Ortega Ecuador Marlboro Team

The Ortega Ecuador Marlboro Team was a UK-based motorsport team driving under an Ecuadorian license, which competed in several endurance races from 1973 to 1975 and took part in the 1974 Formula 2 European Championship. The Formula 2 engagement was headed by Ron Dennis . It is the second of a total of four Formula 2 projects in which Dennis was significantly involved. The short-lived and largely unsuccessful racing team is significant in terms of motorsport history insofar as it established the connection between Ron Dennis and Marlboro , which Dennis brought to the Formula 1 racing team McLaren in 1980 and which was to last for over 20 years.

background

Driving force of the racing team: Ron Dennis

The founder of the team was the Ecuadorian racing driver Guillermo Ortega, born in 1945 . Ortega first took part in a European endurance race with his private Porsche in 1973 and at the end of 1973 was looking for a cockpit in Formula 2. At the turn of the year he came into contact with Ron Dennis, who from 1971 to 1973 together with Neil Trundle Formula 2 team Rondel Racing had operated. Rondel had planned to move up to Formula 1 in 1974; the project had failed, however, when Rondel's sponsor Motul stopped funding the team in view of the effects of the first oil crisis . Ortega was supported at the time by the Ecuadorian branch of the tobacco company Philip Morris , which was ready to finance a Formula 2 cockpit for Ortega. Dennis took on the task of organizing Ortega's racing in this motorsport class.

The racing team, named after the founder and main sponsor Ortega Ecuador Marlboro Team , contested almost all races of the European Formula 2 in 1974. Dennis' alliance with Ortega ended at the end of the 1974 season. The team continued until the middle of the following year, when it became dissolved.

Ron Dennis saw the connection with Ortega as an opportunity to put things in order after the failure of the Motul project and to earn enough money to “start over” next year. He succeeded in this; According to his own statements, he closed the year 1974 with an economic profit. In addition, his business relationship with Philip Morris continued beyond the Ortega Ecuador Marlboro team. Dennis founded the Project Three Racing team in 1975 and then Project Four Racing in 1976 . In any case, Project Four was supported by Philip Morris in individual years. It was the tobacco company that finally brought Ron Dennis to McLaren: When Team McLaren, supported by Marlboro, was at the end of the game in 1980 and Dennis wanted to raise his Project Four into Formula 1 at the same time, Marlboro initiated the merger of the two racing teams.

They run

Formula 2

The Ortega Ecuador Racing Team in 1974 brought several Surtees TS15 to the start, in 1973 to work with Ford - Hart had been developed engines. Dennis connected the vehicles with four-cylinder engines from BMW . The team used a different number of vehicles in the individual races. The regular driver was Guillermo Ortega, who competed in almost every race. In addition, one or two other cars were sometimes used for changing drivers. Initially it was planned to bring Ortega's compatriot Fausto Merello to the start regularly in a second race; after a few unsuccessful attempts, Dennis convinced him to give up his Formula 2 ambitions. Instead of him, experienced pilots such as Tim Schenken , Rolf Stommelen or Reine Wisell took turns . Emerson Fittipaldi was reported to the Kanonloppet in Karlskrona , Sweden , but he did not appear for Ortega.

The team's best result was achieved by Schenken, who finished sixth at the third race of the season in Pau and at the Gran Premio di Roma in October 1974. Ortega missed qualifying at four events. In the other races he crossed the finish line outside of the points. His best result was eighth place at the Gran Premio del Mediterraneo in Enna, Sicily .

Endurance racing

The Ortega Ecuador Racing Team owned a Porsche 908/01 , which was first used in the 1973 Le Mans 24-hour race . Ortega and Merello achieved seventh place in the overall standings, 39 laps behind the winners Henri Pescarolo and Gérard Larrousse in their Matra-Simca MS670B . In 1974 the duo became a trio. Lothar Ranft , who later became the dealer of the German premium brands Mercedes-Benz , BMW , Porsche and Audi in Ecuador, joined the team at Ortega and Merello . The race ended after 122 laps due to an accident.

In 1975 two vehicles were registered in Le Mans. Ranft and Ortega missed qualifying for the race with the 908. The second car, a Porsche 911 Carrera RSR, was also not originally qualified ( Francisco Madeira and Louis Larrea drove this car alongside Merello and Ortega ). However, the team entered the race illegally after the start of the race from the pit lane. After only three laps, the race management stopped this action with the black flag and disqualified the Ecuadorians. Ortega was then fourth driver in Christian Poirot's team . This mission also ended prematurely due to a defect in the drive shaft on the Porsche 908/02, which was owned by Poirot. It was the last time the 24-hour race retired in 1975.

At the 1000 km race in Zeltweg in 1975 , the Ortega team - with Ortega himself, Ranft and Xavier Espinosa at the wheel - finished eleventh in the overall standings.

Race results Formula 2

season	chassis	driver	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	Points	rank
1974	Surtees TS15 - BMW		BAR	HO1	PAU	SAL	HO2	MUG	KAR	BY	HO3	VAL
		G. Ortega		DNF	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	14th	11	8th	23	DNQ	0	-
		F. Merello		DNF	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ					0	-
		T. give			6th	DNF			DNF	11		6th	0	-
		R. Stommelen					DNQ						0	-
		R. Wisell							DNF				0	-
		E. Fittipaldi							DNA				0

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

• Hartmut Lehbrink, Rainer W. Schlegelmilch: McLaren Formula 1 . Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft Köln 1999. ISBN 3-8290-0945-3
• Simon Taylor: Lunch with Ron Dennis . MotorSport, issue 11/2012.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ortega died on April 12, 2004 in Ecuador. Biographical data and race results Ortega on the website www.driverdb.com (accessed on February 12, 2013).
2. ↑ MotorSport, issue 11/2012.
3. ↑ Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945, p. 197.
4. ↑ MotorSport, issue 11/2012.
5. ↑ Overview of the results of the 1974 Kanonloppet on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on February 12, 2013).
6. ↑ 1000 km race at the Österreichring in 1975
7. ↑ As a so-called "Graded Driver", Schenken did not receive any championship points in Formula 2.