Fondmetal Corse, as the full name was on the grid, is one of those teams that appeared on the grid in the early 1990s and has an interesting story in the sport. Fondmetal is an alloy wheel producer established by late Gabriele Rumi. The name Fondmetal appeared for the first time in 1983 in the sport. Late Gabriele Rumi became a sponsor of fellow-Italian Piercarlo Ghinzani. During the years, the team started supplying teams as Williams and Ligier with their alloy wheels. From 1989 onwards, Fondmetals’ involvement with Osella Squadra Corse increased. Eventually buying the team at the end of 1990. While Fomet would design the 1991 car, the team searched for a new partner for 1992. There Tom Walkinshaw Racing entered the frame.
A bit more background information, late Gabriele Rumi’s interested with Osella became bigger in 1989 when Fondmetal became the teams’ main sponsor that year. That same year Piercarlo Ghinzani had his last season in the Formula One with Osella. At the end of 1989, late Enzo Osella was struggling with his team and the decision was made to appear in 1990 as a single-entry team with Olivier Grouillard. That same time Rumi gained an interest in Osella and expanded his shares in the team. While the FA1M-E seemed decent, the team failed to qualify or even pre-qualify half during half of the Grand Prix’s.
In late 1990, Osella Squadra Corse was sold to Fondmetal. The team would be rebranded to Fondmetal Corse in 1991. The first races the team was forced to use the old FAIM-E cars that meant it was almost impossible to qualify the car. A newly based design studio in Bicester called Fomet lead by Tino Belli (partly funded by Gabriele himself, as he believed that British input meant success) was asked to design the new car for 1991. By the San Marino Grand Prix the new Fomet-1 was ready. While the car seemed to be new, it was mostly based on the old Osella FAIM-E. The car had new aerodynamics and some tweaks, yet it had hard times to pass pre-qualifying and the regular qualifying.
The story goes a bit vague here. As Fomet was already working on a new car for 1992, Bruni seemed not to be overwhelmed with joy by their first design. Therefore, he choose to ditch Fomet and look for partners that could design and build their new Formula One car. Another story goes that Fomet was sold at the end of 1991 and that Belli sold the design of the new car to Larrousse. Whatever the correct storyline is, the design for 1992 was sold to Larrousse.
The search for a new partner continued for Fondmetal. In late December 1991 – early January 1992 the interesting story came in the paddock that Sergio Rinland was seen at Tom Walkinshaw Racing’s factory at Kidlington. Contact was made between Fondmetal and TWR. To discuss if there was an opportunity that TWR would construct the new car for 1992. While negotiations for some time continued, Rinland already worked on the new car.
Eventually Tom Walkinshaw Racing would not construct the GR02. It would be Astauto studio from Sergio Rinland himself. As the GR02 was not ready on time, the Fomet-1 got rebranded to the GR01 and received several updates. While the season continued the design on the 1993 car as on its way. The GR02 showed it’s potential on the grid however the financial situation was worsening, partly due to the financial crisis. After the 1992 Italian Grand Prix Gabriele Rumi decided to pull the plug. While Bugatti was to replace one of the drivers for Portugal, because of the money he had, it was not convincing enough to stay in the sport.
Yet, there was the GR03 design by Serio Rinland, and Fondmetal cancelled the contract they had, what to do now? They simply continued working on the design of the GR03, which was ready in early 1993. The eventual design was sold to Guido Forti who was working on his teams’ debut in the Formula One in 1995. Some similarities are seen on the FG01, which is based on a three-year-old design. Same story as the Pacific Grand Prix PR01 design in 1994.
