F1 team
Larrousse Formula One
was a motorsports racing team founded in 1987 by Didier Calmels and former racer
Gerard Larrousse
, originally under the name
Larrousse & Calmels
. It was based in
Antony
, in the southern suburbs of
Paris
. It was renamed Larrousse after the departure of Calmels following his murder of his wife. The team competed in
Formula One
from
1987
to
1994
before succumbing to financial problems, scoring a best finish of third at the
1990 Japanese Grand Prix
during this time.
Formula One
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Lola chassis (1987?1991)
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Larrousse & Calmels commissioned a car from
Lola
and the result was the LC87 (internal Lola designation: T87/30), a car designed by
Eric Broadley
and
Ralph Bellamy
. The chassis was powered by a
Cosworth
DFZ V8 engine, and was entered in the undersubscribed normally aspirated class.
The team started out in
1987
with just one car for
Philippe Alliot
, with
Yannick Dalmas
joining the team in a second car the end of the year. By that time they had agreed to a three-year deal with Lola and Chris Murphy was recruited from
Zakspeed
to help Bellamy. The team then made a deal to run
Lamborghini
V12 engines
in 1989.
In September 1988 the team hired former
Renault
and
Lotus
designer and engineer
Gerard Ducarouge
but in the spring of 1989, Calmels had to quit the team due to his imprisonment for the murder of his wife.
[1]
As a result, the team became known simply as Larrousse.
For the
1989
season Alliot stayed on but Dalmas, who had been ill with
Legionnaires' disease
, was dropped after
Canada
and replaced by rookie French driver
Eric Bernard
and later by
Michele Alboreto
, who had recently left
Tyrrell
. At the end of the year, Larrousse sold 50% of his shares to the Japanese
Espo Corporation
, and
Aguri Suzuki
was hired to partner Bernard for the 1990 season. At the same time the team moved from Antony to new premises at
Signes
in the south of France near the
Paul Ricard Circuit
.
The
1990
season was Larrousse's best in Formula One, despite being forced to pre-qualify for the first half of the season. Suzuki managed to score the team's first, and ultimately only, podium, in front of his home fans at
Suzuka
in the
Japanese Grand Prix
, and the team finished sixth in the Constructors' Championship. Then things began to unravel when Lamborghini announced it was switching to
Ligier
. Of greater concern was the
FIA
considering taking away Larrousse's points because of an alleged "false declaration" about the design of the chassis. It transpired the team had made an honest mistake by registering the car as manufactured by themselves, when in fact it was designed and built by Lola in England. Although the team officially lost their points from 1990, the team kept the travel benefits and prize money associated with their championship finish and did not have to take part in pre-qualifying.
[2]
Larrousse signed an engine deal with
Brian Hart
for 1991 but early in the year Espo withdrew and the team struggled financially. Although difficult to set up, the car proved relatively quick and was usually a solid midfield runner before succumbing to the inevitable breakdown or driver error. Suzuki finished sixth in the first race of the season at
Phoenix
, and thereafter never made the chequered flag again. Bernard earned a single point for 6th at the
Mexican Grand Prix
. He crashed heavily in qualifying in Japan at Suzuka's hairpin, badly breaking his leg, and putting him out of F1 until he returned with Ligier in
1994
. Belgian
Bertrand Gachot
returned for the final race in Australia (after being released from jail for assault on a London taxi driver).
As the funds began to run dry, the team sought protection from creditors with a French court in July. Japanese company Central Park bought into the team but soon afterwards Ducarouge left. Merger talks with
AGS
failed and the relationships with Lola and Hart were both ended without payment being made by Larrousse.
[3]
Venturi chassis (1992)
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In the autumn of 1991 Gerard Larrousse signed up
Robin Herd
from
Fondmetal
for the construction of an F1 chassis and 65% of the team was sold to the
Venturi
car company. A new Lamborghini engine deal was agreed and Bertrand Gachot was kept on alongside
Ukyo Katayama
. In a season dominated by the
Williams
team, Gachot scored Larrousse's only point of the season at the
Monaco Grand Prix
. Gachot and Katayama collided twice in the season, in
Canada
and then
Japan
.
In September 1992 Venturi sold its shareholding to a group called Comstock, headed by German Rainer Walldorf. Walldorf, real name Klaus Walz, turned out to be wanted by the police of several European countries in connection with four murders. After escaping from a raid on his house in France by judicious use of a
hand grenade
, he was killed during a nine-hour gun battle with police in a German hotel.
[1]
Larrousse chassis (1993?1994)
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In the team's first season using an in-house chassis, they had another disappointing season in 1993 when Gerard Larrousse funded drivers
Philippe Alliot
and
Erik Comas
, and the drivers could only manage two finishes in the points. Japanese pay driver
Toshio Suzuki
substituted for Alliot in hopes of increasing finances for the flyaway end of season races in Japan and Australia.
In 1994 Larrousse reorganized the team again. With Lamborghini pulling out and a failure to agree a deal to use
Peugeot
engines (which went to McLaren) he reverted to customer
Ford HB
engines, which were a substantially lesser predecessor to the Ford Zetec-R used by the works
Benetton
team. New partners were brought in, in the form of Swiss-based Fast Group SA, an organization headed by Ferrari dealer Michel Golay and former F1 racer
Patrick Tambay
. Sponsorship was found from the Belgian
Alken-Maes
brewery (with
Rizla
,
SEITA
and
Zanussi
filling the secondary sponsor roles), and the cars primarily ran in the colors of alcohol-free beer Tourtel, with occasional uses of the red and white colors of
Kronenbourg
in selected Grands Prix. At the wheel,
Olivier Beretta
replaced Alliot while Comas remained. Reliability was generally very poor throughout the season. Comas scored two 6th placings in the Pacific and German GPs ? the latter race had only 8 finishers after a huge start-line accident. Beretta's best result was 7th at the German GP as well.
Despite these occasional flashes of speed, Comas and Beretta generally ran in the lower-midfield in what proved to be a tricky car powered by an aging engine. As the money ran short, however, pay-drivers replaced them, including former Larrousse veterans Alliot and Dalmas, as well as rookies
Hideki Noda
and
Jean-Denis Deletraz
.
During the season, the team played a role in
Benetton Formula
's
cheating allegations
. In May that year, the team was asked by refuelling rig device manufacturer Intertechnique to remove a fuel filter from their refuelling device; the team notified the FIA about the request the night before an
FIA World Motor Sport Council
meeting in September regarding
Jos Verstappen
's refuelling fire at
German Grand Prix
, where Benetton did the same without Intertechnique's approval.
[4]
Collapse
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A new F1 car for
1995
was designed by Robin Herd, but was not built due to lack of funds. The team appeared on the entry list for the 1995 season with
Erik Comas
returning as one of its drivers,
[5]
but needed to merge with an organisation with an available F1 chassis to survive. The two options were
Lola
, which was unrealistic as the British manufacturer had never been paid by Larrousse for the chassis it had produced for the
1990
and
1991
seasons; and French
International Formula 3000
team
DAMS
, which was in possession of a
Reynard
-designed F1 chassis with which it hoped to enter the sport in the future. However, Gerard Larrousse and DAMS owner
Jean-Paul Driot
failed to come to an agreement over the winter of 1994?1995.
[6]
Driot subsequently announced that DAMS would not enter F1 in 1995.
[7]
Larrousse consequently ordered the previous year's chassis, the
LH94
, to be upgraded to the new technical regulations as a temporary solution, whilst he waited to see if the French government would give the team financial support, as way of compensation for the fact that the so-called "
Evin's Law
" had banned possible revenue from tobacco and alcohol sponsorship.
[8]
[9]
In the meantime he sold the majority stake in the Larrousse outfit to compatriots
Laurent Barlesi
and
Jean Messaoudi
, who had attempted but failed to enter their own planned
Junior F1 Team
for the coming season and had the budget necessary to save Larrousse from imminent collapse.
[10]
During this period, the team's potential driver line-up was in flux, with Comas,
Emmanuel Collard
,
Elton Julian
,
Eric Helary
,
Christophe Bouchut
and
Eric Bernard
all in the frame.
[9]
It was then announced within two weeks of the season-opening
Brazilian Grand Prix
that Larrousse would not receive any government money.
[11]
The team elected to miss the first two long-haul races of the season, reasoning that it was better to focus on building a new car than upgrading the old one (a solution that would be very uncompetitive), and hoping that the sport's governing body,
Federation Internationale de l'Automobile
(FIA) would waive the standard fines levied against teams that missed Grands Prix in the interest of keeping the team in F1.
[12]
However, the team's situation remained extremely difficult:
Ford
refused to supply the team engines without payment; Gerard Larrousse's former partners,
Patrick Tambay
and
Michel Golay
, took legal action against him in France; and a planned sponsorship deal with
Petronas
was dependent on the team taking part in a Grand Prix.
[13]
Prior to the
San Marino Grand Prix
, Larrousse announced his team's withdrawal from F1, blaming others for failing to produce promised funding. Despite announcing that he intended to return to the sport for
1996
, his involvement in several lawsuits as a result of the team's collapse made this impossible. The failure of Larrousse was a blow to French motorsport, which in addition to the problems caused by the government's ban on tobacco and alcohol sponsorship (the
Loi Evin
), had recently lost the
AGS
team in
1991
and seen the takeover of the
Ligier
team by foreigners
Flavio Briatore
and
Tom Walkinshaw
in
1994
.
[14]
Racing record
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Complete Formula One results
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(
key
) (results in bold indicate
pole position
)
*
Ineligible for points.
^
Results published in 1991 FIA Yearbook of Automobile Sport credited the 1990 results to "Larrousse" rather than "Lola"
References
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- Footnotes
- Books
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Notable personnel
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2024 season
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Although World Championship races held in 1952 and 1953 were run to Formula Two regulations, constructors who only participated during this period are included herein to maintain Championship continuity.
Constructors whose only participation in the World Championship was in the
Indianapolis 500
races between 1950 and 1960 are not listed.
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