Osella FA1E

Osella FA1E

Osella FA1E in the livery for the 1983 German Grand Prix for Piercarlo Ghinzani
Constructor:	Osella
Designer:	Tony Southgate
Predecessor:	Osella FA1D
Successor:	Osella FA1F
Technical specifications
Chassis:	aluminum
Wheelbase:	2750 mm
Weight:	565 kg
Tires:	Michelin
Petrol:	Agip
statistics
Driver:	Piercarlo Ghinzani Corrado Fabi Jo Gartner
First start:	1983 San Marino Grand Prix
Last start:	1984 San Marino Grand Prix
Starts Victories Poles SR 12 - - -
World Cup points:	-
Podiums:	-
Leadership laps:	-

The Osella FA1E was a Formula 1 racing car of the Italian team Osella Squadra Corse , in the Formula 1 World Championship in 1983 and in the 1984 season was announced. It replaced the Osella FA1D driven by a Cosworth motor . The FA1E was Osella's first Formula 1 car to use an Alfa Romeo engine. It was a technically problematic and unreliable car. With the FA1E, Osella's pilots reached only three finishings outside of the points. The Austrian designer Gustav Brunner considered the FA1E to be the worst car in the starting field of 1983.

background

The decision to use engines from Alfa Romeo resulted from the knowledge that the traditional Cosworth DFV engines could no longer compete with the turbo engines from Ferrari , Honda or TAG-Porsche . From mid-1983 Cosworth offered a more powerful version under the name DFY; However, it only achieved between 20 and 30 hp more than the DFV engines and was only available to those teams who had contributed to the costs of the development. Osella was not one of them. Osella initially received some older naturally aspirated engines from Alfa Romeo. Equipped with this, the FA1E was a transitional model; it should bridge the time until the appearance of the Osella FA1F equipped with a turbo engine .

technology

The Osella FA1E differed from its predecessor, the FA1D, mainly in that it used a twelve-cylinder naturally aspirated engine from Alfa Romeo instead of the Cosworth eight-cylinder. Apart from that and the changes in the engine environment associated with the engine change, the cars were almost identical. They used identical monocoques, the suspension and most of the body parts were also alike. British racing car engineer Tony Southgate was responsible for the conversion work .

The FA1E was powered by the Tipo 1260 , 3.0 liter naturally aspirated engine from Alfa Romeo, which was designed as a twelve-cylinder and had a cylinder angle of 60 degrees. The engine first appeared in the Alfa Romeo factory team in 1979 and was used there until the end of the 1982 season . Since the Alfa factory team relied on turbo engines from 1983, the old naturally aspirated engines there had become obsolete. Enzo Osella took over some of the engine blocks and prepared them for racing in his own workshop. Alfa Romeo hadn't developed the naturally aspirated engines for three years, so when Osella took them over, they were technically at the level of 1980. The level of performance of the naturally aspirated Alfa engines corresponded approximately to that of the Cosworth DFY engines .; however, they were significantly heavier than the Cosworth DFV and DFY versions and also consumed more fuel, so that the performance advantage was put into perspective. In addition, they were less reliable than the Cosworth designs. As in Alfa Romeo's works team in previous years, numerous failures at Osella in 1983 were due to engine defects.

A total of three FA1E vehicles were built. The first copy was essentially identical to the second FA1D built in early 1983; it was simply adapted to the new engine. Two more copies of the FA1E were rebuilt in the course of 1983. In contrast to the first example, the two younger vehicles used some of the body components made of plastic.

Races

1983 Formula 1 season

Osella registered the first FA1E, which was directly derived from the FA1D, for the Grand Prix of San Marino , Monaco , Belgium , the USA East and the Grand Prix of Canada . Piercarlo Ghinzani was the driver of this car . He failed to qualify in four cases. His only race participation was at the US Grand Prix in Detroit , where he retired after a few laps with a technical defect. At Silverstone Ghinzani received the newly built second FA1E, with which he also retired from the race. In the remaining six races of the year he drove the third FA1E. With him Ghinzani was able to qualify five times, but only once did he see the goal: he finished the Austrian Grand Prix in eleventh place.

Corrado Fabi , the second driver of the Osella team, fielded the FA1D with Cosworth engine in the first races of the year. It was not until the Grand Prix of Great Britain that he received an FA1E. He was able to qualify four times in seven racing events and crossed the finish line twice: at the Austrian Grand Prix he was tenth (ahead of team-mate Ghinzani), and in the Netherlands he crossed the finish line in eleventh place.

1984 Formula 1 season

In the following year the FA1E was entered for a Formula 1 race again. The debutant Jo Gartner competed with him at the Grand Prix of San Marino as the second driver of the Osella team , while his team mate Ghinzani was already racing an Osella FA1F with a turbo engine. Ghinzani missed the qualification due to a technical defect in his turbo model, while Gartner qualified for the 26th and last place on the grid. In the race he retired after 47 laps due to gearbox damage.

Race results

season	driver	number	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	Points	rank
1983																			-	-
	Corrado Fabi	31									DNQ	DNQ	10	11	DNF	DNQ	DNF
	Piercarlo Ghinzani	32				DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNF	DNQ	DNF	DNF	11	DNQ	DNF	DNF	DNF
1984																			-	11
	Jo Gartner	30th				DNF

literature

• Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. Cars, tracks and pilots. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .
• David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .
• David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars. Crowood Press, Marlborough 2001, ISBN 1-86126-339-2 (English).
• Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1st 2nd edition. Chronosports, St. Sulpice 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French).

Web links

• Overview of the individual examples of the Osella FA1E and its races
• Piercarlo Ghinzani in the Osella FA1E at the 1983 British Grand Prix
• Jo Gartner in the Osella FA1E at the Grand Prix of San Marino 1984

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Motorsport news . Issue 29, 1984.
2. ↑ Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. 1997, p. 327. The DFY engines were used by McLaren , Tyrrell and Williams from the middle of the 1983 season .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars. 2001, p. 185.
4. ↑ Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. 1997, p. 327.
5. ↑ Motorsport news. Issue 20, 1984, p. 9.
6. ↑ Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. 1997, pp. 314 and 342.
7. ^ Ménard: La grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1. 2000, p. 462.
8. ^ Hodges: Rennwagen von A – Z after 1945. 1994, p. 205.
9. ↑ Osella scored two points in the constructors' championship with Ghinzani's fifth place at the US Grand Prix. The points were achieved with the turbo-powered FA1F. The FA1E equipped with a naturally aspirated engine did not score any world championship points.