Toleman
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| Surname | Toleman |
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| Companies | Toleman Group Motorsport |
| Company headquarters | Witney , Oxfordshire , UK |
| Team boss | Ted Toleman |
| statistics | |
| First Grand Prix | San Marino 1981 |
| Last Grand Prix | Australia 1985 |
| Race driven | 70 |
| Constructors' championship | 0 |
| Drivers World Championship | 0 |
| Race wins | 0 |
| Pole positions | 1 |
| Fastest laps | 2 |
| Points | 26th |
Toleman Motorsport was a British motorsport team that was mainly involved in Formula 2 and Formula 1 . Toleman won the Formula 2 European Championship in 1980 with a vehicle he designed himself. The following year, the team debuted in Formula 1 together with the British engine manufacturer Hart . By 1985 , Toleman had taken part in 70 Grand Prix and achieved 26 World Championship points, three podium places and one pole position . In 1984 the later three-time world champion Ayrton Senna made his debut with Toleman in Formula 1. From 1986 the team changed owners and names several times. It is the forerunner of the Benetton and Renault teams ; Between 2010 and 2015 it was involved in Formula 1 under the name Lotus F1 Team .
Foundation and early years
Toleman Motorsport was founded by Ted and Robert Toleman. The Toleman brothers were heirs to a transport company established in 1926 that transported new passenger cars from the factory to the dealerships on behalf of Ford UK . From the 1970s, Ted and Robert Toleman were involved as drivers in motor racing; in the British Formula Ford 2000 both competed against each other. Robert Toleman died in 1976 after a racing accident at the Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit , two years later Ted Toleman had a serious accident while training for the 24 Hours of Le Mans , in which he drove a private Osella . After the accident, Ted Toleman ended his active racing career.
Toleman in Formula 2
In 1978, Toleman Motorsport appeared for the first time with Ralt's customer vehicles in the Formula 2 European Championship. The team used a 2.0 liter four-cylinder naturally aspirated Hart 420 engine designed by Brian Hart , the basic features of which were based on the Cosworth BDA engine. In the 1977 Formula 2 season, cars with Hart engines won two races, and in 1978 there were four victories. In 1979 Brian Henton missed winning the Formula 2 championship by one point in Tolemans Ralt. In the following year, Toleman made the switch from customer team to manufacturer: Rory Byrne and John Gentry designed the Toleman TG280, which was tailored to the Hart engine and dominated the 1980 Formula 2 season. The Toleman drivers Henton and Derek Warwick were champions and runner-up this year with a clear lead over the competition. In 1981, the Docking Spitzley team continued using the cars in Formula 2 and received factory support. Other Toleman customers were Plygrange Racing and the Austrian Jo Gartner , who had a private team this year.
Toleman in Formula 1
Preparations
In 1981 Toleman Motorsport competed in Formula 1 for the first time. Ted Toleman had already recognized in 1980 that the naturally aspirated engines used predominantly in Formula 1 up to now were inferior to the younger turbo engines. In contrast to other small teams such as Osella, RAM or Theodore , Toleman was consequently looking for a turbo engine for the Formula 1 entry . Initially, the team had tried to get a turbo engine from Lancia ; however, these attempts failed early. Instead, Ted Toleman and his team manager Alex Hawkridge decided to continue the alliance with Brian Hart, who had already undertaken the first development work for a turbo engine in 1979. From autumn 1980, Toleman financed the further development of the Hart 415T engine, the prototype of which was subjected to a first test on December 9, 1980 in a modified Toleman chassis.
1981: Only two qualifications
Toleman's first year in Formula 1 was a series of failures. The team made their debut with Derek Warwick and Brian Henton in the fourth race of the season, the San Marino Grand Prix , which was also the first European race of the year. In twelve world championship runs in which Toleman took part this year, the drivers failed eleven times to qualify. Henton could only qualify for the Italian Grand Prix , which he finished 10th; Warwick only went into the Las Vegas Grand Prix in October 1981, but was eliminated. The lack of success of the team is mostly attributed in the literature to the fact that Toleman was overwhelmed with a completely new turbo engine and the Pirelli tires, the use of which was also an innovation.
1982: non-qualifications and failures
In the team's second year, Brian Henton, who moved to Arrows , was replaced by Italian Teo Fabi . Towards the middle of the season, there was an improvement in competitiveness; however, the reliability of the Toleman-Hart continued to be a weak point of the package.
In addition to the technical problems known from the previous year, there were financial difficulties. After both drivers failed to qualify in the second race of the season, the previous main sponsor Candy withdrew. Toleman skipped the two North American races in the spring of 1982; transport problems were given as the reason for this. The team used the time to fundamentally overhaul the emergency vehicle. The vehicle, now known as the TG181C, was “significantly more competitive” and almost always enabled the drivers to participate in races from the summer of 1982 - there were only two non-qualifications in the following season - and also indicated the potential for top performance. At the British Grand Prix , Warwick was second for a few laps before valve failure forced him to retire. In Zandvoort , Warwick set the fastest lap of the race with the TG181C. Countable results could not be derived from this, however, since the cars were still very unreliable. There were only three finishings in the entire season.
1983: World championship points for the first time
It was not until the second half of the 1983 Formula 1 season that the Toleman team managed to position its drivers in the points. In the last four races of the year Warwick crossed the finish line twice in fourth and once each in fifth and sixth, while his team-mate Bruno Giacomelli came in sixth once. However, Derek Warwick attracted the attention of a top team and switched to the Renault factory team at the end of the season - as the successor to Alain Prost , the newly crowned vice world champion.
1984: Ayrton Senna
1984 was Toleman's best year. The team achieved 16 world championship points and finished 7th in the final ranking of the constructors' championship. Ayrton Senna made his Formula 1 debut with Toleman this year . An outstanding race was the rainy Monaco Grand Prix , in which Senna fought a duel with Stefan Bellof and tried to overtake the leader Alain Prost . Before it came to a duel with Prost, race director Jackie Ickx stopped the race prematurely due to bad weather conditions. Senna finished second behind Prost. Most observers assumed that Senna would have taken the lead from Prost a few laps later. By the end of the season, Senna had two more podium finishes for the team.
Although Senna had a contract with Toleman that was valid until 1986, after this race he received an offer from Lotus team boss Peter Warr for the 1985 season. Senna's father bought him out of the Toleman contract a few months later in order to switch to the top -Team to enable. Toleman then did not let Senna start at the Italian Grand Prix . In his place, Stefan Johansson drove , who took over the car of Johnny Cecotto , who had previously crashed, from the following race .
1985: tire problems and sale
In 1985 the team had major problems finding a tire supplier and was only able to compete when the Spirit team withdrew from Formula 1 after the third race of the season (San Marino Grand Prix). Toleman took over the Pirelli tires and was able to finish the season. At the end of the year, the team was taken over by the main sponsor Benetton , who then founded their own team: Benetton Formula . In 2000, this team was again by Renault bought and the 2002 season in Renault F1 renamed.
Formula 1 results
| season | chassis | driver | No. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14th | 15th | 16 | Points | rank |
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| 1981 | TG181 |
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0 | - | |||
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B. Henton
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35 | DNQ | DNQ | DNPQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | 10 | DNQ | DNQ | ||||||||
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D. Warwick
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36 | DNQ | DNQ | DNPQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNF | ||||||||
| 1982 |
TG181B TG181C TG183 |
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0 | - | ||
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D. Warwick
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35 | DNF | DNQ | DNPQ | DNF | DNF | DNQ | DNF | DNF | 15th | 10 | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | ||||||
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T. Fabi
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36 | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | NC | DNF | DNPQ | DNQ | DNF | DNF | DNQ | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | ||||||
| 1983 | TG183B |
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10 | 9. | |||
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D. Warwick
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35 | 8th | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | 7th | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | 4th | 6th | 5 | 4th | |||||
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B. Giacomelli
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36 | DNF | DNF | 13 | DNF | DNQ | 8th | 9 | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | 8th | 8th | 6th | DNF | |||||
| 1984 |
TG183B TG184 |
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16 | 7th | ||
 A. Senna
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19th | DNF | 6th | 6th | DNQ | DNF | 2 | 7th | DNF | DNF | 3 | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | 3 | |||||
 S. Johansson
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4th | ||||||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small} J. Cecotto
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20th | DNF | DNF | DNF | NC | DNF | DNF | 9 | DNF | DNF | DNQ | ||||||||||
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P. Martini
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DNQ | ||||||||||||||||||||
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S. Johansson
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DNF | 11 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1985 | TG185 |
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0 | - | ||
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T. Fabi
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19th | DNF | DNF | DNF | 14th | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | 12 | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | |||||||
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P. Ghinzani
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20th | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF | DNF |
literature
- Alan Brinton: Top Ted . Portrait of Formula 1 team boss Ted Toleman. In: auto motor und sport, issue ... / 1983, p. 277 ff.
