18 replies to this topic

[Haddock]

This is possibly one for Kuwashima...

Flicking through an old copy of Autosport, I found the FIA entry list for the 1993 season, and on the entry list was a team called Bravo F1.

Their driver was Jordi Gene, I think. I'm pretty sure that the car never actually raced, but did they get as far as building a car, and if so did it run ??

[Kuwashima]

Someone, please tell me more!!

[Zawed]

I can vaguely recall something about a team called Bravo. Maybe it was related to Fondmetal or another team that went bellyup the previous year.

[LittleChris]

I seem to remember that the late Jean Mosnier was going to run it and it was effectively a racing for Spain type of set up.

[Kuwashima]

OK, a little bit of research, and I can find this much from the 'net from late in 1992:

The Motoring News had an announcement for a new F1 team for 1993. Escuderia Bravo F1 Espana is to be run by Jean Mosnier (ex-IRTS and Lola Motorsport boss) with money from a consortium of Spanish businessmen with multi-national interests. Initial backing is for five years, apparently with some backing from the Spanish government.

Nick Wirth at Simtek will update the S921 design, run this year by Andrea Moda Formula, although there won't be any common components. At the moment the S931 is "a wealth of CAD data". There won't be any automatic gearboxes or active suspension to start with, although they will have some advanced data acquisition equipment.

No drivers have been signed but Mosnier is keen on Nicola Larini, who he worked with in the Italian Touring Car Championship a couple of seasons ago. He said, "We want two solid performers with good F1 experience for our first year, preferably of different nationalities.

Bravo is the result of a lot of thought and hard work from Mosnier. He said, "I chose Spain because the country has nothing else like it and it was thus ideal when raising support. There are too many teams in Britain and Italy. Although we will be based in Spain, most of the personnel will be British".

When asked if the team was meant for nurturing Spanish drivers, Mosnier replied that this would only be if they were good enough, and that ability would be more important than nationality. [I suspect that sponsorship dollars will be more important than either]

There hasn't been a shortage of promising, well funded Spanish drivers recently - Jordi Gene has won a few F3000 races this year. Pedro de la Rosa and Ivan Arias have been front runners in the UK Formula Renault championship this year.

Plus:

Jordi Gene was given a tryout in the Benetton early in 1993 as a favor from Tom Walkinshaw. Jordi was supposed to drive for the defunct-Bravo Espana team in F1 and then in F3000, but it folded, and Tom picked it up and ran him this season.

From what I can understand, what was to be Bravo F1 moulded itself into Simtek for their 1994 debut. More details if I find them...

[AdrianM]

Thanks for posting that Kuwashima
You learn something new everyday

[Geza Sury]

I looked up in my German 'Rally Racing' magazines if I could find something about the Bravo Team. Not much there! It says, that former GP driver and fellow Spaniard Adrian Campos would act as a 'vice team manager' (or something like that) and the team would use Judd engines. It confirms Jordi Gene as the driver.

A little bit OT, but there are other interesting names on the 1993 entry list! According to the magazine, Michael Bartels would drive a Pacific-Ilmor, while Brabham would join forces with Galmer Engineering and build a car with the financial support from Banco International SA for Roberto Guerrero!

[Richard Jenkins]

The whole thing collapsed when the chief funder & president (name???) died of a heart-attack just as the project was really getting underway. I forgot about them until now...

[Hitch]

...some more info here...

www.grandprix.com/gpe/cref-corhum.html

[Haddock]

Galmer were indeed commisioned by Alan Randall, who by then had come to own Brabham, to build a car for 1993. They even started on the project, abandoning the idea when it became apparent that Alan Randall hadn't put the funds in place to pay for the car.

Randall had a bit of a habit of doing that. He promised a five car Jaguar entry in the 1992 World Sportscar Championship, which also fell through when Tom Walkinshaw came to the conclusion that the money for the project simply wasn't there.

[William Hunt]

I'm surprised that U guys already forgot about it since the Bravo Project was not so long ago. It's a pitty it never finalised.

Jordi Gene was an excellent driver. He deserved a chance, I've always considered him as more talented than his younger brother Marc.

Does anyone remember the Mexican F1 project a couple of years (1990) before Bravo. A Mexican driver was supposed to drive for them together with Marco Apicella.

[Rainer Nyberg]

The mexican project was the GLAS Formula 1 car designed by Mauro Forghieri and used Lamborghini V12 power. The car was renamed Lambo and used by the Modena Team for '91. A refreshing and unusual design but the car was never competitive. Maybe it got on to the tracks a bit late.

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by Haddock
Galmer were indeed commisioned by Alan Randall, who by then had come to own Brabham, to build a car for 1993. They even started on the project, abandoning the idea when it became apparent that Alan Randall hadn't put the funds in place to pay for the car.

Randall had a bit of a habit of doing that. He promised a five car Jaguar entry in the 1992 World Sportscar Championship, which also fell through when Tom Walkinshaw came to the conclusion that the money for the project simply wasn't there.

And of course, the Galmer chassis for CART and Galles Racing. It wasn't really that bad a chassis, but clearly much better for the road courses than the ovals. Another team got it as a year old, and qualified quicker at Indy than Galles managed to run!.


Jim Thurman

[dmj]

The car was renamed Lambo and used by the Modena Team for '91.

Am I missing something? Lamborghini is from Sant' Agata Bolognese, Dallara from Varano... Why then "Modena"?

[Darren Galpin]

http://www.multimap....IT&scale=150000. This link gives a map of the area.

Santa Agata is almost Modena, and I have usually seen Lamborghini as having come from Modena. Besides, imagine a car named as an Agata-Bolognese!

[dmj]

That's the right Sant' Agata:
http://www.intermed....ende/sagata.htm Not so close to Modena like one you found, Darren... (not too far, either) Anyway, I believe Lamborghini was always linked to Bologna, not Modena - they always tried to accent that difference, as the matter of fact. Local pride is a strong one, not only in Italy.

[karlth]

After a bit of browsing I found this out ...

November '92

Jean Francois Mosnier died of cancer last week, aged 46. Mosnier had
announced his new Bravo F1 team only a fortnight ago. On November the
9th, he complained of "a touch of pleurisy". Ten days ago, his
condition deteriorated, and he died on November 20th.

December '92:

Jordi Gene has signed for the Bravo F1 team. Bravo may merge with another team
for next year. March and Larrousse have been rumoured as possible partners.

February '93

Bravo F1 will spend 1993 testing its car, with jordi Gene at the
reins, in an attempt at running in 1994.

[fines]

Well, the Galmer won its second (?) race at Long Beach, and then won Indy at the first time of asking! It also was very reliable, Little Al finishing every race that year and Mr. Hollywood all but two, iirc. It always puzzled me that they dumped it so soon. Must've been an expensive exercise...

[FLB]

The Galmer was absolutely God-awful in traffic. At Indy, Unser only passed Goodyear because Lyn St.James blocked the Canadian (through inexperience, it was a miracle she finished that day). Little Al was very clear after the race: if Goodyear had gone by, it would have been over.

Several CART teams were looking at the time to break from the quasi Lola monopoly. There was fear that Lola could pull a March on them (i.e. jack the price for a rolling chassis up). Also, with Carl Haas being the Lola distributor for North America (he still is), there's a chance he can try to get an "unfair advantage" à la Penske (keeping the better updated parts for himself, having an advantage on development, etc.), that you can keep away if you build your own chassis.

It seemed like a good idea at the time... and it wasn't. Rahal has only recovered recently from his decision to go with the Truesport 92C in 1993. He went from the CART championship in 1992 to failing to qualify at Indy the following May. It also made him eager to dump the Honda after 1994, because he didn't want that kind of trauma again (a VERY unwise decision).