FIRST Racing is Life……..

Among the many teams to have graced the world of Formula One, there are many more which almost made the grid. In the current world of Formula One its hard to recall a new team arriving in the paddock at all (maybe Caterham / HRT / Marussia…..) but the journey has never been an easy one and the attempt by FIRST Racing to become a Grand Prix team in 1989 is a case in point.

Set up by racer Lamberto Leoni in 1987, who himself had raced in F1 back in the late 1970’s for Surtees and Ensign, the FIRST Racing team were relatively successful in Formula 3000. Between 1987 and 1990 their drivers had finished in the drivers top ten 8 times, including Leoni himself in their first season of racing (no pun intended!).

Since his attempt to race in F1 Lamberto had continued to race in Formula Two and latterly Formula 3000, clearly racing was in his blood, so his decision to build a Formula One car and enter the World Championship in 1989 was hardly a surprise. Recruiting the designer Richard Divila a car was penned to be powered by a Judd V8 , but complications in the construction of the first chassis led to some hasty F1 DIY to fix problems, adding weight to the car in the process.

A second chassis was therefore commissioned, putting the ability of the team to partake in the first couple of the races of the season in doubt. Missing these races would have led to a financial penalty, and to avoid this scenario the team withdrew their entry and concentrated on their Formula 3000 campaign instead.

This decision was positive for Marco Apicella (who was also managed by Leoni) as he drove a strong season in his Reynard-Judd and finished the season 4th overall. FIRST Racing was not to make it to Formula One in a conventional way…….

Elsewhere in Italy Ernesto Vita had brought the rights to a Franco Rocchi designed W12 Formula One engine; 3 banks of 4 cylinders theoretically operating to give the advantage of an engine short in length, if slightly taller than other more engines on the grid. Vita had a plan to market the engine, the W12 3.5 litre motor through a Formula One racing programme, which he tried to achieve by buying the second FIRST chassis from 1989.

Re-engineered by Gianni Marelli, and renamed the Life L190, brief testing of the car was carried out in February 1990 before the first race of the season. Gary Brabham, son of 3 time World Champion Jack Brabham was signed up to race the single car entry. Gary had previously raced in British Formula 3 , finishing 2nd in the 1988 championship, following this with becoming champion in British Formula 2 in 1989, but his foray into Formula One ended with two attempts to pre-qualify the Life car and failure both times.

The team approached several drivers to replace Brabham, eventually persuading Bruno Giacomelli to return to the sport after 7 years away. Previously a driver for McLaren, Alfa Romeo and Toleman Bruno had achieved a podium finish in the 1981 US Grand Prix, a pole position and 82 races during his first F1 career. However he wasn’t a miracle worker and 12 races aboard the W12 powered machine resulted in 12 non-pre qualifications.

Over the course of a dozen races with the car Bruno managed a total of around 40 laps in total in pre-qualifying, and managed to be within 14 seconds of the leading car in pre-qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix…….a time that would of placed him 20 seconds behind pole position. Other races saw the car fail anything more than a single lap, literally minutes slower than other cars on track…….which is frightening to say the least, driving a barely mobile chicane.

As the team travelled the world in the vain attempt to pre-qualify an alternative engine was sourced from Team Lotus, a Judd V8 , which was eventually fitted to the car for the Portuguese Grand Prix. Even this resulted in a significant issue, as the unmodified engine cover didn’t fit correctly, came off on the installation lap and resulted in no further participation in the race weekend.

The 1990 Spanish Grand Prix was the last time the team and driver attempted to pre-qualify, this time a mere 20 seconds off the leading pre-qualification time. For the last races of the season Life withdrew never to be seen again.

The FIRST racing / Life Formula One story is a saga of two teams who made very little impression over the course of 2 seasons; the FIRST / Life L190 car was overweight compared to its rivals, and with an engine short of at least 120 horse power compared to its back of the grid competitors (possibly 220 horse power less than Ferrari and Honda!) its hardly a surprise that even on paper the challenge was significant.

In reality the complete lack of the W12 configuration engine running cleanly for anything more than a handful of laps at any race made the task impossible, which is a massive shame for Bruno Giacomelli in particular because he hardly came out of F1 retirement to become a 4 wheeled chicane!

A short chapter of Formula One history with no highlights, other than their construction of a chassis or two by FIRST Racing, and an attempt or fourteen to pre-qualify by the Life team. Sometimes though this type of racing story is as interesting as the successes of teams and drivers at the sharp end of the grid (well almost !)