Onyx……a short, bright, brief life in Formula One

Founded by Mike Earle and Greg Field in the late 1970’s Onyx Race Engineering was a British race team which made a real impact over a very short period of time in Formula One.

Earle had a wealth of experience in motor sport having run the successful Church Farm Racing team in the 1970’s and being involved with Field in the LEC Formula One team. Onyx initially ran in Formula Two operating March cars, and even dabbled in Formula One again with March for five races in the 1982 season.

Formula One plans were put back by the death of Riccardo Paletti who the team were lining up to work with in 1983, so a return to Formula Two again with March, as Greg also sold his share of the team, with reasonable success.

Formula Two morphed into Formula 3000 and the team took third in the drivers title in 1985 with Emanuele Pirro, second in the 1986 championship (again with Pirro) and took the overall title in 1987 with Stefano Modena. The 1988 season was far tougher, but Mike Earle was determined to take the team to Formula One and plans were developed to get them there!

Investment and sponsorship saw the team, now named Onyx Grand Prix, build its first car, designed by ex-McLaren engineer & designer Alan Jenkins, the ORE-01 . Powered by a Ford V8 the car, in my opinion at least, was one of the best looking cars on the 1989 Formula One grid (might be the colours, might be the excellent design?)

Looks however count for very little, and the team had an uphill struggle for the first few races. The cars were finished a day or two before being flown to Brazil for the first race of the season, and pre-qualifying eluded the teams drivers Stefan Johansson and Bertrand Gachot in the first three races, before Johansson qualified for the Mexican Grand Prix.

The team was making progress (although a lack of testing was still limiting their progress) and Stefan qualified for the US and Canadian races before finally both cars made it to the grid of the French Grand Prix. Gachot qualified 11th, Stefan 13th, and in the race the team showed real pace. Bertrand ran close to Jean Alesi before suffering a battery problem, whilst Stefan drove his car to fifth place scoring the teams first points finish.

The next few races were a challenge for the team, the circuit in France had clearly really suited the cars, but Gachot outqualified his more experienced team mate at the British Grand Prix. Unfortunately both drivers suffered retirements (apart from an 8th place finish for Stefan in Belgium) over the next four races.

Bertrand was critical of the team management which led to him being sacked after the Italian race, to be replaced by JJ Lehto for the Portuguese race. Lehto was the 1988 British Formula Three champion, and had been racing in Formula 3000 in 1989. The initial leap up to Formula One and a brand new car was too much for his first race, but team mate Johansson had a superb race.

After qualifying 12th he ran the race on one set of tyres, saving himself time in the pits, and the race panned out really positively for him as other drivers pitted he found himself in fifth place which became third as the two Williams – Renault cars ahead of him both suffered overheating problems and retired with 11 laps to go.

The team had achieved an almost fairy tale result – the third step of the podium, behind Gerhard Bergers winning Ferrari and runner up Alain Prost in the McLaren-Honda, finishing on the same lap to boot.

Whilst the remaining races would result in retirements and not even prequalifying the season ended with 6 points and 10th place in the Constructors title, a fine effort on paper at least from the new team. However things weren’t quite as positive in reality; the teams main sponsor withdrew his support after the team were unable to secure better engines for the 1990 season. A number of personnel, including Mike Earle left the team, later re-joining in early 1990 and leaving again before the first race!

The team was in turmoil, even with fresh investment and owners in the form of Peter Monteverdi , Karl Foitek (father of driver Gregor Foitek) and Brune Frei. Johansson and Lehto started the season as the teams drivers, in the 1989 car which had seen no development over the closed season.

In the style of a TV soap opera the following few weeks saw Johansson replaced by Gregor Foitek, son of co-owner Karl…..much to the annoyance of Stefan who sued the team for breach of contract. A mildly updated car, the ORE-1B was introduced for the third round at Imola, but the team were struggling on almost every level. Car preparation, spare parts and overall pace were all major issues , and although Gregor brought his car home 7th in the Monaco Grand Prix, the team stumbled from one race to the next.

Karl Foitek, so concerned about the safety of the car (alleging replacement suspension parts were being re-welded from broken parts!) withdrew his money and his son from the team. By the Belgium Grand Prix the team had withdrawn from Formula One altogether, never to be seen again.

From a team built up over a number of years, clearly with really positive, pragmatic and professional approach to racing, including a podium finish in their 13th race to withdrawing part way through the following season is a rapid fall from grace (even if the grace was only one season of Formula One old!).

Its hard even now to speculate on what might have been achieved with a greater level of finance, and more importantly managerial stability, but Jordan Grand Prix arriving in 1991 shows what might have possibly been achieved by Onyx.

A real shame, but in the world of Formula One sadly yet another case of a team which failed to achieve long term success. Two point finishes, including a podium however are really significant achievements in my book, and the pink and blue liveried cars were a really positive addition to the grid in 1989 visually at least!