Fund metal

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Fund metal
Fondmetal logo
Surname Fondmetal F1 SpA
Companies
Company headquarters Palosco ( I )
Team boss Gabriele Rumi
statistics
First Grand Prix Mexico 1991
Last Grand Prix Italy 1992
Race driven 19th
Constructors' championship 0 - best result: 15th ( 1992 )
Drivers World Championship 0 - best result: 27th ( 1992 )
Race wins -
Pole positions -
Fastest laps -
Points 0

Fondmetal was an Italian Formula 1 racing team that emerged from the Turin team Osella and competed in the 1991 and 1992 seasons . The team did not score any World Cup points.

history

Fondmetal sponsored Tyrrell in 1995

Fondmetal is an Italian rim manufacturer that was the rim supplier for the Williams , Ligier and Tyrrell teams in Formula 1 until 1984 . Fondmetal has been the personal sponsor of Piercarlo Ghinzani since 1983 . Initially, the small Osella team benefited from the support. In the period that followed, Fondmetal sponsored all teams in which Ghinzani drove - including Zakspeed - but remained one of Osella's sponsors at the same time. In 1989 , when Ghinzani returned to the Turin team for a final season, Fondmetal took over shares in the Osella Squadra Corse for the first time. This step was vital for Osella at this time. With funds from Fondmetal, the team succeeded in developing a completely new car for the first time since 1983. In 1990 , Fondmetal became the majority owner of Osellas, and in 1991 it finally took over all shares from Enzo Osella. In the 1991 Formula 1 season, the team entered the Formula 1 World Championship as Fondmetal Corse. The new team plant was built in Palosco near Bergamo ; At the same time, Fondmetal opened a design office in Great Britain, in which the team's Formula 1 vehicles were to be developed in the future. Team boss and owner was Gabriele Rumi, the founder of Fondmetal. The Formula 1 involvement only lasted a year and a half. In the late summer of 1992 Rumi ended his team's work due to persistent failure.

In the 1990s, Fondmetal was primarily present as a sponsor of Tyrrell (1995) and Minardi (from 1996); The company also maintained a wind tunnel in Italy, in which teams like Tyrrell repeatedly had research done.

In 1997 , Fondmetal founder Gabriele Rumi helped rescue the financially troubled Minardi team. Together with Flavio Briatore , Alessandro Nannini and a few other business people, he took over the majority stake in the team from Faenza . A year later Rumi took over the shares of his previous business partners and led the team together with Giancarlo Minardi until the end of 2001. Initially, it was thought of renaming the Minardi team to Fondmetal; In the end, however, Rumi stuck to the established and esteemed name Minardi. Under Rumi's leadership, the situation of Minardi consolidated until Rumi retired from motorsport at the end of 2000 due to cancer. The Australian Paul Stoddart took over his shares .

Fondmetal is still active as a rim manufacturer today.

Fondmetal Corse in Formula 1

1991

Fondmetal Corse contested the first year in Formula 1 with just one vehicle. Olivier Grouillard , who had already worked for Osella the previous year , was hired as the driver . Initially, Gabriele Rumi wanted to provide Paul Belmondo with a second car , but these considerations failed early on due to the limited capacity of the tire supplier.

Gabriele Rumi commissioned a completely new car for the 1991 season. This vehicle was to be developed at Fomet in Bicester , England , a subsidiary of Fondmetals that Rumi founded in November 1990 and where Robin Herd - one of the founders of March Engineering - and Tino Belli were to work with around 30 British and Italian engineers. The development of the new car took a long time, however, so that Fondmetal Corse had to contest the first two overseas races of the season with a slightly revised Osella racing car. This emergency vehicle was called Fondmetal FA1ME and corresponded to the Osella FA1ME , which had already been in use in 1990. Grouillard did not qualify in either of the two attempts; he was always last here and was even slower than Pedro Chaves in the Coloni C4 , which was generally regarded as the weakest car in the field.

The Fomet 1, developed in Great Britain, made its debut at the San Marino Grand Prix . The car had been completely redesigned; Aerodynamics, transmission and suspension had nothing in common with Osella's design. A Cosworth DFR engine that had been tuned by Brian Hart served as the drive . The engines were not new, however; they corresponded to the engines used by Tyrrell in 1990. It was not until the end of 1991 that Fondmetal received an updated version.

in the first three races of the European season, Grouillard failed to pre-qualify. The only improvement over the opening races was that Grouillard could now leave Chaves in Coloni behind. The team succeeded in a surprise at the Mexican Grand Prix : Grouillard made the pre-qualification without any problems and positioned his car in qualifying in tenth place on the grid - even ahead of the successful cars from Jordan and also ahead of the traditional Lotus team . In the race, however, Grouillard dropped out in 23rd place due to a defective oil pump. At the following events, non-qualifications and qualifications alternated; as far as it came to a race, Grouillard was, however, regularly eliminated due to technical defects. The only exception was the Belgian Grand Prix , where he finished tenth.

Given the few successes, Gabriele Rumi increasingly lost confidence in Olivier Grouillard. For the last three races of the year, he then replaced him with Gabriele Tarquini , who had previously driven for AGS . Grouillard took Tarquini's place in the French team for one final race. Tarquini crossed the finish line twice in the last three races of the year - in Spain in twelfth place - but remained well outside the points.

1992

Andrea Chiesa in the Fondmetal GR01 at the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix

For 1992 Fomet was to develop another vehicle for the Fondmetal team in Bicester. Already at the end of 1991 there had been tensions between Gabriele Rumi and Fomet when it became known that Robin Herd was ready to accept an order from the French rival team Larrousse . At the end of 1991 Rumi broke off relations with Fomet. Sergio Rinland, a former Brabham engineer who had recently started his own business with a company called Astauto, was commissioned to develop the new car .

Until the completion of the new vehicle, Fondmetal Corse had to contest the races of the 1992 season with the car known from the previous year. The vehicle was given the designation GR 01, but hardly changed technically. The main modification was the installation of a new engine. Rumi had received eight-cylinder HB generation from Ford that had been used at Benetton the previous year . In practice, the car and the engine did not work together. The engine required more cooling than the Fomet / GR 01 could deliver. This resulted in numerous engine failures in the races.

Fondmetal Corse registered two drivers for the 1992 season. Gabriele Tarquini remained in the team; Next to him was the Swiss Andrea Chiesa , who made his Formula 1 debut here.

Tarquini regularly qualified with the GR01 and achieved 14th place on the grid at the Mexican Grand Prix, the team's best qualifying result this year. In the race he drove the third fastest lap (ahead of Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna ), but ultimately dropped out due to engine failure. Chiesa, however, had difficulties qualifying. In seven attempts he qualified with the GR01 only twice - in Mexico and Spain - but failed in both races after turning.

At the Spanish Grand Prix , which was characterized by changing weather conditions and sometimes heavy rain, Tarquini was able to fight in a promising position for a long time. In the second half of the race, up to his retirement, he finished in 7th and 8th position ten laps before the end. As a result of the retirement, the team very likely missed the first championship points, as two cars in front of Tarquini, Senna and Capelli, had to retire shortly before the end . 6th place thus went to the Dallara of Pierluigi Martini , the Tarquini by then long time sovereign could keep behind.

On the occasion of the Canadian Grand Prix , the fund metal GR02 developed by Sergio Rinland made its debut . The car largely corresponded to Rinland's design for a - never realized - Brabham BT 61. It was made simple and had no electronic driving aids. Tarquini believed the GR02 had potential but lacked the reliability required. The car was hardly tested and was therefore difficult to control in races.

When the GR02 was used for the first time, Tarquini qualified the car in Canada for 18th place on the grid. In the race, he retired after six laps due to a defective accelerator cable. Tarquini achieved some other positive qualifying results, including an 11th place on the grid in Belgium , where he started ahead of Ivan Capelli's Ferrari . However, none of these successes could be translated into results; in the races themselves Tarquini was regularly eliminated with technical defects. The only exception was the Great Britain Grand Prix , where Tarquini finished 14th.

Andrea Chiesa received the GR02 for the first time at the French Grand Prix . In a start accident, however, his car was badly damaged, so that he had to use the GR01 again in the following race. At the Hungarian Grand Prix , Chiesa was replaced by Eric van de Poele , who had previously driven for Brabham. The Belgian finished tenth in his home race, which was the team's best result of the season. Before the Portuguese Grand Prix , the team had to withdraw due to financial difficulties. Gabriele Rumi initially considered a new start in the 1993 Formula 1 season, but gave up these plans in December 1992.

The Fondmetal 3.0 Formula 1 engine

In the 2000 season , the name Fondmetal returned to Formula 1, when the Italian team Minardi reported a ten-cylinder engine known as Fondmetal 3.0 for the Minardi M02 . The engine was actually neither developed nor built at Fondmetal. Rather, it was a Ford Zetec engine designed in Great Britain , which Minardi had taken over in the absence of an alternative and which it was responsible for redesigning. The engine was at the development level of 1998. It was used again by Minardi the following year ; but it was named European V10 .

Numbers and dates

Statistics in Formula 1

season Team name chassis engine tires Grand Prix Victories Second Third Poles nice Round Points World Cup rank
1991 Fondmetal F1 SpA Fund metal FA1ME Ford Cosworth DFR 3.5 V8 G - 1 - - - - - - 16.
Fondmetal Fomet 1 Ford Cosworth DFR 3.5 V8 G 6th - - - - - -
1992 Fund metal Fund metal GR01 Ford HB 3.5 V8 G 5 - - - - - - 15th
Fund metal GR02 Ford HB 3.5 V8 G 9 - - - - - -
total 19 2 - - - - - -  

1 This racing car did not qualify for a start.
2 One race was held with the GR1 and the GR2.

All Fondmetal drivers in Formula 1

Surname Years Grand Prix Points Victories Second Third Poles SR best WM-Pos.
ItalyItaly Gabriele Tarquini 1991-1992 15th - - - - - - 30. ( 1991 )
FranceFrance Olivier Grouillard 1991 4th - - - - - - 33rd ( 1991 )
BelgiumBelgium Eric van de Poele 1992 3 - - - - - - 27. ( 1992 )
SwitzerlandSwitzerland Andrea Chiesa 1992 3 - - - - - - - 1

1 Chiesa has not finished a race this season and is therefore not included in the overall standings.

Results in Formula 1

season chassis driver No. 1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th 8th 9 10 11 12 13 14th 15th 16 Points rank
1991 FA1M-E90 , Fomet 1     Flag of the United States.svg Flag of Brazil (1968–1992) .svg Flag of San Marino (1862–2011) .svg Flag of Monaco.svg Flag of Canada.svg Flag of Mexico.svg Flag of France.svg Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Flag of Germany.svg Flag of Hungary.svg Flag of Belgium (civil) .svg Flag of Italy.svg Flag of Portugal.svg Flag of Spain.svg Flag of Japan.svg Flag of Australia.svg - 16.
FranceFrance O. Grouillard 14th DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNF DNF DNPQ DNPQ DNQ 10 DNF DNPQ
ItalyItaly G. Tarquini 12 11 DNPQ
1992 GR01 , GR02     Flag of South Africa (1928–1994) .svg Flag of Mexico.svg Flag of Brazil (1968–1992) .svg Flag of Spain.svg Flag of San Marino (1862–2011) .svg Flag of Monaco.svg Flag of Canada.svg Flag of France.svg Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Flag of Germany.svg Flag of Hungary.svg Flag of Belgium (civil) .svg Flag of Italy.svg Flag of Portugal.svg Flag of Japan.svg Flag of Australia.svg - 15th
SwitzerlandSwitzerland A. Chiesa 14th DNQ DNF DNQ DNF DNQ DNQ DNQ DNF DNQ DNQ
BelgiumBelgium E. van de Poele DNF 10 DNF
ItalyItaly G. Tarquini 15th DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF 14th DNF DNF DNF DNF
Legend
colour abbreviation meaning
gold - victory
silver - 2nd place
bronze - 3rd place
green - Placement in the points
blue - Classified outside the point ranks
violet DNF Race not finished (did not finish)
NC not classified
red DNQ did not qualify
DNPQ failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black DSQ disqualified
White DNS not at the start (did not start)
WD withdrawn
Light Blue PO only participated in the training (practiced only)
TD Friday test driver
without DNP did not participate in the training (did not practice)
INJ injured or sick
EX excluded
DNA did not arrive
C. Race canceled
  no participation in the World Cup
other P / bold Pole position
SR / italic Fastest race lap
* not at the finish,
but counted due to the distance covered
() Streak results
underlined Leader in the overall standings

literature

  • Henry, Alan : "Autocourse 1992/93", London 1992 (Hazleton Securities Ltd.), ISBN 0-905138-96-1 .
  • Buchkalter, Patrice and Galeron, Jean Francois: "Formula 1 - a complete guide to 1992", Surrèsnes (Taillandrier) 1992, ISBN 2876361078 .
  • motorsport aktuell , a weekly specialist magazine from Switzerland, with various articles and notes about Fondmetal in the 1991 and 1992 issues.

Web links

Commons : Fondmetal  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1, p. 457.