Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives
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| Surname | Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives |
|---|---|
| Companies | |
| Company headquarters | Gonfaron , France |
| Team boss | Henri Julien , Cyril de Rouvre, Henri Cochin, Gabriele Rafanelli |
| statistics | |
| First Grand Prix | Italy 1986 |
| Last Grand Prix | Spain 1991 |
| Race driven | 80 |
| Constructors' championship | - (best placement: 11th) |
| Drivers World Championship | 0 |
| Race wins | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| Points | 2 |
Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives ( AGS ) was a French racing car designer who competed with a works team in Formula 2 , Formula 3000 and Formula 1 from 1970 to 1991 . In Formula 1, AGS was one of the smallest racing teams. After the racing stable was closed in the fall of 1991, AGS was restructured into a leisure company. Today it offers private individuals the opportunity to drive Formula 1 cars on the company's own Circuit du Var in the municipality of Le Luc.
The origins
Henri Julien and Christian Vanderpleyn
The AGS racing team has its origins in the Garage de l'Avenir , a small petrol station and car workshop in the municipality of Gonfaron in the southern French department of Var near the Provençal Mediterranean coast. The workshop was owned by the automobile mechanic and amateur racing driver Henri Julien. From 1950 to 1960 he constructed a few small racing cars with which he took part in races in the south of France. From 1960 he used Junior and 3 third-party brands from Alpine and Lotus in the formulas ; In the 15 years of his racing career, however, he only achieved occasional successes. In 1969 Julien resumed building his own racing cars. The design engineer was his apprentice Christian Vanderpleyn. At that time, Julien founded Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives (AGS), which was housed in his Garage de l'Avenir . AGS initially served smaller classes such as Formula France , Formula Renault and Formula 3, from 1978 Formula 2 and from 1986 to 1991 Formula 1. AGS regularly maintained a works team during this time. Henri Julien remained its sporting director until Cyril de Rouvre took over the racing team in 1989. Henri Julien was honorary president of the leisure company AGS Formule 1 for many years .
The resources
Between 1960 and 1988, the Garage de l'Avenir in Gonfaron was the linchpin of the small racing team. Initially, the company operated directly from the workshop belonging to the petrol station. In the 1970s, Julien built a hall made of metal plates, which was temporarily glorified in the French press, behind the garage. It had a floor area of around 80 m² and was located in a garden lined with pine trees. In this atmosphere, which is described as picturesque and in any case unusual for international motorsport, all Formula 2, Formula 3000 and Formula 1 racing cars were built until 1988. Even during Formula 1 racing, AGS remained a tiny company; the racing team consisted of only six and eight employees until 1987 - at a time when Williams had over 100 employees and even Minardi employed over 30 people. However, AGS already owned the Circuit du Var in neighboring Le Luc at an early stage , where the team carried out private test drives more or less regularly.
In the course of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1989 , AGS moved into new, much larger and more modern factory buildings, which had been built by a company from the Cyril de Rouvres group. The new halls were located on the slope of Le Luc and are today the basis for the private racing of AGS Formule 1.
French national racing classes
In 1969 AGS started running a racing team on a regular basis. The reason for this was the establishment of Formule France 1968, a national junior class that was positioned below Formula 3. From 1971 the racing series was called Formula Renault , with the regulations largely unchanged .
In the summer of 1969, AGS used a car for the first time in the Formule France. The first car used was not an AGS own design, but the Alpine 270, which Henri Julien had driven himself in Formula 3 until 1965. Christian Vanderpleyn had modified the Alpine 270 in such a way that the car could accommodate a 1300 cc Renault Gordini engine (from a Renault R8) including the associated gear unit. The team's first driver was François Rabbione.
From 1970 AGS regularly produced its own cars for smaller racing classes, some of which were used by their own team at the factory, and were rarely given to private customers.
- The first car to be named AGS was the AGS JH5 , which Christian Vanderpleyn designed for Formule France in 1970. In one source this vehicle is referred to as the AGS JH1. The contemporary entry lists for the races of the Formule France des Jahres, however, consistently list the car as JH5. The Formule France was a racing class below Formula 3, which was first advertised in 1968 and was called Formule Renault from 1971. The technical layout and exterior of the JH5 were clearly similar to the contemporary Formula 3 car from Tecno . It was driven by François Rabbione and Gérard Cerruti in 1970 . Cerruti was able to achieve third place on the Circuit Paul Ricard as the best result.
- In 1971 the AGS JH7 was created for the junior series, now called Formula Renault; three copies of him were built. The driver for the works team was François Guerre-Berthelot .
- In 1972 AGS built two copies of an AGS JH8 for Formula Renault and, as a single piece, an AGS JH9 for Formula 3. The latter was the only vehicle that AGS built for this class. The car was occasionally driven by Guerre-Berthelot.
- In 1973 a single AGS JH10 was built for Formula Renault. Alain Jallot moved the car for the AGS team. The best result was fourth place for Jallot in the Monaco race.
- In 1974 the AGS JH11 was developed - again for Formula Renault . This was the first AGS car to feature a monocoque construction; all previous vehicles had separate frame constructions. The JH11 was produced in four copies; two of them were sold to private customers. The works driver was Allain Jallot.
- In 1975 AGS got involved for the first time in Formula Renault Europe, the next higher motor sport class held across Europe. For this purpose, Vanderpleyn designed the AGS JH13 , which was driven by Xavier Mathiot , Christian Ethuin and a French racing driver with the pseudonym "Steve".
- In 1976 and 1977 AGS competed with the JH14 in Formula Renault Europe. In 1977 Richard Dallest drove for the AGS factory team.
AGS in Formula 2
AGS competed in the Formula 2 European Championship between 1978 and 1984 with self-designed cars . The results were different. After initial difficulties, the team was able to establish itself and was regularly good for placements in the points and - in individual years - also for podium places. These results were mostly achieved by established drivers who have long been associated with the team, such as Richard Dallest or Philippe Streiff . In total there have been three victories in Formula 2 in seven years: two for Dallest in the 1980 season and one for Streiff in the 1984 season. Streiff wrote something like motorsport history here, as he won the very last race in Formula 2.
1978
In the 1978 season the AGS works team competed in Formula 2 for the first time. The racing team was named after the sponsors Sol-Amor GPA Motul . In contrast to most of the other teams, AGS did not use customer vehicles, but reported a vehicle they had designed themselves, the AGS JH15 , as in the smaller classes . According to contemporary reports, it was an uncomplicated construction that did not show any outstanding aerodynamic qualities. A conventional BMW M12 engine served as the drive . The JH15 was manufactured in two copies (chassis numbers 021 and 022).
The first year in Formula 2 was problematic. There were many difficulties and hardly any successes. Richard Dallest and José Dolhem were hired as drivers ; however, the team usually only came to the respective races with one car and one driver. Dolhem was only entered in three races; he started two races but never saw the finish line. The other races were played by Dallest, who reached only two finishings ( eleventh at the Grand Prix de Nogaro and 16th at the Gran Premio dell'Adriatico in Misano ).
1979
There was no improvement in the following season . AGS competed under the name Team Motul Nogaro and brought an AGS JH16 to the start. This was a revised version of last year JH15 with chassis number 022. The JH16 had still not pronounced underbody aerodynamics and was therefore the current competition vehicles of March , in particular with ground effect working March 792 , inferior. The team only took part in five of the championship's 12 races. José Dolhem started for AGS in the first race of the season at Silverstone . He finished 14th, ten laps behind. Alain Couderc was hired for the other races . He finished eleventh in the second race of the season at Hockenheim . At the third race at Thruxton , Couderc was involved in a mass accident after the start and caused serious damage to his car. The team skipped the following three races; it did not appear again until the Grand Prix de Pau , the eighth race of the season. Here Couderc retired after 21 laps with a damaged clutch. After that, AGS again skipped a few races in order to compete again for the "Donington 500", the last race of the season. Here, too, a damaged clutch ended the race early.
In the summer of 1979 AGS took part in a factory race of the Aurora AFX Formula 1 series with the JH15 (chassis number 021) .
1980
In the third season , the team established itself. With the AGS JH17, AGS used a competitive car that had a ground-effect construction and was also quite reliable. The car was produced as a single copy with the chassis number 023. Richard Dallest, who came back to the team, was able to qualify regularly and saw the goal a total of eight times. This season AGS scored its first championship points. In addition, Dallest won two races: first the "home race", the Grand Prix de Pau, and a few weeks later the Zandvoort Grand Prix . Dallest achieved 23 championship points throughout the year and finished sixth in the Formula 2 championship.
1981
In the 1981 season , AGS was unable to maintain the form of the previous year. There was a new car, the JH18 , but this vehicle was only finished for the fifth race of the season. It also remained a single copy (chassis number 024). Last year's JH17 had to be used before it appeared.
Richard Dallest entered the first three races of the year, but could not finish any run. After an injury, he was replaced once for the ADAC Eifel race at the Nürburgring by Patrick Gaillard , who was also unable to reach the finish line. With the JH18, Dallest reached the finish line at the races in Mugello , Enna , Misano and Mantorp ; the latter two he was able to finish fifth. Another finish - outside of the points - reached Tiff Needell , who replaced Dallest in the Donington 500 .
1982
In the 1982 season the situation stabilized again. AGS built the AGS JH19 for the new year , a modified version of the JH18, especially with a longer wheelbase. Two cars were rebuilt (chassis numbers 025 and 026). The team, now called Motul GPA Nogaro , fielded two cars for the first time, one for Philippe Streiff and a second for Pascal Fabre . Both drivers were reliable: each of them finished eight out of 13 races. There were a number of finishings in the points. The most gratifying result for the team was a second place for Streiff and a third place for Fabre at the Gran Premio di Roma on the Vallelunga circuit . Streiff finished second again in Mantorp, fourth in Zolder and Enna and fifth in Donington and Thruxton. Streiff finished sixth in the championship with 22 points, Fabre reached five points and was 15th. Streiff stayed with the team in the following years, Fabre, however, drove back to Formula 3 in 1983. In 1987 he returned to AGS, this time in Formula 1.
1983
In its sixth season , AGS started under the name Ecurie Armagnac Bigorre Nogaro . The team reported the model JH19B, of which two vehicles (chassis numbers 027 and 028) were produced during the year. Initially, the racing team with Philippe Streiff was the only driver. Streiff finished the first race of the season at Silverstone in fifth and the second in Thruxton in eighth. After an engine failure in Hockenheim, AGS had to skip the fourth race of the season at the Nürburgring. This was due to significant financial problems. Then the team managed to sign a contract with the Italian racing driver Fulvio Ballabio . He brought considerable financial resources with which the racing operations could be resumed. Streiff continued to compete with the JH19B, while Ballabio received a JH19 from last year. Streiff had some good results as the season progressed. He was second at the Gran Premio del Mediterraneo in Enna, third in Donington, at the Limburg Grand Prix in Zolder and Mugello, and he finished fourth at the Gran Premio de Madrid . Ballabio crossed the finish line five times in seven attempts, two of them in the points. Streiff finished the season in fourth place with 25 championship points, Ballabio in 17th place with three points.
1984
1984 was the last year of Formula 2. AGS developed the well-known model further, so that it was registered as JH19C for Philippe Streiff . The JH19C was a revised version of the JH19B (chassis number 028) produced in the previous year. The team was now called AGS Elf , and Elf Gitanes AGS in some races . Philippe Streiff won the last run of the championship, the Daily Mail Trophy at Brands Hatch . In addition, he finished second at the Grand Prix de Pau and at the Gran Premio dell'Adriatico and achieved three more results in the points. There were also a number of technical failures. At the Gran Premio dell'Adriatico, AGS also used a JH19 for Stefano Livio , who finished eleventh in the race. A JH19 for Marc Sourd was also reported for the Gran Premio di Mugello, but the car was ultimately not used.
At the second race of the season, the Germany Trophy at the Hockenheim-Ring, a private AGS JH19 from the JPL team was registered for the German racing driver Hans-Peter Pandur . Pandur started but couldn't finish the race due to a technical error.
AGS in Formula 3000
1985
From 1985 Formula 2 was replaced by Formula 3000. Racing vehicles with naturally aspirated engines and a displacement of up to 3.0 liters were permitted. Vanderpleyn developed the AGS JH20 for the new racing class . This was a largely new car that had already been designed with a future Formula 1 commitment in mind. According to some sources, the JH20 used some components of the Duqueine V4 , which was designed by private engineers for Formula 3 in 1984. In particular, the AGS mechanics, who themselves had no experience with processing plastics, used the Duqueine's plastic monocoque, reinforced with carbon fibers . A vehicle of the JH20 (chassis number 029) was produced for the works team.
The JH20 (chassis number 029) was driven throughout the 1985 Formula 3000 season by Philippe Streiff, who was also active in Formula 1 for Ligier and Tyrrell in the second half of the season . Streiff reached seven finishings, five of them in the points: He finished third in the penultimate race of the season in Zandvoort and fifth in each of Vallelunga , Pau , Zeltweg and Donington . With a total of 12 championship points, he finished the season in eighth place.
1986
In 1986 AGS no longer took part in the Formula 3000 factory; the team prepared for promotion to Formula 1. However, the private team Danielson was supplied with a newly built vehicle called JH20B (chassis number 030), which used the car for Richard Dallest ( Pau and Jarama ) and Alain Ferté ( Le Mans and Jarama) in the second half of the season . Neither driver achieved any results in the points.
AGS in Formula 1
The history
Since the late 1970s, Henri Julien had thought about advancing to Formula 1.
AGS first came into contact with the Formula 1 environment as early as 1979 - albeit not directly in the context of the Formula 1 World Championship. The occasion was the British Aurora AFX Formula 1 series , a series that was in the tradition of a purely British Formula 1 championship and was held from 1978 to 1982. Older Formula 1 vehicles were usually used here; Formula 2 racing cars were also permitted, however. The races took place mainly on British racetracks; only a few races were held on continental European courses.
On 8 July 1979 took place at the Aurora Championship 1979 the Nogaro Grand Prix on the in the Pyrenees located Circuit Paul Armagnac instead. For this race, the Motul Nogaro team - under this name AGS was active in Formula 2 in 1979 - a JH15 (as of 1978) with a BMW engine for Alain Couderc. AGS was the only team that entered this race with a pure Formula 2 car. Couderc qualified to participate in the race and held out against the competition, which was largely equipped with Cosworth DFV eight-cylinders, for 42 laps. Then the clutch broke, a defect that AGS repeatedly encountered in the 1979 season. Couderc had to end the race early.
In the following years, AGS repeatedly toyed with the idea of constructing a Formula 1 car. From 1981 Julien tried several times to get turbo engines from Renault F1 , but was unsuccessful. At the same time, Vanderpleyn developed designs for a Formula 1 car with a Cosworth naturally aspirated engine and another model with a turbo engine from BMW . For financial reasons, none of the drafts was implemented.
1986
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At the end of 1985, the Renault works team withdrew from Formula 1. In the following months, Henri Julien managed to buy up extensive components from the factory team's spare parts store. In particular, this included several monocoques from earlier Renault racing cars, which were to form the basis for a future Formula 1 chassis from AGS. This ensured that the small company from Gonfaron had state-of-the-art technology at Formula 1 level, even though it still had no experience in developing or manufacturing plastic components. With Renault resources in the background, Julien, now 58, decided at the beginning of 1986 to establish his team in Formula 1 in the future.
The emergency vehicle was the AGS JH21C , which had been designed by Christian Vanderpleyn. The car used the suspension and brakes from the Renault RE60 , and the plastic monocoque was also similar to that of the RE60. However, AGS did not receive turbo engines from Renault. With the help of the Italian sponsor Jolly Club , AGS got access to the Italian six-cylinder turbo engine from Motori Moderni , which had been exclusively supplied to the Minardi team from 1985 onwards. The first AGS Formula 1 car was completed in July 1986.
Didier Pironi's test drive
The presentation of the JH21C caused quite a stir. At first, the public was surprised that a small workshop from a village in the south of France was able to set up a Formula 1 racing car. In addition, AGS caused a small sensation with its first test driver: On August 12, 1986, Henri Julien had his AGS JH21C tested by Didier Pironi on the Le Castellet slope . Pironi had not sat in a Formula 1 car since his serious accident in training for the 1982 German Grand Prix . The test was mediated by François Guerre-Bethelot, a former AGS pilot and friend of Pironis. The French press was already speculating that Pironi would return to Formula 1, and Pironi himself occasionally announced that he wanted to take part in Grand Prix again in 1987. AGS, however, announced in a press release before the test drives began that it was only a matter of friendship; an obligation Pironis as a regular driver is not planned. Pironi completed a total of 70 laps with the JH21C and achieved a best time of 47 seconds for one lap. There were no further trips with AGS.
Two weeks later, Pironi drove a few more test laps for Guy Ligier's Formula 1 team . As a result, Pironis' occupational disability insurance, which had paid out in accordance with the contract in 1982, threatened to reclaim the sum insured if Pironi continued his Formula 1 drives. In the years that followed, Pironi turned to powerboat racing.
They run
The AGS team debuted under the name Jolly Club SpA at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza in September 1986. Frédéric Dhainhaut acted as race director ; Ivan Capelli , who led the championship in Formula 3000, was the team's only driver. There were numerous mechanical problems throughout the weekend, plus problems with the engines, which were used engines that were up to 1985 technical standards. Nevertheless, Capelli qualified the car for 25th place on the grid, just under 10 seconds behind Teo Fabi's pole time in the Benetton Formula ; the projection from the last placed Osella of piercarlo ghinzani and Alex Caffi was almost three seconds each. In the race itself, Capelli retired after 31 laps with a puncture, but at this point had already advanced to 13th position. At the subsequent Grand Prix of Portugal , Capelli again reached 25th place on the grid (ahead of Huub Rothengatters Zakspeed and Allen Bergs Osella). Here, too, he did not see the checkered flag in the race. After six laps Capelli retired after a broken suspension. This ended the 1986 Formula 1 season for AGS. The team did not take part in the final overseas races in Mexico and Australia for cost reasons. Henri Julien was not dissatisfied; his team had managed to qualify straight away on both attempts without having to be the last to start the race.
1987
1987 was the first full Formula 1 season for AGS. This year there was a major change in the regulations: As of now, naturally aspirated engines were permitted again in addition to turbo engines. In order to make this alternative interesting despite the considerable performance deficit compared to the turbo engines, the FISA announced two separate championships with suction cups: a championship called the Jim Clark Trophy for the best driver with a suction car, and another called the Colin Chapman Trophy for the best naturally aspirated team. Some racing teams took up this option. From the existing teams, Tyrrell switched to a Cosworth naturally aspirated engine. In addition, there were a number of new teams that competed for the first time in the 1987 season and immediately used the naturally aspirated engines: March Engineering in Great Britain, Larrousse in France and - from late summer 1987 - the Italian team Coloni . AGS also made an early decision to use the conventional, but inexpensive, naturally aspirated engine technology in the 1987 season. The team used a Cosworth DFZ eight-cylinder that was prepared at Heini Mader Racing Components . The races were contested with the AGS JH22 , which was a further development of the JH21C.
AGS hired Frenchman Pascal Fabre, who had already driven for the team in Formula 2 in 1982, as driver. AGS had initially hoped for Philippe Streiff; Streiff had long been a regular driver for Tyrrell . On the other hand, Fabre had long delayed signing with AGS because for some time he saw an opportunity to get a contract with Ligier. Ligier, however, preferred the experienced René Arnoux . For AGS, Pascal Fabre's commitment meant no financial expenses: Fabre drove without a salary. On the other hand, he did not have any Formula 1 experience.
Before the first race of the season, AGS did a short test on the Le Castellet slope . Here Fabre was regularly the slowest driver. His lap times were about five seconds higher than those of Streiff in the Tyrrell, who used a comparable engine. Julien and Vanderpleyn knew they had an extremely slow car; Their goal was to build a vehicle that could qualify and reliably finish the races.
This goal has been achieved. In the first ten races of the year, Pascal Fabre saw the checkered flag nine times. As a result, AGS led the Colin Chapman Trophy until the summer of 1987.
During the season, Fabre was one of the slowest drivers. He was mostly only able to qualify for the last two or three rows and was often around 10 seconds behind pole time. At the end of the races Fabre was lapped several times, at the Monaco Grand Prix even seven times. The team's immediate opponents were not the other naturally aspirated teams, but the non-competitive turbo vehicles from Osella and Zakspeed , which had to contend with a considerable technical deficit. The only exception was the French Grand Prix , where Fabre stopped on the Mistral straight of the Circuit Paul Ricard with the fastest time of all naturally aspirated vehicles.
In the summer of 1987, it was clear to Henri Julien and Christian Vanderpleyn that AGS would no longer be able to qualify on a regular basis in the future, as an increase in the number of registered vehicles was foreseeable: On the one hand, the new Coloni team took on one car from the Italian Grand Prix part of the world championship, on the other hand, Osella (for Franco Forini and Gabriele Tarquini ) and Larrousse (for Yannick Dalmas ) each reported a second car from summer 1987.
Initially, Henri Julien decided to use a second car for his part. For this purpose, a second chassis with the chassis number 033 was built, which was ready for use in the summer of 1987 and should be brought to the start with Roberto Moreno . These plans failed, however, when Pascal Fabre destroyed his car (the 031/032) so thoroughly in a mass collision at the Austrian Grand Prix that the car could not be rebuilt at short notice. AGS therefore gave the new chassis to Pascal Fabre, who, under the changed conditions, had increasing difficulties in qualifying in the coming races. His last outing was the Spanish Grand Prix , which Fabre started from 25th place and had to end after just 10 laps due to a clutch defect. At the Grand Prix of Italy , Portugal and Mexico , Fabre failed to qualify.
Thereupon Julien separated from Fabre, who could not achieve any further engagement with a Formula 1 team. Roberto Moreno took his place. At the Japanese Grand Prix Moreno showed decent performance. The qualification was not in jeopardy, as Osella had only entered one car and Coloni had not started at all. Moreno qualified for last place on the grid, ten seconds behind. After 38 laps he retired with a defective fuel injection. The following race in Australia , however, turned into a sensation: From 25th place on the grid, Moreno drove reliably to sixth place in special climatic conditions, which caused numerous turbo vehicles to fail, and gave the small team its first world championship point. With this, AGS finished the first full season in eleventh place in the constructors' championship - on a par with the national competition Ligier. The French press reacted effusively. The sports newspaper L'Equipe, for example, recognized the tradition of Amédée Gordini in Henri Julien and Christian Vanderpleyn and called them "les nouveaux sorciers" (the new witchers) in an issue from November 1987.
1988
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In the winter of 1987/88, AGS suffered from serious financial problems. Participation in the 1988 Formula 1 World Championship was only secured when Philippe Streiff was hired as a driver and the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company (with the Camel brand ) was won as a sponsor . A further financial consolidation became apparent in April 1988 when the French group Bouygues joined as a major sponsor. In view of the now positive prospects, AGS increased its staff; One of the new signings was the former racing driver François Guerre-Berthelot, who would in future be the sporting director.
Christian Vanderpleyn developed the team's future car, the AGS JH23 , during the winter months . It was a small, uncomplicated car that had meanwhile largely emancipated itself from the Renault origins of its predecessors. With a wheelbase of 2680 mm, the JH23 was next to the Minardi M188 the most compact car in this year's starting field; the complete lack of an air scoop made it look even lower. The JH23 was in turn powered by a Cosworth DFZ eight-cylinder that was prepared by Heini Mader.
According to Steiff, the JH23 had considerable development potential. During the first test drives before the start of the season, the car appeared - like its predecessors - in white paint; after Bouygues joined the company, the color of the car was changed to black and the sponsor labels were shown in a striking orange.
In terms of performance potential, the JH23 was a significant step forward over its predecessors. Philippe Streiff managed to qualify in all 16 races; Starting places among the first 20 were the rule. The best qualifying result achieved Streiff at the Canadian Grand Prix , where he with 3.2 seconds behind the pole time of Ayrton Senna in the turbo-powered McLaren took the 10th starting position (before the Williams of Riccardo Patrese and the Lotus of Satoru Nakajima ). In the following race, the US Grand Prix , Streiff entered the race in eleventh place and in the Monaco Grand Prix in twelfth.
However, these qualification results can only rarely be converted into countable results. During the season, Streiff only finished five out of 16 races. His best result was eighth place in the Japanese Grand Prix ; otherwise he finished ninth in Portugal , tenth in Imola and Belgium and twelfth at the Mexican Grand Prix .
The JH23 suffered from technical defects throughout the year, which ruined promising positions in the races. This was particularly evident at the Canadian Grand Prix: Here Streiff was in fifth position when he was forced to retire on lap 41 after breaking the suspension. In Detroit, after a long battle for seventh place, Streiff overtook three-time world champion Nelson Piquet in a turbo-powered Lotus Honda. However, the suspension of the AGS was damaged during the overtaking maneuver, so that Streiff failed again. At the British Grand Prix in Silverstone, the rear wing of the AGS broke off in the middle of the race. The car became uncontrollable and Streiff suffered minor injuries after the ride. Streiff could not even take part in the Monaco Grand Prix, a home race of the racing team based on the Côte d'Azur . During the formation lap, the car suffered a defect in the throttle cable that could not be repaired before the start of the race. At the Australian Grand Prix , Streiff, in seventh place, rolled out prematurely due to a lack of petrol. In view of the distance covered, he was ultimately classified eleventh (and last). Overall, AGS ended the 1988 season, in which McLaren scored a total of 199 championship points, without a single point in the constructors' championship. However, the results of the other two French teams, the Équipe Ligier and Larrousse, were no better despite greater resources.
In the second half of 1988, AGS suffered from significant problems within the team. They were triggered by the withdrawal of the sponsor Bouygues , who, according to some French press reports, had not met his payment obligations since spring. Henri Julien had invested heavily in the infrastructure of his team in view of the prospective funds from Bouygues. In particular, he organized a modernization of the race track in Le Luc and had new, contemporary workshops built there for his team. By the time Bouygues withdrew, work on the new factory halls had already started. With his sponsor gone, Julien could no longer pay the contractors' bills; in the summer of 1988 the team was threatened with bankruptcy. To save the racing team, Cyril de Rouvre , the owner of one of the construction companies involved , took over the AGS team; In return, his wage claims from the construction work in Le Luc were canceled. Henri Julien had to agree to this solution. He remained honorary president and advisor to the racing team, but saw his actual skills increasingly limited.
This uncertainty resulted in a number of AGS employees leaving the team in August. In addition to a few mechanics, these were mainly Christian Vanderpleyn, who ended his almost thirty-year relationship with the Provencal racing team, and team manager Frédéric Dhainhaut. They joined the Italian team Coloni.
1989
the initial situation
1989 turned into a troubled year for AGS. Internally, the team experienced major disruptions that had an impact on competitiveness. After Christian Vanderpleyn and some veteran AGS mechanics moved out, Cyril de Rouvre hired a number of new employees who brought in sound skills, but who - as a former team member complained - lacked the emotional connection to the racing team that had been lacking in the past decades Had repeatedly made up for resources. From 1989, the new staff included the engineer Claude Galopin , who had previously worked at Ligier , and Henri Cochin, who became the team leader. At the beginning of the 1989 season, a total of 30 employees worked for the team.
The most important technical rule change was the new ban on turbo engines: In future, all teams had to use naturally aspirated engines. While the financially strongest racing teams mostly had exclusive engine partners such as Honda or Renault who provided highly developed, powerful engines, smaller teams usually used customer engines from Judd or Cosworth, which were largely standardized and had a performance deficit of at least 100 hp compared to the most powerful engines.
The considerable expansion of the starting field was also of considerable practical relevance. It was based on the one hand on the fact that in 1989 more racing teams with 20 teams competed in Formula 1 than ever before; on the other hand, in 1989 FISA required each team to use two cars. Since all teams with the exception of EuroBrun followed this demand, a total of 39 vehicles competed for 26 starting positions in 1989. This made a pre-qualification necessary, which was held on Friday morning before the first free practice. Twelve vehicles competed against each other in it, and only the four fastest were allowed to participate in the subsequent qualifying. The pre-qualification was subject to the weakest teams in terms of the preseason as well as those teams that had only used one car in 1988 but registered two cars in 1989: In this case, the newly registered second car was subject to the pre-qualification. This also affected AGS: One of the AGS cars had a safe starting position until the middle of the season, the second had to pre-qualify from the start.
The cars
As in previous years, AGS stuck to Cosworth engines for 1989. Most statistics refer to the engine as the Cosworth DFR, but other sources claim that AGS only used revised DFZ engines.
Claude Galopin started work on a new car at the beginning of the year; At the start of the season, however, it wasn't ready, so the team had to start with revised cars from the previous year. These so-called JH23B were the three vehicles built in 1988 with the chassis numbers 034, 035 and 036. An eight-cylinder engine from Cosworth, which was prepared by Heini Mader, still served as the drive. A new feature was a six-speed transmission developed by AGS, which replaced the five-speed model used in the previous year.
For the eighth race of the 1989 season, the British Grand Prix , there was a new car: Claude Galopin's AGS JH24 was a slim car that had an engine cover for the first time in the team's history and was more powerful than its predecessor and heavier monocoque as well as a lower engine suspension. The JH24, produced in three copies, was the most unsuccessful car that AGS has built for Formula 1: In the eleven races between July 1989 and March 1990, only one qualification of a JH24 was recorded in 21 attempts (Dalmas at the Brazilian Grand Prix ) where it was only enough to 28 laps. In the 1989 Formula 1 season, the JH24 did not take part in a single race.
The driver choice
As the first driver who was not subject to the pre-qualification, Philippe Streiff was named again. In the end, Streiff did not drive due to his serious test accident before the start of the season; he was replaced by Gabriele Tarquini .
For the second cockpit, Jean-Louis Schlesser had been in discussion for a while , who had made an unsuccessful attempt in 1983 to qualify for RAM at the French Grand Prix and in 1988 a single Formula 1 race for Williams (as a replacement for the crashed one Nigel Mansell ) had driven. In the end, however, the team decided on German newcomer Joachim Winkelhock , the younger brother of the racing driver Manfred Winkelhock, who died in 1985 . Joachim Winkelhock drove in Formula 3 last year; He did not have any experience in Formula 3000. His direct entry into Formula 1 was primarily due to his sponsors Liqui Moly and Camel Deutschland , who wanted to present their names worldwide. AGS was very interested in the associated funds and put aside concerns about Winkelhock's performance. Winkelhock was subject to pre-qualification. An antipathy, perceived by outsiders, soon developed between Joachim Winkelhock and team boss Henri Cochin. Winkelhock was not integrated into the team and was not regularly informed about current developments. For example, Cochin failed to notify Winkelhock of the team's test drive in Le Castellet. Winkelhock only found out about this from some journalists at the next race. Numerous press releases then contain references to practical disadvantages at Winkelhock. The British auto course reports that Winkelhock was pre-qualified for the Monaco Grand Prix with full tanks; another time he was denied fresh tires. In fact, even though the team had reported two cars for the 1989 season, AGS was still no more than a one-car team: all attention was on the first car, which was initially exempt from pre-qualification. Winkelhock ended his engagement with AGS before the end of the season.
Philippe Streiff's accident in Rio de Janeiro
One week before the start of the season, FISA held official test drives in Rio de Janeiro , in which AGS took part like most other teams. During a test drive on March 18, 1989, Streiff probably came off the road as a result of a driving error. The car rolled over several times, and the roll bar, which was not integrated into the chassis, broke off, and the chassis was destroyed. Streiff was able to free himself from the wreck on his own. Regardless of this, complications arose in the hours that followed, as a result of which Streiff suffered paraplegia . Whether the paralysis was a direct consequence of the accident or was due to errors in medical care is controversial. There are very different media reports about what exactly happened after the accident:
- In the European press it was repeatedly reported that some serious errors had occurred in the rescue measures. The Italian magazine autosprint in particular reports devastating conditions. After that, no or no trained helpers were on site, initially no ambulance was available, and the ambulance that finally arrived - with Streiff on board - got lost several times on the way to the clinic and thus wasted valuable time. Streiff was taken to a "dirty hospital" and operated on by doctors who had no experience with such injuries. According to its own statements, autosprint relied on statements from Streiff and his wife.
- According to reports in the Brazilian media, however, no mistakes were made in Streiff's treatment. The rescue personnel were there on time and Streiff was brought to the clinic by helicopter. The operation in the hospital went flawlessly. Instead, the paraplegia was an immediate and inevitable consequence of the serious accident. However, this representation cannot explain why Streiff initially managed to leave the wrecked car on his own.
They run
For the opening race of the 1989 Formula 1 season, the Brazilian Grand Prix , which took place eight days after Streiff's serious accident, AGS only competed with Joachim Winkelhock in the second JH23B; there was initially no replacement for Philippe Streiff. Winkelhock was only ninth in the pre-qualification and was not allowed to participate in the actual qualification. For the following race AGS signed the Italian Gabriele Tarquini to replace Streiff. The year before, Tarquini had driven for Coloni, a similarly small racing team like AGS, and in 1989 was initially associated with the failed Formula 1 project of the Italian Formula 3000 team First Racing . Tarquini's car was initially exempt from pre-qualification.
In his first race for AGS, the San Marino Grand Prix , Tarquini qualified for 18th place on the grid with his JH23B (ahead of Nelson Piquet's Lotus ) and crossed the finish line in eighth place. At the Monaco Grand Prix he even managed to finish 13th on the grid, but was canceled in the race due to an electrical defect. Things went better at the Mexican Grand Prix . Here Tarquini, starting from 17th place, crossed the finish line in sixth place, giving the AGS team the second world championship point after Roberto Moreno's success in Australia in 1987. At the subsequent US Grand Prix , Tarquini came in seventh again. It should be the last finish line for AGS this year. At the next two races in Canada and France , he retired, once due to an engine failure and once again after an accident.
The new JH24 was used for the first time at the Grand Prix of Great Britain (initially only for Gabriele Tarquini; the second JH24 was only finished three weeks later). Tarquini also got a new team-mate for the same race. After Joachim Winkelhock had not even passed the pre-qualification in seven attempts, he parted ways with AGS. He was replaced by the French Yannick Dalmas , who had driven for Larrousse the year before. His results were no better than the Winkelhocks: Dalmas did not even make the pre-qualification once. This meant that the second AGS car did not even take part in a race.
The team's situation worsened in the second half of the season: After the race at Silverstone , the teams whose cars were subject to pre-qualification were reassembled. The basis for this was now the results of the first half of the 1989 season. AGS had achieved one championship point in the past six months and was thus better than some direct competitors such as Coloni, EuroBrun Racing or Zakspeed . However, other pre-qualifiers - for example Rials - had been more successful. Minardi was of particular importance : In the last decisive race, the Grand Prix of Great Britain, his drivers Pierluigi Martini and Luis Pérez-Sala finished fifth and sixth respectively, and thus the first three championship points for the Italian team this season fetched. These three points saved both Minardi drivers the pre-qualification in the future. As a team with only one World Championship point, AGS was left behind at the last minute, so that from the German Grand Prix both AGS drivers were subject to pre-qualification. Both Tarquini and Dalmas regularly failed in the remaining eight races of the year due to the pre-qualification. At the Japanese Grand Prix they even took the last two places, eight and ten seconds behind. In Portugal , Dalmas was excluded from further participation during the pre-qualification because he had used tires from the previous race contrary to the rules.
AGS finished the 1989 Formula 1 season with a world championship point as 14th in the constructors' championship, on a par with Gérard Larrousse's team .
AGS and MGN
During 1989, the French press in particular repeatedly associated AGS with a new type of Formula 1 engine from Moteurs Guy Nègre (MGN). The Provencal company developed and built a twelve-cylinder W engine for Formula 1 in 1988 . In September 1989 MGN tested the engine in a converted JH22. These were private tests; AGS was not involved. There are no indications that AGS would have been interested in regular use of the engine in Formula 1.
1990
1990 , the team’s fifth Formula 1 season, was another difficult year for AGS. This year 19 racing teams competed in Formula 1. Although had Zakspeed and Rial end of 1989 ceased operations, from Italy came the new team Life Racing , who first became involved in F1. The starting field consisted of 35 cars. Unlike in 1989, the teams again had the option of only having one car at the start. Osella, Coloni and Life Racing made use of it; AGS, however, continued to compete with two cars. In view of the disappointing results of the previous year, both cars were subject to pre-qualification, where they had to compete against the cars from Coloni, EuroBrun Racing, Life Racing and Osella.
In the winter months of 1989/90, the restructuring of the AGS team continued. Apart from the two drivers Gabriele Tarquini and Yannick Dalmas, who should stay with the team for the new season, Cyril de Rouvre hired a number of new employees. The new figurehead was Hugues de Chaunac , the founder of the versatile French racing team ORECA . De Chaunac, for his part, has been a national motorsport legend since he was the manager of the young Formula 3 driver Alain Prost in the 1970s . He was supposed to give the ailing AGS team shine, but only stayed a few months. As early as June 1990, when the missed pre-qualifications were increasing, he left the team again so as not to damage his reputation - according to the assessment in the French press. Claude Rouelle, who held the position of technical director, was also new to the team. Michel Costa had returned to AGS from Italy (from Coloni) , where he had worked alongside Christian Vanderpleyn between 1980 and 1988.
Michel Costa has been developing a new car since the beginning of the year, the AGS JH25 . Many components of the car corresponded to its predecessor, for example the conventional suspension or the transmission. The car was still very heavy, but many observers agreed that it had improved aerodynamics . The most striking detail was an oval air inlet at the top of the airbox. The JH25 was only finished for the third race of the year, the first run of the "European season" in Imola; for the first two races, AGS continued to use the non-competitive JH24, which has now been reported as a B specification. The JH25 was in use until the summer of 1991.
At the start of the season, AGS had relatively generous sponsorship money from Ted Lapidus , a French couturier. The car was painted black and sported silver accent strips with yellow Lapidus lettering. The color pattern was also retained after Lapidus split from the team in the summer of 1990 due to the lack of success.
The team had few successes in 1990, although there was a slight tendency towards improvement towards the end of the year. The opening race, the US Grand Prix in Phoenix , was disappointing. It was the race of the small teams. Surprising was the Minardi of Pierluigi Martini on the second and Olivier Grouillards Osella on the eighth place. In this unique situation of the weakness of the big teams, which was favored by special qualifying tires from Pirelli , both AGS drivers missed the pre-qualification with their old JH24B models. At the subsequent Brazilian Grand Prix , Dalmas managed a surprise: Dalmas fought his way through pre-qualification and qualification, and ultimately he worked his way up to 26th (and last) place on the grid for the race (3.8 seconds behind Ayrton's pole time Senna in the McLaren). In the race itself he completed 28 laps. On lap 29, the front suspension broke, which the mechanics had just reinforced. This was the only appearance of a JH 24 in a Grand Prix. The cars are now part of the inventory of the AGS racing school.
Six weeks later, the “European season” began with the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola . On this occasion, AGS had completed two copies of the new JH25. However, the team only reported one driver. Yannick Dalmas was allegedly injured and could not compete, so that in the end only Gabriele Tarquini appeared in Imola. What should be the premiere of a new car and the basis for better results, however, turned into a fiasco. What is certain is that Tarquini did not finish a single round in the pre-qualification; in the official entry lists it is timed with 0'00 ″. According to some reports, the fuel pump of the new car collapsed on the first lap, leaving the car in the middle of the track. It is also reported that the second JH25 was in the team's box, but the car was prepared for the much smaller Dalmas and could not be converted to Tarquini's body dimensions in the short time. Ultimately, Tarquini was not timed; the team left after the unsuccessful pre-qualification. However, there are also reports that the failure was a planned procedure. After that, the JH25 was actually not yet ready for use at the San Marino Grand Prix. The team still needed some time to make the new car race-ready. In order not to waste too much time with the racing, I wanted to skip the race in Imola; the failed efforts of the pre-qualification should conceal this decision.
The actual premiere of the JH25 was at the Monaco Grand Prix . None of the drivers could pre-qualify here. The same applied to the following races in Canada and Mexico . Here the JH25 proved to be slow; The AGS drivers lag behind the top drivers by between nine and eleven seconds per lap.
The first race of the JH25 took place on the occasion of the French Grand Prix in July 1990. Here both drivers made the pre-qualification for the first time. Tarquini got stuck in the actual qualification, but Dalmas fought for 26th place on the grid. He crossed the finish line five laps behind and was classified 17th. It was the first AGS finish in over a year. Tarquini qualified for the Great Britain and Hungary Grand Prix ; However, he only finished on the Hungaroring . Here he was 13th, 2 laps behind. Dalmas, on the other hand, failed in four further attempts at the pre-qualification.
The situation improved after the Belgian Grand Prix . The external reason was the end of the Onyx Grand Prix racing team operated by Peter Monteverdi , which closed its doors after the Hungarian Grand Prix . With the elimination of this competitor, who had not been inferior to the pre-qualification until the end, AGS moved up so that the team was automatically pre-qualified from the race in Belgium. In the period that followed, Dalmas qualified three times in a row, namely at the Grand Prix of Italy , Portugal and Spain . Tarquini also qualified in Spain; this was the first (and last time) two AGS cars took to the starting line in a Formula 1 race. While Tarquini had to retire after three laps in Spain due to electrical damage, Dalmas crossed the finish line in ninth place, giving the team the best result of the season. This result was sufficient to exempt AGS from the pre-qualification for the 1991 Formula 1 season. Accordingly, it was celebrated like a victory in Gonfaron.
1991
The 1991 Formula 1 World Championship became a swan song for the AGS team.
the initial situation
The financial situation was problematic in the winter months of 1990/91. There were no sponsors and Cyril de Rouvre was unwilling to keep the team going with his own money. In the first months of 1991 de Rouvre negotiated with Gerard Larrousse about a merger with his Formula 1 team. The merger was ultimately not completed. There are different representations of the reasons for the failure. According to some French newspaper reports, the two team owners were basically in agreement about the merger; However, the merger is said to have ultimately failed due to the AGS team boss Henri Cochin, who had meanwhile also acquired shares in the team. In contrast, other newspapers report that no agreement had been reached between Cyril de Rouvre and Gerard Larrousse, as both wanted to keep 51% of the newly formed team. In any case, it is true that de Rouvre withdrew from operational business in February 1991 and left the team to itself - and to the aegis of Henri Cochin.
During these weeks it was not clear whether AGS would be able to compete in the 1991 Formula 1 season. What kept the team alive was the hope for Andrea de Cesaris as a new driver - and for his sponsorship money from Marlboro Italia ; the talk was of two million US dollars. De Cesaris had driven unsuccessfully for BMS Scuderia Italia last season and had no offers from competitive teams for the 1991 season. According to reports, he had even spoken to the Coloni team, who was lying on the ground, in January 1991 before establishing contact with AGS. At the beginning of February 1991 de Cesaris organized a test run for AGS on the slope of Le Luc . He completely destroyed his JH25, so that AGS was forced to build another chassis (No. 044) for the coming season. Ultimately, de Cesaris and AGS failed to do business; de Cesaris saw the possibility of a commitment for the newly founded Jordan Grand Prix team , which he thought was more hopeful than a commitment at AGS.
Ultimately, thanks to a personal guarantee, Henri Cochin managed to obtain loans that enabled AGS to take part in the first races of 1991. AGS was also in debt to engine supplier Heini Mader, who ultimately also received ownership shares in the team. In return, he delivered three not entirely new DFR engines to Gonfaron. Technical director Michel Costa stated in an interview in March 1991: “It is clear that one cannot expect miracles with our resources. Our first goal is to survive, to stay in Formula 1. Of course we are not satisfied with playing second fiddle over the long term. But first we must concentrate everything on consolidating our position. Then you have to go forward step by step ”.
Again the starting field - and thus the competition for AGS - was well positioned. A total of 18 teams, including the newly founded Jordan Grand Prix and the Modena Team , competed with 34 cars for 26 starting positions each. In view of the financial hardship, it was surprising that AGS also sent two cars into the race in 1991 and was not satisfied with just one vehicle - like Coloni and the Fondmetal team that emerged from Osella . From a technical point of view, AGS had to fall back on the substance of the previous year: three JH25s, now painted white, were converted to the B specification with minor changes; they had to do their service until late summer 1991. Technical director Michel Costa was working on a new vehicle called the JH26 in Le Luc. When the season began, however, nothing more than a few rough drawings and a plastic model of the car had been completed. Just the prospect of being spared pre-qualification in the first half of the season gave the team a boost.
There were changes in personnel in many respects. While Gabriele Tarquini remained in the driver squad - allegedly to support the troubled team, in fact probably mainly due to the lack of an alternative - Dalmas withdrew from AGS after a year and a half, where he clearly expressed his anger at the team's lack of competitiveness in the press Given expression. After de Cesaris was out as a replacement, AGS succeeded in a surprising new signing: The Swede Stefan Johansson was won as the second driver, the fifth in the 1986 Formula 1 season, who has been with Scuderia Ferrari and McLaren for some time after disappointing years Time through less competitive teams like Ligier (1988) and Onyx Grand Prix or Monteverdi (1989 and 1990) had to fight and now saw his last chance at AGS to stay in Formula 1.
The races at the start of the season
The first two races of the year were hopeless. Johansson missed the qualification. Tarquini qualified in Brazil and the USA , but only finished eighth in Phoenix. It was the last finish of an AGS in Formula 1. At the overseas races, the financial hardship was oppressive. Heini Mader later reported that he had to invite the AGS mechanics to a restaurant in Phoenix for dinner because neither they nor the team had enough money for food.
Temporary rescue from Italy
After the Brazilian Grand Prix, Henri Cochin's low budget was exhausted. At the beginning of April 1991 he succeeded in selling the team in a shop arranged by Gabriele Tarquini. The new owners came from Italy: Gabriele Raffanelli , co-owner of the Italian team Scuderia Bigazzi , which was active in the DTM at the time , and Patricio Cantù , head of the Formula 3000 racing team Crypton , took over the highly indebted AGS team at the end of April 1991.
Even before their first race, the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Rafanelli and Cantù made many changes that turned the once purely French team into a largely Italian team. Both Henri Cochin and Michel Costa and even Stefan Johansson had to leave the team immediately. A lot of staff came from the Crypton team to replace them. That initially applied to Christian Vanderpleyn, who had worked for Crypton in Formula 3000 in the 1990 season and was now returning to his old job in a roundabout way. Vanderpleyn was awarded the contract to immediately begin work on a new Formula 1 car. He proceeded carefully: Aldo Costa's preliminary work on JH26 was not taken over; instead he initiated the completely new AGS JH27 , the development of which took some time, however. From Crypton came the Italian racing driver Fabrizio Barbazza , who had no Formula 1 experience and showed some difficulties in dealing with an inferior Grand Prix car. In the end, his substitution didn't pay off; Barbazza could not qualify once in 12 attempts.
The last races
The first race under the new leadership did not bring any improvement. At the Grand Prix of San Marino, both drivers failed in the qualification, Tarquini with 6.6 and Barbazza with 7.7 seconds behind Ayrton Senna's pole time in the McLaren. Apart from Pedro Chaves in the Coloni C4 , these were the worst times in the field. It was characteristic that even the drivers who had failed in the pre-qualification the day before were (in some cases significantly) faster: Emanuele Pirro in the BMS 191 was just 4.5 seconds behind, Olivier Grouillard in the Fondmetal Fomet 1 was 4.9 seconds and Nicola Larini in the Modena team's car 5.1 seconds back.
At the Monaco Grand Prix , Tarquini qualified for 20th place on the grid, but retired after just nine laps with a gearbox defect. This was the last time an AGS took part in a Formula 1 race. After that, a series of uninterrupted non-qualifications began. The team didn't do much to improve the pilots' situation. There was no more development work on the JH25B; the only change was a new paint job for the home race, the French Grand Prix , which made the car appear in a striking combination of light blue, red and yellow (supposedly the colors of Provence ). They didn't make the car any faster, however. Gabriele Tarquini also publicly complained about the lack of motivation of the AGS mechanics. When he failed to qualify for the Canadian Grand Prix , he was greeted with applause by the pit crew; Allegedly, the team was happy to be able to go home early.
Since AGS had only reached one finish in the first half of the 1991 season, the team was subject to the pre-qualification again from the German Grand Prix . It turned out to be an insurmountable hurdle. The low point was reached at the Belgian Grand Prix : Fabrizio Barbazza was last of the pre-qualification with a gap of more than 15 seconds - and thus he was even slower than Pedro Chaves in hopeless Coloni.
The first of two new JH27s was set up for the Italian Grand Prix . The cars were given chassis numbers 047 and 048 (chassis numbers 045 and 046 were reserved for the unrealized JH26). Immediately after the first JH27 was completed, Christian Vanderpleyn left the team again. The replacement was Mario Tollentino , an Italian engineer who developed the Alfa Romeo 184T in 1984 and, a little later, the first racing car for EuroBrun , the ER188 , based on it. For his part, Tollentino only stayed a few weeks; in the end he only oversaw the construction of the second JH27.
The JH27 appeared in the same eye-catching paintwork as its predecessor. However, the new car was again slow. In the pre-qualification for the Italian Grand Prix, even the inexperienced Barbazza, who drove the old JH25B, had a better time than Tarquini. In addition, the JH27 was clearly not fully developed: After only one lap in the pre-qualification, the electrics failed and the car coasted to a halt.
At the Portuguese Grand Prix , both drivers appeared with a JH27. Tarquini made the pre-qualification here for the first time, but failed in the actual qualification, where he was 0.3 seconds behind Mika Häkkinen in the Lotus , the last qualifier. In the following race, the Spanish Grand Prix , there was another change. After the Fondmetal team had fired its driver Olivier Grouillard after the race in Portugal, Gabriele Tarquini took the opportunity to jump and got employed by Fondmetal. In return, Grouillard took Tarquini's former cockpit at AGS. While Tarquini easily qualified his fund metal in Spain and finally brought him to the finish line in 12th, the two AGS drivers Grouillard and Barbazza failed again in the pre-qualification.
Rafanelli and Cantù then pulled the emergency brake. Before the overseas races in Japan and Australia, racing in Gonfaron was stopped after 31 years.
Overview: AGS racing cars
Formula car
More vehicles from AGS
A vehicle with the name AGS TN01, which appeared occasionally from 1986 onwards, does not belong in the immediate line of AGS racing cars. The originator of this project is the French racing driver Marcel Tarrès , who had completed several races in Formula 2 in the early 1980s. Tarrès specializing in the 1980s on hill climbs . From 1982 to 1992 he won the French Mountain Championship ten times . He usually used Martini cars . In 1985 he bought a carbon monocoque from AGS from Duqueine production, which AGS had prepared for use in the Formula 3000. It has not been clarified whether this was the chassis that was initially used in the JH20 or another one not used by AGS. From this chassis, Tarres built his own car together with the French technician Jean-Pierre Navarro, who had run the Formula 2 racing team Maublanc in the 1970s , which was given the designation TN (for Tarres-Navarro) 01. There are some indications for using this vehicle in French hill climbs.
AGS today: the racing school
Under the name AGS, courses for private motorsport enthusiasts are successfully run on the Le Luc racetrack - not far from Gonfaron - today. The company owns an extensive fleet of vehicles, ranging from Formula 3 vehicles to Formula 1 vehicles with V10 engines. This includes vehicles that have been used in Formula 1 races in previous years (including some historical AGS and an Arrows ), but also newly built vehicles that have been adapted to the standards of the current Formula 1.
The owner of the company is Walter "Speedy" Ackermann, who himself was an active racing driver with GT and touring cars from 1962 to 1968.
literature
- David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945 . Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7
- Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing . 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)
- auto course , yearbook 1988–1989. ISBN 2-85120-308-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945, p. 8.
- ^ For example, statistics on the Critérium de Formule France (Groupe B) in Nogaro (March 1970); see. www.oldracingcars.com (accessed July 19, 2013).
- ↑ Overview of the races of the Formula 2 European Championship 1978 on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on July 20, 2013).
- ^ Overview of the races of the 1979 Formula 2 season on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on July 20, 2013).
- ↑ Illustration of the AGS JH 17 .
- ↑ Overview of the races in the 1980 Formula 2 season on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on July 20, 2013).
- ↑ Figure Richard Dallest in AGS JH18 at Silverstone 1981 (accessed on July 21, 2013).
- ↑ Overview of the 1982 Formula 2 season on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on July 20, 2013).
- ↑ Overview of the Formula 2 season 1983 on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on July 20, 2013).
- ↑ Overview of the races in the 1984 Formula 2 season on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on July 20, 2013).
- ↑ Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945, p. 17.
- ↑ Short history of the Duqueine V4 (without reference to AGS) on the website www.f3history.co.uk/ (accessed on July 21, 2013).
- ↑ Figure of the AGS JH20 (1985) (accessed on July 21, 2013).
- ↑ Statistics of the Nogaro Grand Prix on the website www.silhouet.com (accessed on July 21, 2013).
- ^ Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1, p. 102.
- ↑ a b Ian Bamsey: 1000 bhp Grand Prix Cars, S. 125th
- ↑ a b c Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1, p. 103.
- ^ Grand Prix of Italy 1986 - race result. In: Motorsportarchiv.de. Archived from the original on March 27, 2007 ; accessed on February 26, 2019 .
- ↑ See biography of Pascal Fabres on the website www.f1rejects.com (accessed on July 22, 2013).
- ↑ Motorsport Aktuell, issue 5/1989, p. 18.
- ↑ Overview of the performance data of the Formula 1 naturally aspirated engines from 1989 at Cimarosti: Das Jahrhundert des Rennsports, p. 407.
- ↑ Compared to the previous year, Onyx was a new addition, and Brabham returned to Formula 1 after taking a sabbatical year in 1988.
- ↑ EuroBrun relied on the Concorde Agreement , which left the teams free to choose the number of cars used.
- ↑ ZB http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/db/results/entries.php?y=1989&r=1
- ↑ The Cosworth DFR was a new design developed under the direction of Geoff Goddard (Graham Robson: Cosworth. The Search for Power. London (Haynes), 5th edition 2005, ISBN 978-1-84425-015-8 ). Some sources doubt that small teams like AGS could use this new engine in the first year. They assume that the small teams used conventional DFZ engines instead, which tuning companies converted to DFR features in some aspects using conversion kits. See http://www.research-racing.de/cosworth07-3.htm
- ↑ The AGS JH16 was based on the chassis 022, which was built in 1978 for the previous year's model JH15.
- ↑ Dallest and Feré drove for the Danielson customer team.
- ↑ Chassis 032 was identical to chassis 031.
