Peter Collins became Benetton teamprincipal in 1985. I heard that he wanted to etablish his own Formula One team before he moved to Benetton. Has anyone infos about that?
Peter Collins F1 team?
Started by
HistoryFan
, May 29 2008 20:58
9 replies to this topic
#3
HistoryFan
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Posted 25 October 2009 - 19:06
Really no details about that team?
#4
D-Type
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Posted 25 October 2009 - 21:04
Where did you read this? It isn't something I've ever seen.
#5
Formula Once
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Posted 25 October 2009 - 21:25
It is true, he did. Collins left Williams mid-1985, tried to set up his own team, failed and then joined Benetton for 1986.
#6
HistoryFan
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Posted 25 October 2009 - 21:27
I read this on grand-prix.com:
"Collins stayed with Williams until mid-1985 when he decided he wanted to establish his own team. This was not a success..."
"Collins stayed with Williams until mid-1985 when he decided he wanted to establish his own team. This was not a success..."
#7
HistoryFan
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Posted 25 October 2009 - 21:30
It is true, he did. Collins left Williams mid-1985, tried to set up his own team, failed and then joined Benetton for 1986.
Yes but I would like to have some details about that plans: Partners, investors, shareholders, name of the team, possible drivers
=> easy some details about that plans...
I could imagine that he wanted to do something with BMW because as he joined as team principle at Benetton he could convince BMW very fast to join the team...
#8
Formula Once
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Posted 25 October 2009 - 21:40
No details known, which is probably the reason it failed in the first place! Men with F1-plans and no money, investors, etc, there have been many... Please note Collins was not team principal at Benetton, but team manager. Also, I believe he was less instrumental in getting the BMW-deal leave alone in hiring Berger than is sometimes reported.
#9
Formula Once
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Posted 25 October 2009 - 21:50
This is from a 1989 interview with Collins (grandprix.com), which shows how undefined his "own team" plans must have been as he obviously looked at buying Toleman by mid-1985 (how he imagined doing that I do not know...)
Collins stayed at Lotus for three difficult years but, towards the end of 1981, he had a disagreement with Chapman and left. Next stop was ATS. "I went to see Gunter Schmid. I was still very naive. It was a big mistake and by March 1982 it was all over. At the same time Jeff Hazel was leaving Williams, so I went to see Frank and was offered the job." He was to remain with Williams until the middle of 1985. He was looking at starting his own team, but to that point it had not worked out. When Toleman came up for sale, he was hot on the heels of a deal. "Toleman ended up doing the deal with Benetton," he says. "but I got a call from Rory Byrne and I went to work for the team. I'll never forget going to Montreal that year. Another team manager came up and said, 'Ah, you leaving Frank! You must be a fool, you won't last five minutes there!' Two minutes later another team manager came up and said 'You're a ****, aren't you? Leaving a good bloke like Frank, you must have rocks in your head.'
"It is fair to say when I joined Benetton the team had never had a great deal of stability. It was always a seasonal thing, they never knew if they were continuing from one year to the next. We sat down and discussed things. It became obvious that we had to sort out the continuity and, regardless of the job that Brian Hart had done, we had to be aligned with a major manufacturer. Honda wasn't interested, Renault didn't think we were up to it, BMW were the only people really interested so we signed with them. I was quite happy about that. We were a customer and we weren't looking for anything special, just an even chance. We were happy to be compared to Brabham. BMW didn't want to be tied to us in case they didn't like the relationship, but the intention was that, if the relationship worked out, it would be a multi-year deal. In Montreal in June 1986 Peter Flohr and I had a dinner and we agreed terms whereby we would be the factory team when Brabham finished its deal with BMW. At Detroit Benetton shook hands with Flohr. When we got back to Europe, the bombshell dropped: BMW pulled out of F1. We were back to square one. We had to go on doing the job and we won a race!
Collins stayed at Lotus for three difficult years but, towards the end of 1981, he had a disagreement with Chapman and left. Next stop was ATS. "I went to see Gunter Schmid. I was still very naive. It was a big mistake and by March 1982 it was all over. At the same time Jeff Hazel was leaving Williams, so I went to see Frank and was offered the job." He was to remain with Williams until the middle of 1985. He was looking at starting his own team, but to that point it had not worked out. When Toleman came up for sale, he was hot on the heels of a deal. "Toleman ended up doing the deal with Benetton," he says. "but I got a call from Rory Byrne and I went to work for the team. I'll never forget going to Montreal that year. Another team manager came up and said, 'Ah, you leaving Frank! You must be a fool, you won't last five minutes there!' Two minutes later another team manager came up and said 'You're a ****, aren't you? Leaving a good bloke like Frank, you must have rocks in your head.'
"It is fair to say when I joined Benetton the team had never had a great deal of stability. It was always a seasonal thing, they never knew if they were continuing from one year to the next. We sat down and discussed things. It became obvious that we had to sort out the continuity and, regardless of the job that Brian Hart had done, we had to be aligned with a major manufacturer. Honda wasn't interested, Renault didn't think we were up to it, BMW were the only people really interested so we signed with them. I was quite happy about that. We were a customer and we weren't looking for anything special, just an even chance. We were happy to be compared to Brabham. BMW didn't want to be tied to us in case they didn't like the relationship, but the intention was that, if the relationship worked out, it would be a multi-year deal. In Montreal in June 1986 Peter Flohr and I had a dinner and we agreed terms whereby we would be the factory team when Brabham finished its deal with BMW. At Detroit Benetton shook hands with Flohr. When we got back to Europe, the bombshell dropped: BMW pulled out of F1. We were back to square one. We had to go on doing the job and we won a race!
#10
HistoryFan
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Posted 26 October 2009 - 08:01
Thank you!
perhaps we can add this in the almost-team-takeover-thread.
perhaps we can add this in the almost-team-takeover-thread.
