Osella

Does anyone have any stories about this F1 team? It sounds like another hard luck story but the team was around for 10 years and while there were brief glimmers of competetiveness it was never to be...
The first GP I ever went to was the 1982 South African GP and I remember clearly how JP Jarier crashed into the catch-fencing in front of me in his Denim-Osella..
Love to hear some stories...

It was 1982; a classmate of mine shows up grinning from an ear to another.

The day before he came out of his house to find an open trailer with 2 Osella F1 on it....

He took a lot of pics, some of them with him in the cockpit.

Relaxed times they were, the mechanics were friendly.

Just, still today I don't understand what was that trailer doing in the center of Napoli, 250 km south of the nearest race track (Vallelunga) and 900 Km south of the Osella factory in Volpiano.

Possibly going to Pergusa in Sicily for testing?

Some at Osella have certainly gone on to great things. Take my mates brother, Ignazio Lunetta. He went from Osella to Ferrari as a test team engineer, then Alesi's engineer, Schumacher's engineer and now technical management for Ferrari itself (not just F1!).

Originally posted by Paolo
It was 1982; a classmate of mine shows up grinning from an ear to another.

The day before he came out of his house to find an open trailer with 2 Osella F1 on it....

He took a lot of pics, some of them with him in the cockpit.

Relaxed times they were, the mechanics were friendly.

Just, still today I don't understand what was that trailer doing in the center of Napoli, 250 km south of the nearest race track (Vallelunga) and 900 Km south of the Osella factory in Volpiano.

Possibly going to Pergusa in Sicily for testing?

It's possible that the cars were there for show/promotional purposes (Scuderia Vesuvio, from Naples, used to organize a racing car show, late '70s-early '80s). Also, at that time Osella factory was located in Volpiano, on the outskirts of Turin.

The only thing that springs to mind thnking of Osella is the horrific crash that killed Ricardo Paletti at Montréal in 1982 . Otherwise the have contributed nothing to GP history, I'm afraid.

In a Canadian GP at Montreal under pouring rain (1988? 1989?) Nicola Larini was running 4th in a white Osella before withdrawing.

Piercarlo Ghinzani scored a fine 5th at Dallas in 1984 in a Osella-Alfa Romeo, later in the season the late Jo Gartner finished 5th and Ghinzani 7th in the Italian GP at Monza.

Not bad, for a poor, small team.

Peter Charles ran out of fuel at Monza, otherwise he would have been on for a fourth. He was also 7th at Monaco; had that race continued he might have been on for a very good result. He seemed to have a spin or something on about lap 20 that lost him 50 seconds otherwise he WOULD have scored points.

They deserve credit for hanging on in there for so long. 11 full years in which mediocrity was an impossible dream. Why else would you do it other than for love of the sport and a desire to be in F1? Enzo still seems to be making sportscars, yet F1 successor Fomet lasted less than a fifth of the time.

Didn't they serve the best plate of italian pasta in the paddock for, ahum, 11 years?

Originally posted by ensign14
Peter Charles ran out of fuel at Monza, otherwise he would have been on for a fourth. He was also 7th at Monaco; had that race continued he might have been on for a very good result. He seemed to have a spin or something on about lap 20 that lost him 50 seconds otherwise he WOULD have scored points.

They deserve credit for hanging on in there for so long. 11 full years in which mediocrity was an impossible dream. Why else would you do it other than for love of the sport and a desire to be in F1? Enzo still seems to be making sportscars, yet F1 successor Fomet lasted less than a fifth of the time.

Peter Charles? I don't know of a Peter Charles driving an Osella?

Originally posted by Roger39


Peter Charles? I don't know of a Peter Charles driving an Osella?

Ensign's Anglofile Piercarlo Ghinzani?

Osella did very well with what they had

Originally posted by Roger39


Peter Charles? I don't know of a Peter Charles driving an Osella?

Translate into Italian.

Of course, they had great success in sportscars, running Abarths and then their own chassis, and won F2 races. They certainly went about getting to F1 in the right way, working up from the lower formulae with their own equipment, like Minardi and Sauber.

Originally posted by ensign14

Translate into Italian.

Of course, they had great success in sportscars, running Abarths and then their own chassis, and won F2 races. They certainly went about getting to F1 in the right way, working up from the lower formulae with their own equipment, like Minardi and Sauber.

Sorry...took me a while. Seems like they could have done with a serious sponsor and should have stayed away from the Alfa engines...

I seem to remember Peter Charles having a big crash here at Kyalami..anyone remember what happened?

Originally posted by Roger39
I seem to remember Peter Charles having a big crash here at Kyalami..anyone remember what happened?

In the '84 Season Review it says that he clipped a kerb in one of the fastest sweepers of the track and crashed heavily, and because he was on full tanks, the car was burned down to a shell. Ghinzani got out in time, but had to be classified as a DNS since he had no car to race.

Originally posted by Victor_RO


In the '84 Season Review it says that he clipped a kerb in one of the fastest sweepers of the track and crashed heavily, and because he was on full tanks, the car was burned down to a shell. Ghinzani got out in time, but had to be classified as a DNS since he had no car to race.

That would have been Jukskei [pronounced Yuk-skay] sweep...not a place to clip anything!

He was pretty badly burned. Even after his 5th place at Dallas he went to the back of the garages to peel some more dead skin off his hands. He'd painted the dark parts of his helmet silver, presumably due to the heat.

Angel Guerra had one of the shortest world championship race careers of any drivers; lost it on the first lap of his debut race at San Marino '81 and broke his leg - thus endeth his F1 career. OTTOMH only Apicella's was shorter.

Osella also employed the first chap to beat Senna and Brundle in an F3 race - Allen Berg. A task somewhat eased by them crashing into each other.

Originally posted by ensign14
Osella also employed the first chap to beat Senna and Brundle in an F3 race - Allen Berg. A task somewhat eased by them crashing into each other.

And there is another story of potential not realised (Allen Berg). They also had Jo Gartner driving for them at one stage...

I always loved OSELLA!

Southgate's arrow-shaped FA1E was a particularly elegant and tidy design IMO. I "borrowed" the front damper location at both ends for one of my earlier never-built Formula Ford designs. IIRC, there was a photo of its nearly completed bare tub at TC Prototypes in GPI - can anybody post that photo from that issue? I'm sure Autosprint would have covered that car in some detail too.

IIRC, there were some photos from the Osella factory during the FA1C build process in either GPI or Autosprint. I remember thinking at the time that the front of the chassis looked very flimsy - later events would tragically emphasize it.

The FA1A and FA1B were bulky cars, but at least the FA1A looked different from its colleagues, rather dolphin-like. I can't recall having seen photos of their tubs - any around here?

Two other Osellas I liked were the striking and rather futuristic-looking FA2/76 and the succesful FA2/79 formula 2 cars (I'd love to see them under the skin, too). Cheever won more races (3) than any other F2 driver in 79, including March-mounted champion Surer. With a bit more luck and reliability he and Osella would have won the championship in 79. There was/is, of course, also quite a run of succesful Osella 2L and CN sports-prototypes.

Another appealing facet of Osella was the perseverance of the, IMO, grossly underrated Ghinzani - had he landed at the right team at the right time I think he would have been a GP winner. Cheever also seemed to be good for the little team, as did Jumper for a while.

Originally posted by Nanni Dietrich
In a Canadian GP at Montreal under pouring rain (1988? 1989?) Nicola Larini was running 4th in a white Osella before withdrawing.

Actually 3rd place ahead of a certain AYRTON SENNA for a while...

And Kelemata Blue was a great team colour for the cars in my opinion!

Originally posted by ensign14

Angel Guerra had one of the shortest world championship race careers of any drivers; lost it on the first lap of his debut race at San Marino '81 and broke his leg - thus endeth his F1 career. OTTOMH only Apicella's was shorter.

Guerra didn't even reach Tamburello AFAIR

Originally posted by Roger39


And there is another story of potential not realised (Allen Berg). They also had Jo Gartner driving for them at one stage...

Was Allen Berg any relation of Ernst Berg?

Originally posted by Gregor Marshall


Was Allen Berg any relation of Ernst Berg?

Allen Berg is Canadian.

I remember thinking they had a cool colour scheme at one point, early 80`s? Did they have some air brushed blue fading into white?

Originally posted by stuartbrs
I remember thinking they had a cool colour scheme at one point, early 80`s? Did they have some air brushed blue fading into white?

Yes, that was 1982. That was a nice paint job.

Originally posted by lil'chris


Guerra didn't even reach Tamburello AFAIR

I thought he crashed on the Villeneuve bend before Tosa?

Did some quick research and found some aftermath footage of the accident:

The track was wet at the start and everyone was on wet tires. Villeneuve went into the lead while Pironi was able to use the prodigious power of the Ferrari to blast his way up to second position. At the back of the field there was a nasty accident when F1 debutante Miguel Angel Guerra had a moment in Tosa corner and was then hit by Eliseo Salazar's March. This punted the Osella into the barrier at high speed and the Argentine driver had to be cut from the wreck with serious leg injuries. While Guerra was being released from his car

From here: http://grandprix.com/gpe/rr346.html

Maybe it's my memory playing tricks, though the shot of Guerra exiting the Osella doesn't have sufficient backgound to confirm the location but just seems to be edited to appear to have happened between Tamburello and Villeneuve.

I'm still pretty sure though having watched the BBC coverage live at the time that he was punted into the left hand armco on the approach to Tamburello.

The truth is out there as they say

Always had a soft spot for Osella, perhaps reflecting a basic fondness for the underdog.

Feel privileged to have seen them in 1986 and 1987 - the noise their Alfa engines made was really fantastic in what was admittedly more a gravelly enthusiastic way than one that exuded power and efficiency.

Always struck me as a happy bunch of people trying innovative things - the sort of outfit all too lacking in F1 these days.

Re. the Ghinzani accident mentioned by Roger39 and Vicor_RO on 16 April; and apologies to all the rest if my reply is too long.
It's just that this incident remains one of my most vivid trackside memories: I was seated on one of those five(?) level high little concrete stands at the outside of Jukskei (on the circuit infield IYKWIM) on that Saturday morning, watching the morning warm-up, and following Ghinzani's progress with particular interest (I'd always had a soft spot for Italian underdog teams and drivers, especially if there was an Alfa Romeo connection). Although he hadn't qualified particularly well, Ghinzani was trying hard during the warm-up and for two successive laps raised dust with his left-hand wheels on the flat-out exit of Barbeque. The next lap I wasn't watching his approach but rather following another car, passing by on its approach to Sunset. I heard my buddy exclaim "Watch out!"; I didn't hear an impact but rather a subdued rumbling and didn't see much other than dust.

Now, on the outside of Jukskei (towards the circuit infield IYKWIM) was some catchfencing, then an earth embankment perhaps 1,5 to 2 metres high lined with prefabricated walling (I think Pironi also went in there with the Tyrrell 009 in 1979). The Osella monocoque came to rest against this, the Alfa V8 turbo had been ripped off and came to rest some 10-20 metres down the road. Marshals were immediately into action. As the dust settled, well... I can only describe it as a sort tsunami effect: curious spectators seated on our little concrete stand rushed forward to see whatever they could, then suddenly the fuel spilt from a ruptured fuel tank/line caught alight and flared quite violently around the chassis. The blaze was quite intense, sending the curious little people scurrying away, on the top tier of the stand I also turned away from the heat not quite knowing what to do.

Fire extinguishers were quickly into action, the fire was quelled and the marshals set about getting Ghinzani out (the name of a marshal Fred Nel comes to mind). In the meantime a number of other drivers had stopped on track to render help, I seem to recall Boutsen's Arrows in this regard?

Eventually Ghinzani was stretchered away looking as pale as wax, some of the spectators gravely speculating "no ways, he's had it". Fortunately not so.

But my most surreal memory of the incident was the twilight haze cast by the pall of smoke still hanging in the air, and the deathly silence being shattered as the cars that had stopped on track, fired up again and made their slow way to the pits.

I sort of recall the chassis destroyed at Kyalami was the 183b Alfa based rebadge job that masqueraded as the first Osella turbo.

I was at Montreal 89, and was happy to see Osella doing well. I always like the underdogs and I think that the back end of the grid often at least seems to have the more interesting and enthusiastic stories of racing and without the Osellas and Minardis of the Grand Prix grid, GPs have less color or even human interest- who'll forget Webber's great run in Oz in a Minardi, or Alonso's giant killing turn of speed in the Minardi or Ghinzani's great runs or any number of point scores that were the equivalent for them of a GP win.

Maybe I have a romantic view of the sport, but so be it.

Originally posted by Rob G

Yes, that was 1982. That was a nice paint job.

That was the "Denim" sponsor that they had. I think Denim was a deodorant?

Could there have been a better name for a car than Osella's 1988 FA1L?

One of my all time fav teams! I loved Osella, they were great! I even have an Osella decal on one my cars. F1 needs more teams like Osella. It was great when they scored points; Jarier in 82, Ghinzani & Gartner in 85. Great little, cult, F1 team that will always be remembered.

Ive got an Osella ashtry, talking of curios... Never been able to bring myself to use it though.