23.12.09

With 2010 seeing an big influx of new F1 teams, with Campos Meta, "Lotus", Virgin (Manor) and USF1 joining the circus, we thought we'd take a look back at the last time something similar happened. This was around 20 years ago, but to find the root cause you have to go back over 30. In 1977 Renault introduced both turbocharging and major manufacturers into F1. The turbo technology was ruinously expensive and the smaller teams without manufacturer support could just not compete. Sounds familiar? By 1986 there were 13 teams, but only ten troubled the scorer.

For 1987 the FIA announced that 3.5 litre naturally.phpirated engines would be allowed and boost reduced on the turbos to 4 bar maximum before being further reduced to 2.5 bar for 1988, after which they would be banned. Then as now, the readily availability of cost-effective and reliable engines from Cosworth was crucial and they quickly produced another iteration of the legendary DFV, the DFZ and Tyrrell gratefully returned to Cossie power and AGS switched too. March and Larrousse (Lola) joined in with single car entries, Haas (Lola) dropped out, and Osella went down to one car.

In 1988 the Judd CV engine became available and there were 31 cars from 18 teams fighting for 26 spaces on the grid. In 1988 Cosworth produced the last of the DFV line for the Ford "works" team Benetton, the low-line DFR. In 1989 Benetton got the all new Cosworth HB and this released the DFR for the little teams. Entries exploded and in the 1989 British GP there were 39 cars entered by 20 teams! Not only was there qualifying but , for the bottom 13, there was pre-qualifying to get into qualifying! More than half the entry was DFR powered but there were also "classics" like the Yamaha V8, which the Japanese company built to show Cosworth the way. In 32 races fitted into the back of a Zakspeed 891 it finished just two, in 17th and 24th positions.

Of the new teams (AGS, BMS Scuderia Italia (Dallara), Coloni, EuroBrun, March, Larousse, Onyx and Rial), March did the best in terms of results. Although they were a new team they drew heavily on the infrastructure of their well-established and highly successful parent company - and some say destroying it in the process. After rejoining F1 in 1987, March soon became genuinely competitive, scoring two second places, one in their Leyton House incarnation from 1990-1991. Their best year was in 1988 when Ivan Capelli briefly led the Japanese GP before retiring and they finished sixth in the constructors' championship. The money ran out in 1992. Their greatest legacy was their Chief Designer, one Adrian Newey, who went on to do a bit more...

Onyx initially looked promising as it was a proper British racing team which had stepped up from running the works March F3000 effort. Then they were bought by eccentric Belgian millionaire Jean Pierre van Rossem who was providing backing via his Moneytron finance scheme. When they failed to secure the (disastrous) Porsche V12 engine for 1990, he sold the team to Swiss Peter Montiverdi. They just lasted two years with a third place their best result. However, they did bring another name into F1 which, like Cosworth, is part of the 2010 minnows package - gearbox manufacturer Xtrac.

1989 saw the return of another millionaire, Günther Schmidt, whose previous team ATS had collapsed in 1984. His new team Rial enjoyed a brief period in the DFR sun, lasting two seasons with a couple of fourths their (respectable) best results. AGS lasted until 1990, a couple of sixth places being their best results. Coloni (1987-1991) never troubled the scorer, not even getting into a race for two years! They also brought us the Carlo Chiti Subaru flat 12.... However, they later went on to F3 and F3000 and are still involved in GP2 today. EuroBrun (1988-1990) were another to score nil points, not getting into a single race in their second year.

BMS Scuderia Italia switched to the V10 Judd engine in 1991, then secured customer Ferrari V12s for 1992, scoring a total of two third places, a fourth and four sixths. They took the Ferrari engine to Lola for 1993. This turned out to be a really bad idea and the team quit F1 at the end of the year after drivers Michele Aboreto and Luca Badoer were unable to score a point. The team went on to success in GT racing. Dallara were to concentrate (mostly) on F3, which they've dominated ever since, though there was the Ferrari 333SP along the way. They made the Honda F1 test "mule" in the late '90s, were involved with Midland F1 and are due to return next season, producing the Campos car. Larrousse actually survived longest, from 1987-1994, switching to the "Venturi" chassis in 1992 and "Larousse" in 1993. They managed 18 scoring places, with third in the 1990 Japanese GP by Aguri Suzuki their best result.

One of the prime functions of the "little teams" is surely to bring new drivers on. None of this intake really managed this. Some drivers, like Stefan Johansson (Onyx, AGS) and Michele Alboreto (BMS, Larousse) were already past their best. Others, like Christian Danner and Stefano Modena never realised the potential they'd shown in junior formulae. Most of the teams were so strapped for cash they were forced to use "renta-drivers" who brought sponsorship with them, and even then were too poor for any "talent" to be employed to achieve anything.

The "talent" was often a quick but under-funded driver and a number went on to achieve good things after F1. AGS's Joachim Winklehock became a highly successful touring car driver, their Yannick Dalmas was a four times Le Mans winner. Gabriele Tarquini drove for both Coloni and AGS, going on to become a highly successful touring car driver, indeed winning the WTCC title this year. Bertrand Gachot, who drove for no less than four of the minnows, won Le Mans in 1991 with Johnny Herbert and the man who was bottom of the pile at the 1989 British GP - Volker Weidler. Roberto Moreno, a great driver and the "racers' racer", but with no money or sponsorship clout, drove for three of them.

As for the others, who can forget names like Fabrizio Barbazza, Pedro Matos Chaves, Naoki Hattori, Gregor Foitek, Hideki Noda and Jean-Denis Deletraz? Coloni driver Claudio Langes' 14 failures to pre-qualify makes him (statistically) the least successful driver in the history of Grand Prix racing. In reality, probably none were incompetents and all are one of the select band of only 801 people in history who have entered an F1 World Championship round.

Of the new teams in the period exactly none survived long-term. As technology advanced, manufacturer support became vital, entries were down to 35 cars in 1990, 34 in 1991 and 32 in 1992. By 1993 grids were down to 26 cars, falling to 22 in '96 and 20 in 2003. The last "minnow" to survive was Minardi, who became the Red Bull Junior team Toro Rosso in 2006. There was a temporary blip back up to 22 in '06 and '07 with the Super Aguri adventure, then back down to 20 from early in 2008 after Honda pulled the plug - little did we realise what this presaged for the end of the year.

Early 2008 saw the peak of manufacturer involvement with seven out of 12 teams (58%) with substantial manufacturer support. Now with the news that Renault, who started all this, has sold a large stake in its team (to Genii Capital), there will be just two "manufacturer" teams out of 13 (15%), Mercedes GP and Ferrari, though when you consider that Ferrari is (largely) financially independent of Fiat, that means in reality there's only one.

There are signs that history may be repeating itself with the 2010 teams so far signing drivers who are experienced but have largely disappointed (Lotus - Trulli, Kovalainen), yet to prove themselves (Virgin - Glock) and new drivers who are OK, but whose main asset seems to be money (Campos - Senna, Manor - di Grassi). There is also a hint of the return of the renta-driver with Jose Maria Lopez supposedly in the frame at USF1 if he can muster up more dosh. The only interesting new driver signing so far has been Kamui Kobayashi by born-again team owner and talent spotter Peter Sauber - apart from Schuey of course!

Finally, it's going to be interesting to see what the new millionaires do with their teams. Richard Branston, after coyly rejecting the lascivious overtures of F1 for so many years, semi-succumbed last year with Brawn and could not resist going all the way. It'll be interesting to see what the new owners get up to. In terms of direct involvement, they'll be hard pressed to match Günther Schmidt. In the ATS days, he jumped up and down on a new front wing the team wanted to try but he didn't. Can't wait!