Ferrari did 1000 races since 1950, this is exclusive the entries they made but did not race. And exclusive the races that did not count for the championship. The first 20 years of Formula 1 there were plenty of them. Because of these stats, and a discussion I had on twitter about teams that merged and are today on the grid, here are some stats you don’t need to know! Though do fill up your time when you have nothing to do.
BMW S192 study up to Simtek S951
The first starts I want to start with is the interesting story of the BMW192 concept that was designed by Nick Wirth, already back in 1991 when BMW was planning to enter the Formula One with their own team. The BMW192 is a concept car that eventually thrifted through Formula One, as a base, during the seasons. Read the BMW – Bravo story here.
1991: S192 BMW Concept
1992: S921 Eventually Andrea Moda purchased the S192 designs for their new car. The S921 showed some good potential, however Andrea Moda was nothing more than some well different F1 team.
1993: S931 Bravo announce their plan to enter the Formula 1 In late 1992. Their plan was to debut with the car in 1993, Jordi Gené was one of their drivers. The S931 was more or less the evolution of the S921 from Andrea Moda. Sadly, due to the dead of Jean-Pierre Mosnier it was cancelled.
1994: S941 was Simtek’s first car in the Formula 1 car.
1995:S951 was Simtek’s second and last Formula 1 car.
First to Life and Silvio Berlusconi
Some more random stats about a Formula 1 project everyone knows of. The Life F190 debuted in 1990 in the Formula 1. The F190 is well known for it’s complicated W12 engine which the team had built. Probably also known for it’s USSR sticker on the car, which still fascinates me to this day.
However, the Life F190 started his life as the First 189, which was built in 1988. The First 189, sometimes mentioned as the 188, was a narrow F1 car designed by Richard Divila. The car was tested a couple of times and was presented at the Bologna motor show 7th of December 1988.
Eventually the car failed the crash test.
This is not all for the First story. Silvio Berlusconi, some intriguing Italian politician of Italy was said to be involved with the program in the beginning. Via Publitalia, which was a sister company of Fininvest the plan was to give the First team a financial injection . Fininvest is said to be from the Berlusconi’s. What ever happened with this plan is unknown.
Orange Arrows had many saviors if we had to believe Tom Walkinshaw
We all know what happened with the Orange Arrows team in mid-2002. The team folded due financial struggle. Their Arrows A23 was a pretty car to look at and the same time it showed some great results. Side story, the car was built around Jos Verstappen and was ditched in early 2002 by the team. Tom Walkinshaw told the media a couple of times that there were many investors ready to save the team. Regarding the stats, and the stats presented by people, there were at least 10 potential interested parties to take over the team. Eventually Paul Stoddart purchased some of the assets.
