1992 was the year of Nigel Mansell after several years he became the world champion with Williams. Once a respected team, in 1992 Brabham was suffering from financial troubles and would disappear from the grid eventually, to gain attention they contracted Giovanna Amati, after Desire Wilson the first woman to enter a Grand Prix. Andrea Sassetti bought the folded Coloni team and made it’s debut with Andrea Moda Formula.
Andrea Moda C4B
In
1992 Andrea Moda made its debut in the Formula One. As the team bought
the assets of the folded Coloni team and was not able to finish their
car before the first Grand Prix the team decided to use the Coloni C4,
which they modified a bit and rebranded it to Andrea Moda C4B. It’s all I
can say about the Andrea Moda C4B.
Brabham – Yamaha BT61Y
During
the 1992 season Brabham went bankrupt, what many forgot already or
simply can’t remember is the fact that Yamaha was working on an
acquisition of Brabham. It would mean that Yamaha would enter the
Formula One with their own team. The Brabham BT61Y was fitted with the
Yamaha V12 engine, and tested during the season. Eventually Yamaha’s
president Nakauchi blocked the acquisition of the Brabham team. Yamaha
decided to stop with their V12 program in favour to cooperate with John
Judd in 1993.
Honda RC1, RC1B and RC2B
The
Honda RC1 is one of the few unraced projects i still don’t understand
how it came together and how it continued by a couple of engineers of
Honda. Because of this, I can’t say much about it now. When I complete
my research on it, I will edit the post.
Ligier JS35B-R
1991
was for Ligier one of their worst seasons ever, scoring zero points
while powered with the promising Lamborghini V12, the team had to chance
a lot. Guy Ligier managed to strike a deal with Renault to supply them
with their engines for 1992. One of the Ligier JS35B’s were send to
Renault to be fitted with their engine. The Ligier JS35B-R(enault) was
tested by Theirry boutsen.
Lotus 103
Team
Lotus appeared with a brand new design for 1992, their goal was to
dominate as in the old days. Originally the Lotus 103 was planned to
make its debut in 1991. However, the team was demotivated and a lack of
money was the reason the team decided to develop the Lotus 102 in favour
of the Lotus 103. Sadly, the Lotus 103 would not come further then the
design stage. The team kept on developing the Lotus 102, and the team
would drive in 1992 with the Lotus 102D instead of the 103. Photos
circulated of Mika Häkkinen standing next to a mock up version of the
Lotus 103.
Mansell F1 Team
Rumours stated that Nigel Mansell was already working in earlier stages on its own Formula One team together with Golf professional Greg Norman. Norman tried in 1989 to take over the Brabham team. For me it is unknown if the plans were real or just fantasy as fans missed Mansell.
McLaren-Lamborghini MP4/8B
For
1993 Mclaren was looking for another supplier as their supplier Honda
would withdraw at the end of the season. They found their partner, in
first instance, in Lamborghini. The Mclaren – Lamborghini MP4/8B fitted
with the Lamborghini V12 engine was a couple of times tested by Ayrton
Senna and Mika Häkkinen at Estoril and Silverstone. While the testing
results showed some impressive data and times, McLaren chose for the
Ford V8 engine.
Lotus x10 improvement package
In 1992 Team Lotus produced the experimental X10package. The team was discussing its future in Formula One, and had set itselfsome ambitious goals to aim for. Of particular interest was that the team waslooking to beat Williams who at the time were dominating F1. Team Lotus’ambition was to beat Williams with the X10 package, which they believed couldbe many seconds faster than previous Lotus designs. It focused on technologicalimprovements so the team could create concepts for future designs Read the fullstory here.
Trebron
In 1992
an new team announced their interest in Formula One, the team’sname was
Trebron which stood for “Nortbert” Hamy, an Canadian engineer who
claimedpenned an six-wheeler formula one car in 1976. The team showed an
scale modelversion of the car which would made it’s debut in 1993. The
car had a radicaldesign, unseen in the Formula One at that time.
However, the team said it sawthe Formula One only to test their
“radical” ideas. The Trebron never made itsdebut. Read the full story here.
