Team Haas (USA)
| Surname | Team Haas (USA) Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Companies | Team Haas (USA) Ltd. |
| Company headquarters | Colnbrook ( GB ) |
| Team boss |
 Carl Haas
|
| statistics | |
| First Grand Prix | Italy 1985 |
| Last Grand Prix | Australia 1986 |
| Race driven | 19th |
| Constructors' championship | - |
| Drivers World Championship | - |
| Race wins | |
| Pole positions | |
| Fastest laps | |
| Points | 6th |
Team Haas (USA) Ltd. was a motorsport team that took part in 19 races of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1985 and 1986 . The racing team was based in the UK but drove under a US license. He scored six world championship points during his one and a half year commitment. Haas used the traditional name Lola for the model designation of his cars , even if the British racing car manufacturer actually had little or no influence on the team's cars. With Haas, the former world champion Alan Jones returned to Formula 1 after a two and a half year break.
Team history
Team Haas was founded by the Americans Carl Haas and Teddy Mayer . Haas had been the sole importer of Lola racing cars in the USA since the late 1960s and from 1983, together with the actor Paul Newman , ran a racing team in the North American Champ Car series under the name Newman / Haas Racing . Mayer headed the McLaren Formula 1 team from 1970 to 1982 . For the 1985 Champ Car season, Haas won the American food company Beatrice Foods as a sponsor of his team. At the same time it was agreed that Beatrice should financially support the expansion of the racing team into Formula 1.
Haas and Mayer founded a design office based in Heathrow , UK called FORCE (Formula One Race Car Engineering), in which a Formula 1 chassis was developed from December 1984. Responsible designers were Neil Oatley , John Baldwin and Ross Brawn ; 1986 Adrian Newey also worked for FORCE at short notice . The team itself moved into premises in Colnbrook , a town south of London where the McLaren team, headed by Teddy Mayer at the time, had already been based in the 1970s.
Haas initially sought TAG turbo engines ; an agreement failed, however, because of resistance from McLaren, which insisted on exclusive delivery. When talks with Renault also failed, Haas ordered several four-cylinder engines from Hart Racing Engines , which were intended as a temporary solution until a more powerful alternative would emerge. The engine question was resolved in the spring of 1985. The Beatrice Group, to which the car rental company Avis belonged in the 1980s , arranged a contact between Haas and the automobile manufacturer Ford , a main supplier of Avis. Ford, at the time owner of the British engine manufacturer Cosworth , had a six-cylinder turbo engine developed there since 1983, which was to be used in Formula 1 from 1985 ( Cosworth GBA ). In May 1985, Haas and Ford agreed that the Haas team would receive the Cosworth engine exclusively for three years. The completion of the engine was planned for the late autumn of 1985, the first race was to take place at the opening race of the 1986 season. Ultimately, this schedule could not be adhered to. The completion of the engine was delayed until the first few months of 1986, so that Haas had to contest its first Formula 1 races with customer engines from Hart. Haas drove a total of five races with the Hart engine and 14 races with the Cosworth engine.
In racing, it was found that the conservatively designed cars of the team did not reach the technical level of the leading racing teams and that neither the Hart nor the Cosworth engines had the necessary reliability.
Already in the early summer of 1986 the end of the racing team became apparent. The reasons for this were on the one hand the sporting results, which fell short of the - unrealistically high - expectations, and on the other hand the team's economic difficulties. At the beginning of 1986, the three-year relationship with Beatrice was broken prematurely after the Beatrice management had been changed a few months earlier and the new management had no interest in motorsport sponsorship. Beatrice compensated Haas for the early exit. The compensation was enough to complete the 1986 season; but a new sponsor would have been required for the 1987 season, but Haas could not find one. In October 1986, Haas closed the racing stable. A month later he sold the FORCE office and the engine contract with Ford to Bernie Ecclestone , the owner of the Brabham team at the time. Ecclestone was interested in the engine mainly because its previous engine supplier, BMW, had announced the discontinuation of its Formula 1 program at the end of the 1987 season: the Cosworth engine was to replace the BMW four-cylinder at Brabham in 1988. Ultimately, however, Ecclestone decided against using the Cosworth engine; Instead, he passed the engine contract on to the Benetton team, which in 1987 scored 28 world championship points with him.
Lola?
The Haas team has been repeatedly associated with the British racing car manufacturer Lola Cars. The cars were registered under the name “THL”, which should be interpreted as the abbreviation of “Team Haas Lola”. In addition, the six points the team achieved in the 1986 constructors' championship were attributed to Lola.
In the motorsport literature there is broad agreement that the Haas THL1 and THL2 models were largely designed by FORCE. Lola was either not involved at all or only in a few details, depending on the source.
The inclusion of Lola in the name of the cars was intended by Carl Haas. It was primarily for marketing reasons. Haas tried to make the seriousness of his project clear. In this regard, he expected the established name Lola to have a greater impact than the newly established FORCE studio. In the literature, the THL models are therefore also referred to as Lola-badged Cars (German: "Cars with Lola emblem"). In this context, the presence of Lola founder Eric Broadley at the presentation of the first THL can be seen.
Team name
The team reported regularly under the name Team Haas (USA). Notwithstanding this, the team was repeatedly referred to differently in contemporary reporting. This continues in the more recent motorsport literature. Among other things, there are entries as Haas-Lola , Beatrice , Beatrice-Lola and FORCE-Lola . These designations partly take on the original main sponsor, partly the - not involved in the team organization - racing car manufacturer Lola. They were not used as a team name at the factory.
Racing history: the individual years
1985 Formula 1 season: Debut with Hart engines
Team Haas made its debut at the 12th race of the 1985 season, the Italian Grand Prix in Monza . The emergency vehicle was the Lola THL1 . It was powered by a four-cylinder Hart turbo engine. Hart's four-cylinder engines, based on a Cosworth block from the 1960s, were considered exhausted in 1985 and were among the weakest and most unreliable engines of the season. The only driver was Alan Jones.
The team's debut season was unsuccessful. Haas took part in four races but never finished. In Monza, Jones qualified for the 25th and penultimate starting position, almost ten seconds behind pole sitter Ayrton Senna ; Only Philippe Alliot was slower in the comparably motorized RAM03 of the financially troubled RAM team. In the race, Jones retired after 25 laps due to an engine failure. The cause was a radiator clogged by flying debris, which led to the engine overheating.
Haas skipped the following race in Belgium . Instead, the team took test drives in the UK. The last European race, the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch , Jones also ended prematurely; this time a stone had damaged a radiator. At the South African Grand Prix , Jones qualified for 18th place - his team's best qualifying result of the year -; however, he did not take part in the race itself. Officially, flu was the reason for his absence; in fact, he did not want to drive in South Africa for political reasons. At the end of the season in Australia , Jones dropped out after 19 laps due to an electrical fault.
1986 Formula 1 season: Exclusive Cosworth turbos
Team Haas started the 1986 Formula 1 season again with Hart engines. Haas was the last team to use these engines after RAM Racing retired. The designer Brian Hart had revised his four-cylinder turbo engines during the winter break: Based on engine blocks of the 1984 configuration, the 1986 specification received redesigned camshafts , pistons and exhaust pipes. According to observers, this development was a significant improvement over the previous year. Haas kept the THL1 chassis for the Hart engines. In addition to Alan Jones, who remained in the team, Patrick Tambay drove the second car.
The THL1-Hart were more efficient in 1986 than in the previous year, but the reliability was still lacking. At the season opener in Rio de Janeiro , Jones dropped out after five laps due to a defective ignition distributor, at Tambay, who was in the points at the time, a defective alternator led to an early end. In Spain Tambay was ranked eighth, six laps behind; it was the only finish of a THL1.
At the Grand Prix of San Marino of the Cosworth turbo engine (type TEC F1) first appeared. It was a six-cylinder engine with a bank angle of 120 degrees, fitted with two Garrett turbochargers and using manifold injection from Ford. FORCE provided the THL2 for the Ford engine , a racing car produced in three copies, which was not a new design, but a modified version of the THL1.
On its debut in Imola , the THL2, which was driven by Jones, was clearly inferior to Tambays THL1. In qualifying, Jones was almost three seconds slower than Tambay in the old car with the Hart engine. During the 1986 season, the THL2, like its predecessor, suffered from a lack of reliability. Jones retired ten times early in 14 races, Tambay just as often in 13 races. However, there were also some finishings in the points: Jones finished fourth at the Austrian Grand Prix and sixth in the subsequent race in Italy . Tambay took fifth place in Austria.
In the warm-up for the Canadian Grand Prix , Tambay had an accident as a result of a driving error. He suffered injuries to his feet that prevented him from participating in the race in Montréal or in Detroit a week later . Haas tried to replace him for the race in the USA by Michael Andretti , the son of former world champion Mario Andretti ; however, the young American did not receive a super license . Ultimately, Eddie Cheever took over the second car from Haas in this race.
In total, Haas achieved six world championship points in 1986 and finished eighth in the constructors' championship. This put the team ahead of Ecclestone's Brabham team, which had only scored two points with BMW engines.
literature
- Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing . Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .
- David Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars 1906-2001 . 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 (English).
- David Hodges: Racing cars from AZ after 1993 . Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .
- Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 . 2nd edition, St. Sulpice, 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g David Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars, p. 32.
- ↑ a b c d e Ian Bamsey: The 1000 bhp Grand Prix Cars, p. 102.
- ↑ a b c Ian Bamsey: The 1000 bhp Grand Prix Cars, p. 77 f.
- ^ A b Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1. S. 601.
- ↑ David Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945, p. 275.
- ↑ Anders Pierre Ménard (La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1, p. 601), who considers the chassis to be a Lola construction and also brings some inaccuracies in the further text.
- ↑ Summary of the history of the racing team on the website www.grandprix.com (accessed on January 17, 2014).
- ↑ See the message about the team's first race and the message about the last race (accessed on January 17, 2014).
- ↑ Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing, S. 357th
- ↑ Adrian Cimarosti: The century of racing, S. 350th
- ↑ a b c Ian Bamsey: The 1000 bhp Grand Prix Cars, p. 103.