First racing

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First Racing was the name of an Italian racing team that was active in Formula 3000 in the 1980s and 1990s and tried unsuccessfully in 1989 to gain a foothold in Formula 1 .

The British racing team FIRST (regularly written in capital letters in the entry lists) is to be distinguished from First Racing. In the latter case, it was a private project of the British racing driver Peter Westbury , who took part in European Formula 2 races from 1969 to 1972 with a Brabham BT30 or BT36 and also competed in the 1969 German Grand Prix . There are no connections between the British racing team and First Racing from Italy.

The origins

First Racing was founded and operated by the Italian racing driver Lamberto Leoni , who had already competed in lower racing series with some success in the late 1970s.

Between 1977 and 1984 Lamberto Leoni took part in Formula 2 races irregularly , but did not achieve any victories there. Occasionally, he also competed in Formula 1. His first Formula 1 event was the Italian Grand Prix in Monza in 1977 , for which he was registered by the Surtees team. However, he did not take part in the race after missing qualification by 0.5 seconds back. For the first four races of the 1978 Formula 1 season , Leoni was registered by the British team Ensign . Although he had to field a car from last year, he was able to qualify in the first two races, but never reached the finish. In Argentina he started 22nd, but retired after just nine laps with engine failure; in Brazil he reached 17th place on the grid, but was already out of the warm-up with a gearbox damage and was unable to start the race because the defective part could not be repaired. Two non-qualifications followed in Kyalami and Long Beach . As a result, Leoni was replaced by Jacky Ickx , who in turn had to hand over his driver's seat to Nelson Piquet a few races later .

After Formula 2 was replaced by Formula 3000 in 1985 , Lamberto Leoni drove a few races for the British PMC team and for the Italian Corbari team. In 1986 Leoni could no longer find a way to drive for a team. He finally decided to use his own team from 1986 and be its first driver. The team was called First Racing.

First Racing was active in Formula 3000 between 1986 and 1991. In 1999 there was a new Formula 3000 project from Lamberto Leoni under the name Monaco Motorsport , but it was short-lived. From 1993 onwards, Lamberto Leoni was primarily concerned with powerboat races. Here his enterprise was successful; his boats achieved numerous victories and almost won the 1993 World Championship.

First Racing in Formula 3000

1986

Lamberto Leoni contested the first season with a single car that he drove himself. The vehicle was a March 88B . In the opening race of the Formula 3000 at Silverstone , Leoni achieved eleventh place. It was to be the only countable result this year. Later Leoni failed repeatedly to qualify; sometimes he was involved in accidents in the races. In the fourth last race of the season at the Österreichring , Leoni suffered a serious accident during the warm-up, which caused serious damage to the car. The team failed to rebuild the car, so First Racing was unable to participate in the last three races of the year.

1987

For 1987 First Racing reported three vehicles of the type March 87B . The drivers were Lamberto Leoni, Aldo Bertuzzi (who was to be replaced by the future EuroBrun driver Claudio Langes at the end of the season ) and Gabriele Tarquini . Tarquini was the star of the team but performed erratically. He finished last in many races, but on the other hand he also achieved two podium finishes with a third place at the Gran Premio del Mediterraneo in Autodromo di Pergusa / Sicily and a second place in Imola . Overall, Gabriele Tarquini and Lamberto Leoni finished eighth in the Formula 3000 championship, each scoring 12 championship points. Tarquini switched to Formula 1 in the coming season, where he competed for the young Coloni team.

1988

At the end of 1987, Lamberto Leoni ended his active driving career and concentrated on managing his team. For the 1988 season he engaged Pierluigi Martini , who had already gained Formula 1 experience at Toleman in 1984 and at Minardi in 1985 , but was initially unable to get a cockpit in Formula 1 in 1986 and 1987. When Martini received the offer to replace the unsuccessful Adrián Campos at Minardi in spring 1988 , the Italian initially contested Formula 1 and Formula 3000 races side by side. Only once (on the occasion of the Portuguese Grand Prix) was there a scheduling conflict in which he opted for the Formula 1 race and was temporarily replaced by Alain Ferté at First Racing . Second driver at First Racing was Marco Apicella . Pierluigi Martini was the team's more successful driver. He clinched the first victory for First Racing at the Gran Premio Mediterraneo in Enna and achieved several other podium finishes. Martini finished fourth overall in the 1988 Formula 3000 championship.

1989

In 1989 First Racing entered the Formula 3000 again. At the same time, there were ambitions to get into Formula 1, which ultimately failed.

Lamberto Leoni put together a team with three drivers for the new season: Marco Apicella was the top driver, Fabrizio Giovanardi and Jean-Denis Delétraz from Geneva were also named. The team's goal was to win the championship. In addition to good drivers, they also received works support from March Engineering, which made First Racing a semi-works team. Apicella and Giovanardi each used the current vehicles from March, while Delétraz used a chassis from Reynard .

In fact, Apicella and Giovanardi got some good results. Giovanardi managed to immediately win the second Formula 3000 race in which he competed. Apicella took a number of podiums and ended up fourth in the championship. The team's stated goal was not achieved. Nevertheless, 1989 was to be the most successful season for First Racing.

1990

For the first time in 1990, First Racing used Reynard chassis for all drivers . The driver line-up initially remained unchanged: Apicella, Giovanardi and Delétraz were regular drivers. Delétraz was replaced by Marco Greco during the season . Lamberto Leoni publicly stated several times that Apicella should now win the championship for First Racing. In fact, the Italian did not live up to the expectations placed in him. He faced stiff competition from the drivers of the DAMS team, who largely controlled the races.

1991

For the 1991 season, First Racing again used Reynard cars. Jean-Dénis Delétraz returned to the team. He took over shares in the team; some newspaper reports mentioned that he became the majority owner of First Racing. Next to him Giovanni Bonanno and Éric Hélary were named as drivers. In the course of the season, the drivers could not meet the expectations placed in them and there was a lot of unrest in the team. Bonanno was replaced after a few unsuccessful races by Michael Bartels , who should also make some unsuccessful Formula 1 attempts in the Lotus team this season .

In the summer Delétraz left the team again, a replacement for him was not hired. With his departure, the financial situation of the team deteriorated considerably, which was immediately reflected in the athletic performance. In Enna, both Michael Bartels and Eric Hélary missed the qualification; it was the first Formula 3000 race in four years without a First Racing car. The team was clearly in the process of dissolving and Lamberto Leoni ceased racing at the end of 1991. Most of the former First Racing employees switched to the Italian Crypton team, which had established itself in Formula 3000 in the early 1990s. The Swiss magazine motorsport aktuell reported in issue 32/1995 that several former First Racing employees were still claiming outstanding wages against Delétraz in 1995 and blocked the Swiss’s private car on the occasion of a Formula 1 outing in Team Pacific in order to emphasize their claims to lend.

1999: Monaco Motorsport

After a seven-year hiatus, Lamberto Leoni returned to the International Formula 3000 at short notice. He registered a team called Monaco Motorsport for Marco Apicella, who had been able to drive a single race in Formula 1 for Jordan in 1993, as well as for Thomas Biagi , Alex Yoong , Marcellino Battistuzzi and for Cyrille Sauvage. The team remained unsuccessful and then lost its place in the International Formula 3000 for 2000, after which it competed in the Italian Formula 3000 championship in the 2000 season.

Monaco Motorsport had nothing despite the name similarity with the Écurie Monaco to do one of Fulvio Ballabio established team of Fontvieille (Monaco) , the Formula 3000 race took in the 1986 season to two and on one occasion a modified racing cars of the brand Dywa began .

First racing in Formula 1

background

In the course of 1988, Lamberto Leoni decided to enter Formula 1. The background to this was the ban on turbo engines that came into effect in 1989, which, according to general expectations, should make it possible to operate a Formula 1 racing team again at low cost. Other competitors from Formula 3000 such as Coloni or AGS had gone the same way or were in the process of preparing it (e.g. Jordan). First, Leoni tried to take over an existing Formula 1 team. There were talks with Rial in this regard . However, since these did not lead to the desired results, Leoni prepared the independent entry into Formula 1.

To design his own car, which was essential in Formula 1, Leoni initially commissioned the Brazilian designer Ricardo Divila , who had designed the Formula 1 cars for the Fittipaldi team a decade earlier . Divila worked out the first plans for the car in the late summer of 1988, but separated from First Racing a few months later after he had received a position as technical director at the Équipe Ligier . Gianni Marelli , an engineer who had worked for Scuderia Ferrari in the 1960s and 1970s , but had been running his own engineering office in Milan since the 1980s, was commissioned with the further work on Leoni's Formula 1 car , which continued between 1984 and 1987 participated in the Zakspeed Formula 1 project. Marelli did essential parts of the detailed work. In doing so, it was based heavily on the March 88B, the vehicle that First Racing had used in Formula 3000 this season. In fact, the external dimensions of the First vehicle were closer to those of Formula 3000 than Formula 1.

First retreat

Shortly afterwards, Leoni had the work interrupted. The reason for this was a declaration by FISA on the mode of the pre-qualification for the 1989 season, which was essential in view of the fact that a total of 21 teams had registered for the Formula 1 World Championship. The FISA had announced that the pre-qualification should be held a full week before the next race, on a different track from the upcoming race. This concept would have meant a considerable increase in travel and costs for the teams that were subject to the pre-qualification. In view of these considerations, Leoni announced the end of his Formula 1 involvement. It was only when FISA abandoned its plan that First Racing continued the Formula 1 program.

The car

The prototype of First Racing's Formula 1 car, called the F189 , was completed in late 1988. It was a very compact car with low side pods and a very deep cockpit cutout. Several British newspaper reports highlighted the car's resemblance to the March 88B , citing team members who said the F189 used a chassis from the same Formula 3000 car. In fact, the external dimensions of the F189 corresponded more closely to those of a Formula 3000 car than those of Formula 1. On the drive side, an eight-cylinder naturally aspirated engine from Judd of the CV generation (with a 90 degree cylinder angle) was provided.

The car was presented at the Bologna Motor Show in late 1988. You saw a black, white and yellow painted racing car that had some sponsors (including SARE and "Reporter", a men's fragrance that was last advertised on Minardi cars). Gabriele Tarquini moved the car at the motor show.

On this occasion, Ricardo Divila saw the complete car for the first time. He was shocked and thought the car was unsafe. He called it a mortal danger for the driver and explained that nothing could be gained with it (“That car was good for nothing but an interesting flowerpot”). He forbade Lamberto Leoni to use his - Divilas - name in connection with this car and advised Tarquini not to drive the F189 in a Grand Prix.

In February 1989, a few weeks before the first race of the season, the chassis was subjected to the mandatory crash test. The car failed the test and the FISA denied the vehicle approval.

Second retreat

Then Lamberto Leoni gave up his Formula 1 involvement. There are several reasons for this:

  • On the one hand, the (renewed withdrawal) from Formula 1 is due to a conflict of interests with March. On the one hand, March delivered Formula 3000 cars to First Racing and had given the Italian team quasi-factory status and thus a preferred role. On the other hand, March has had its own Formula 1 team in cooperation with Leyton House since 1987 . March expected an increase in the competitive situation in Formula 1 and a threat to his own Formula 1 project from a Formula 1 entry by customer First Racing. With this in mind, March announced that the Formula 3000 contract would be terminated.
  • In this context, it is also pointed out that March Engineering did not agree to the unsanctioned use of its own chassis for a Formula 1 car from First Racing.
  • After all, adapting the chassis to the FISA crash regulations was risky in terms of time and involved financial outlay that Lamberto Leoni could not or would not bear.

First Racing's withdrawal from Formula 1 was final. Gabriele Tarquini, however, managed to get a regular place in the AGS team for 1989 , where he replaced Philippe Streiff , who had just had an accident .

The second life of the first chassis

In the course of 1989 Lamberto Leoni sold the ready-to-use chassis to the Italian businessman Ernesto Vita, who reported it to his Life Racing team in the 1990 Formula 1 season (after a few modifications) . At first it was equipped with a W12 engine from Franco Rocchi , later it received a Judd eight-cylinder of the EV generation. The adaptation work was done by Gianni Marelli's office . The drivers were initially Gary Brabham and later Bruno Giacomelli . This commitment was unsuccessful in any form.

literature

  • David Hodges: “Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945”, 1st edition Stuttgart 1993.
  • motorsport current ; Weekly Swiss trade magazine with various articles and notes on First Racing in the years 1987 to 1991.

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