1990 San Marino GP: Bruno Giacomelli and Life

[52Paddy]

I'm a fan of the underdogs and very interested in the story behind failed attempts into F1. Life were, in my opinion, one of the very worst attempts at an F1 team and this can be seen by the pre-qualifying attempt by Giacomelli at the 1990 San Marino GP. It took him over 7 minutes to complete the lap!

Is there any video footage of this lap available?

If not, can anyone explain why the lap was so slow. Did the car continuously stall or was it real that slow?

The car only boasted 450hp and had an extreme lack of facilities. No testing was done and there were very limited spare parts prior to the 1990 season. This is one team that I'm very interested in knowing about.

[inimitablestoo]

According to the Autocourse race report, the car never got out of third gear :eek: although it doesn't explain why. Possibly they had to make some kind of appearance to avoid FISA fines, even though the car was clearly in no fit state to run.

As for video coverage... probably unlikely, as qualifying coverage was near to non-existent back then, let alone the practice and pre-qualifying sessions!

[Ranger]

Gary Brabham said that the situation was so poor that at the Brazilian GP of 1990:

"The mechanics had basically gone on strike and deliberately not put oil in the engine!"

...which seems to be because the W12 engine simply did not last beyond formation laps, which probably would explain why the car never even pre-qualified in the hands of Giacomelli or Brabham.

Interview is here: http://www.f1rejects.com/interviews/brabhamg/index.html

[futuretiger9]

Gary Brabham said that the situation was so poor that at the Brazilian GP of 1990:

"The mechanics had basically gone on strike and deliberately not put oil in the engine!"

...which seems to be because the W12 engine simply did not last beyond formation laps, which probably would explain why the car never even pre-qualified in the hands of Giacomelli or Brabham.

Interview is here: http://www.f1rejects.com/interviews/brabhamg/index.html

At one point, they had to borrow a tyre pressure gauge from the Eurobrun team!

[52Paddy]

Cheers for that interview. It gives a great insight into the struggles in the team.


As for video coverage... probably unlikely, as qualifying coverage was near to non-existent back then, let alone the practice and pre-qualifying sessions!

I thought so. The only possibility is that there is some amateur footage lying about. Still, the stories behind the team are very interesting. Poor Gary admitted in that interview that the Life drive ruined his career. :mark:

[philipbain]

There is some footage of the car in the pits of the San Marino GP in '90 on the Official FOCA Review for 1990, but beyond that I know of none. I do know the Life chassis was recycled from the First F3000 team's attempted graduation to F1 in 1989 which was abandoned before the start of the '89 season. i'm unsure of the engine's origins but its possible that it was based on 2x 1.5 litre V6 units from the previous turbo formula, as it was essentially 4x 3 cyclinder blocks. the engine was bukly, heavy and had virtually no development.

A great blog on Life F1: http://motorsportsramblings.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_archive.html

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_(Formula_One_team)

[52Paddy]

Thanks for that Philip. Very interesting blog. :up:

[Haddock]

There is some footage of the car in the pits of the San Marino GP in '90 on the Official FOCA Review for 1990, but beyond that I know of none. I do know the Life chassis was recycled from the First F3000 team's attempted graduation to F1 in 1989 which was abandoned before the start of the '89 season. i'm unsure of the engine's origins but its possible that it was based on 2x 1.5 litre V6 units from the previous turbo formula, as it was essentially 4x 3 cyclinder blocks. the engine was bukly, heavy and had virtually no development.

A great blog on Life F1: http://motorsportsramblings.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_archive.html



Glad you liked the blog. The engine was the last work of Franco Rocchi and as far as I know was not based on a previous 1.5 turbo engine - he'd worked for Ferrari until retiring in 1982 and then painted for a few years before being lured back to F1 to work on the W12.

It was the Porsche V12 atmo engine which is widely suspected to have started life as two TAG V6 turbos put together and bored out to 3.5 litres. Given it was the work of a major manufacturer with a wealth of motorsports experience, it was in its own way as much of an embarassment as the Life W12!

[52Paddy]

Glad you liked the blog. The engine was the last work of Franco Rocchi and as far as I know was not based on a previous 1.5 turbo engine - he'd worked for Ferrari until retiring in 1982 and then painted for a few years before being lured back to F1 to work on the W12.

It was the Porsche V12 atmo engine which is widely suspected to have started life as two TAG V6 turbos put together and bored out to 3.5 litres. Given it was the work of a major manufacturer with a wealth of motorsports experience, it was in its own way as much of an embarassment as the Life W12!

A shame that ended up being used in the Life package. It may have had the potential to be a new phenomenon. I still think the V12 was a more suitable engine, but surely the W12 could have produced more than what Life struggled to do (or not do) with it.

[ArrowsFA1]

It was the Porsche V12 atmo engine which is widely suspected to have started life as two TAG V6 turbos put together and bored out to 3.5 litres. Given it was the work of a major manufacturer with a wealth of motorsports experience, it was in its own way as much of an embarassment as the Life W12!
Wasn't it Gordon Murray who, when he saw the drawings for the Porsche engine, said about the two TAG turbos? Whoever it was, that was an extraordinarily disastrous effort.

Poor old Arrows :dozey: When the deal was signed they must have felt they'd struck gold with Porsche, who had won races and championships a few years earlier as TAG. Somewhat fortunately the Arrows name was replaced with Footwork as the Porsche association started :p

Wasn't it Gordon Murray who, when he saw the drawings for the Porsche engine, said about the two TAG turbos? Whoever it was, that was an extraordinarily disastrous effort.

Poor old Arrows :dozey: When the deal was signed they must have felt they'd struck gold with Porsche, who had won races and championships a few years earlier as TAG. Somewhat fortunately the Arrows name was replaced with Footwork as the Porsche association started :p

Does anybody know what Arrows paid for the V12 engine?

If they paid full-wack, then they were ripped off. However, if they didn't pay much.....