, with the suspension, steering and power transmission emerging as particular problem areas, or - more rarely - as a result of driving errors.
The team did not even start the race at two Grand Prix: At the opening event, the Argentine Grand Prix, the mechanics did not manage to finish the car in time for the start of the race. In addition, there was the so-called tire scandal at the French Grand Prix, an event that was indicative of the image that ATS and especially the team owner had given in recent years. The matter concerned the type of tires Goodyear purchased. Goodyear has been supplying special qualifying tires for individual teams for some time. This was a service reserved for the most capable teams such as Lotus and Brabham , which in turn competed with the Michelin- equipped teams of Scuderia Ferrari and Renault . ATS was not one of the teams favored by Goodyear as a team that had not scored a World Championship point in 1978 and was not able to show any countable results in 1979 either, so that it - like many others - had to compete in qualifying with racing tires. This fact further limited the competitiveness of the team. Hans Günter Schmid had repeatedly tried to get qualifying tires for his team during the 1979 season ; Goodyear had regularly refused. When Hans-Joachim Stuck could only achieve one of the slowest times with the ATS D2 during free practice at the French Grand Prix, Hans Günter Schmid saw the reason for this in the Goodyear tires. Schmid got one of his dreaded tantrums and immediately withdrew his team from the event - that is, before qualifying. As a consequence, ATS did not take part in this race. Fred Opert was appalled by the team owner's behavior and resigned immediately. In the days that followed, things settled down and Goodyear agreed to continue supplying ATS with tires. However, the team still did not receive qualifying tires. In the summer of 1979, the former racing driver Vic Elford took the place of Fred Opert as team manager .
The remaining races were joyless. At the British Grand Prix, Hans-Joachim Stuck found himself in the category of non- qualifiers alongside Arturo Merzario , who drove a self-built car. The ATS D2 was last used at the German Grand Prix. Here Stuck qualified as 23rd and penultimate. Due to a suspension failure, he was unable to complete a single lap of the team's home race. Then the D2 was taken out of service.
A new car
The ATS D3, the car that Nigel Stroud had been working on since the beginning of the year, was reported as a replacement at the following race, the Austrian Grand Prix. Stroud was supported by Kurt Chabek, who had previously worked for the Willi Kauhsen Racing Team on its unsuccessful Formula 1 project. Stroud and Chabek based their designs for ATS on Caliris D2, but designed a new monocoque and - much more important for the drivability of the car - a new suspension. A conventional Cosworth DFV eight-cylinder continued to serve as the drive . The changes turned out to be advantageous for the team: Hans-Joachim Stuck was able to qualify for 18th place on the grid when he first used the D3 . In the race, however, he retired due to an engine failure. In the following races Stuck was able to work out two 15th, a 14th and a 12th starting position, the latter at the Canadian Grand Prix. At the last run, the US Grand Prix, Stuck achieved the only points of the season for the team with a 5th place. The fact that only seven drivers crossed the finish line in this race does not diminish the value of the result.
1980
For the fourth Formula 1 season of the German racing team, Jo Ramirez took on the role of team manager, a position he had previously held at Fittipaldi for many years . The team started the season with the well-known D3 vehicles. In the first few months of the year, Gustav Brunner and Tim Wardrop revised the design considerably. The exterior of the new car, the ATS D4, was modeled on the Williams FW07, the car that made a significant impression in the 1979 Formula 1 season . It made its debut on the occasion of the third race of the season at the South African Grand Prix in Kyalami . A total of four copies of the D4 were produced.
The racing team now known as “Team ATS” reported two cars for the Swiss Marc Surer and the Dutch Jan Lammers at the start of the season . After a serious accident by Marc Surer, however, ATS reduced its commitment and only used one car for the rest of the season (with one exception), in which Lammers and Surer sat alternately.
Jan Lammers clearly missed qualifying in the first three races of the year, while Surer, on the other hand, was initially able to participate in races regularly. In the opening race, the Argentine Grand Prix , Marc Surer was able to qualify his D3 for 23rd place on the grid, but didn't see the finish line in the race because his car went up in flames on the 27th lap.
At the third race of the season, the South African Grand Prix , ATS reported the new D4 for the first time, which was initially a one-off. The car was handed over to Marc Surer, who completely destroyed it in a serious accident during free practice. Surer suffered two broken legs in this accident and had to pause at this and the following races. ATS did not hire a replacement driver, but instead concentrated on the deployment of Jan Lammers . In the fourth race of the season, the US Grand Prix (West) in Long Beach , Lammers was able to use a newly built D4. He got along with the car straight away: In qualifying for this event, Lammers was only 1.1 seconds slower than Nelson Piquet, who had fought for pole position for Brabham. During this time, Lammers sensationally reached fourth starting position and started ahead of Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann in the powerful Williams FW07B and in front of the Scuderia Ferrari cars . The good positioning was of no use, however, as the power transmission collapsed on the first lap and the car failed. At the subsequent Grand Prix of Belgium and Monte Carlo, Jan Lammers each achieved qualifications in midfield, but did not see the goal in each case. At the Belgian Grand Prix he was nevertheless classified - twelfth and last - because he had covered a sufficient distance despite an engine defect that occurred eight laps before the end.
At the French Grand Prix , Jan Lammers was replaced by the recovered Marc Surer , who was able to qualify in 11th place, but was eliminated in the race with transmission problems. Surer achieved the first actual finish of an ATS at the German Grand Prix , where he finished 12th. ATS registered a second car for this race, which was driven by Harald Ertl . Ertl couldn't qualify his D4; he missed qualification by 2.8 seconds and was still 2.3 seconds slower than the penultimate, Rupert Keegan in the RAM Racing team's Williams FW07B . In the other races, Surer initially qualified for starting positions in the midfield; in the further course of the season, however, the team fell further and further. The low point was Surer's non-qualification at the Canadian Grand Prix . The race results also remained inconspicuous. At the Austrian Grand Prix Surer was 12th, at the following Dutch Grand Prix tenth, and at the US Grand Prix in Watkins Glen he achieved the best result of the season with an eighth place.
1981
the initial situation
At the end of the 1980 Formula 1 season , Gustav Brunner left the ATS team to develop Formula 2 cars for the German racing team Maurer Motorsport . Hans Günter Schmid then engaged the French Hervé Guilpin as technical director for the coming year, who had previously worked for some time in the Formula 1 teams of Renault and the Équipe Ligier . Guilpin, in turn, was to design a new car for the team. At the beginning of the season, however, the new vehicle did not get beyond the planning stage, so that the racing team called “Team ATS” initially had to continue to compete with Gustav Brunner's ATS D4.
During the season there should be difficulties with the tire supplier. Since Goodyear had announced its withdrawal from Formula 1 at short notice in December 1980 in view of the ongoing power struggles between FISA and FOCA , which was affecting the reputation of motorsport, all teams - including ATS - had to join at the start of the 1981 Formula 1 World Championship Start Michelin tires . Michelin was only prepared to do this as long as no other tire manufacturers were involved in Formula 1. The Michelin tires were supposed to prove to be of limited resilience, so that many teams were not happy with the French tires that had to be used. The situation changed when, after a few races, Goodyear returned and signed a few select teams. Other teams switched to Pirelli during the season . The British tire manufacturer Avon Rubber , which had no Formula 1 experience so far, stepped in for the English teams RAM and Theodore Racing . ATS was also dissatisfied with Michelin, but was unable to come to an agreement with either Goodyear or Pirelli, so that in the end they switched to Avon tires. This step took place before the British Grand Prix.
ATS was to dominate the 1981 season with a single car. The team only registered two drivers for the San Marino Grand Prix . Jan Lammers from the Netherlands was initially registered again for the car with start number 9 , after having worked at Ensign for the rest of the previous season after leaving ATS .
They run
Jan Lammers was initially able to fall back on the two D4 chassis manufactured in 1980 with the numbers 03 and 04. With them he was only able to show subtle performances in the first races of the year, due to which ATS could be seen in the lower midfield.
Lammers was able to qualify for starting position 21 in the opening race, the Grand Prix of the USA (West) . In the race, however, he collided with Bruno Giacomelli in Alfa Romeo Motorsport , which severely damaged the chassis. In the two weeks leading up to the next race, the Brazilian Grand Prix , the team did not return to Germany, but stayed overseas. There the mechanics had to repair the destroyed chassis with improvised means. As a result, Jan Lammers was unable to qualify for the race in Brazil with the D4 that had been put back on its feet. At the Grand Prix of Argentina , the situation was somewhat better; Lammers qualified 23rd and finished 12th in the race, two laps behind. However, there were some inconsistencies in the team in connection with a rear wing. The team had a newly developed, so far untested rear wing that the engineers wanted to try out during training for the Argentine Grand Prix. In several press reports it can be read that Hans Günter Schmid rejected this. After the engineers insisted on using the new part, Schmid is said to have thrown the rear wing on the ground and destroyed it, according to these press reports. After that, some members of the team were fired.
At the beginning of the European season, ATS signed Roger Heavens as the new team manager. In addition, two vehicles were registered once for the first European race, the San Marino Grand Prix , ATS. In addition to Lammers, the Swede Slim Borgudd was registered (start number 10), an accomplished Formula 3 driver with no experience in Formula 1. Borgudd brought financial support from the Swedish pop band ABBA . He was not a member of this band himself, but had been on drums on two studio recordings. In Imola, both drivers had an ATS D4 at their disposal. Borgudd qualified for 24th place on the grid in his debut race and ultimately crossed the finish line in 13th place, three laps behind, while Jan Lammers failed to qualify. Hans Günter Schmid took this as an opportunity to part with Jan Lammers again. For the rest of the season, the team registered Slim Borgudd as the only driver (now with start number 9).
At the following race, the Belgian Grand Prix in Zolder, Borgudd received a new car for the first time, the ATS HGS designed by Hervé Guilpin. The HGS (for Hervé Guilpin / Schmid) was an uncomplicated car with a wing profile that did poorly with the Michelin tires harmonized. A conventional Cosworth DFV eight-cylinder was again used as the drive.
When it was first used in Zolder, Borgudd did not qualify, but damaged the HGS so that the D4 was used again in the next race, the Monaco Grand Prix . Borgudd was not able to qualify here or at the following races in Spain and France, his gap to the pole was between 4.5 seconds (in Spain) and 7.8 seconds (in Monaco). Things started to get better at the Great Britain Grand Prix , when ATS first used Avon tires. From now on the qualification was certain (with the exception of the last race of the season in Las Vegas), but Borgudd never got beyond the 20th place on the grid, which he achieved at the German Grand Prix . Overall, there were only two finishings for Borgudd with the HGS. Sixth place in the British Grand Prix was of particular value; after that he only finished at the Dutch Grand Prix , where Borgudd was unspectacular tenth. Apart from that, there were technical failures as well as driving errors.
ATS finished the season in eleventh place in the constructors' championship (on a par with Theodore Racing ).
1982 to 1984
Schmidt went to great lengths to get the team together in 1982 . Two D5 cars (greatly improved HGS1) were used for Manfred Winkelhock and Eliseo Salazar . This brought better results, a fifth place for Manfred Winkelhock at the Brazilian Grand Prix and a further fifth place for Eliseo Salazar at the San Marino Grand Prix. Winkelhock finished sixth at the San Marino Grand Prix, but was disqualified because his car was underweight. The race was boycotted by most British teams because of a political crisis within the sport. The team improved this season, but remained stuck in midfield. The most famous moment was probably when Nelson Piquet attacked Salazar in front of the cameras at the German Grand Prix because the ATS driver had collided with the leading Brazilian.
For 1983 the team used the same BMW turbo engine that the Brabham team also drove. Manfred Winkelhock continued to work as a driver, and the young Austrian Gustav Brunner was hired as a designer . The world first of the model with the designation D6 was an uncovered monocoque made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic . It turned out that the car was fast, but the team was overwhelmed with the technically demanding car. The sad climax was the Friday training for the 1983 race at the Hockenheimring , where Manfred Winkelhock was unable to complete a flying lap due to several technical defects in both the emergency car and the replacement car and rain prevented Manfred Winkelhock from qualifying for a time in Saturday's final training would have made possible. As a result of the season, there were several top 10 starting positions, but only an eighth place in the race at Brands Hatch and therefore no World Championship points to book.
For 1984 the D7 based on the same concept was used. The pattern of the season remained the same, Manfred Winkelhock was often fast on the road with the ATS-BMW, but the car remained prone to defects. At the Austrian Grand Prix in 1984, the young Austrian Gerhard Berger made his debut in a second car that made it to the finish line straight away. Then Gerhard Berger was also used for the Italian Grand Prix, where there was a scandal: Manfred Winkelhock's vehicle broke first gear before the start, whereupon Manfred Winkelhock parked his car. Team boss Günter Schmid interpreted this as a refusal to work and fired the driver.
Gerhard Berger in the second car had gearbox problems as well, but towards the end of the race - favored by many failures - was pushed up to sixth place. However, the team and driver did not get the due championship point recognized because ATS had only registered one car (Winkelhock) at the beginning of the season and the second had only been nominated during the season.
Disappointed by the series of failures of the past two years, BMW stopped delivering engines to ATS. Since Günter Schmid was unable to find an alternative engine supplier, the team was disbanded at the end of the 1984 season.
Comeback with Rial
After setting up a new rim manufacturer with RIAL , Schmid returned to Formula 1 as a Formula 1 team in 1988 . But the team withdrew as early as 1989 after scoring six World Cup points in two years.
literature
- David Hodges: Racing cars from AZ after 1945 . Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7
- Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. Cars, tracks and pilots. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .
- Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 . 2nd Edition. St. Sulpice 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French)
- Germany representation , in: auto, motor und sport , issue 6/1977 (article about ATS 'entry into Formula 1)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Doug Nye: The Big Book of Formula 1 Racing Cars. The three-liter formula from 1966. Rudolf Müller publishing company, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X , p. 167 f.