Full name | Osella Squadra Corse |
---|---|
Base | Verolengo, Italy [1] |
Founder(s) | Enzo Osella |
Noted drivers | Eddie Cheever Piercarlo Ghinzani Jean-Pierre Jarier Jo Gartner Huub Rothengatter Nicola Larini Riccardo Paletti |
Next name | Fondmetal |
Formula One World Championship career | |
First entry | 1980 Argentine Grand Prix |
Races entered | 172 (132 starts) |
Engines | Ford-Cosworth, Alfa Romeo, Osella |
Constructors' Championships | 0 (best finish: 12th, 1984) |
Drivers' Championships | 0 (best finish: 19th, Piercarlo Ghinzani, 1984) |
Race victories | 0 (best finish: 4th, 1982 San Marino Grand Prix) |
Pole positions | 0 (best grid position: 8th, 1990 United States Grand Prix) |
Fastest laps | 0 |
Final entry | 1990 Australian Grand Prix |
Osella is an Italian racing car manufacturer and former Formula One team. They participated in 132 Grands Prix between 1980 and 1990. They achieved two points finishes and scored five world championship points.
Osella was founded in Volpiano in 1965 by former rally driver Enzo Osella. The team began life by racing Abarth sports cars among local and national races in Italy since 1965. In 1974, Osella took over the factory Abarth sports car program and expanded into single-seater racing. In 1975, the team entered the European Formula Two Championship with Giorgio Francia and Duilio Truffo, achieving some success with its own car, the BMW-powered Osella FA2.
Osella continued in Formula Two the following season, but financial problems meant that the team was not competitive and withdrew from the championship before the end of the season. In the following years, the FA2s were occasionally entered by privateers, one of them being the Swiss touring car driver Charly Kiser. The experience prompted Osella to try to become a manufacturer for other teams. The Osealla FA3 Formula Three car, powered with Toyota or Lancia engines, competed in the 1976 German and Italian F3 championships without making any great impression. After this, the team concentrated on running in local sports car events during 1977 and 1978.
Osella returned to the European Formula Two Championship in 1979, with American driver Eddie Cheever racing the well-used FA2, again powered by a BMW engine. The car was good enough to win three races and take Cheever to fourth in the championship. After securing the sponsorship of the Ente Tabacchi Italiani tobacco company via their flagship brand MS, Enzo Osella decided to upgrade his activities to Formula One.
Osella's first Formula One car, the FA1, was designed by Giorgio Stirano. Powered by Ford Cosworth DFV, the car was presented in a black and white livery with large Denim branding on the sidepods. After a difficult beginning of the season, Eddie Cheever was able to qualify regularly but finished just one race in the whole season. The car suffered from unreliability problems and was aerodynamically inefficient. Many components were manufactured in-house – a strategy that although financially viable, often resulted in poorly designed material.
For the 1982 season, Osella fielded two cars, one for Jean-Pierre Jarier and one for Riccardo Paletti. The team hired Giorgio Valentini and Tony Southgate to design a new car, with input from Enzo Osella himself. Most of these attempts brought little improvement as high-tech solutions could not be financed. Jarier finished fourth at Imola in 1982 (where only 14 cars started) and scored the first Championship points for the young team in a car that was by now dubbed Osella FA1C. Towards the end of the season tragedy struck, when Riccardo Paletti was killed in a start-line accident at the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix.
In 1983 the team regrouped, and hired Piercarlo Ghinzani and Teo Fabi's younger brother Corrado Fabi, who had just won the Formula Two European championship. Lack of funding and reliability issues prevented the drivers to qualify for many of the events on the calendar, Fabi's 10th place at the Deutch Grand Prix the best result of the season. For 1984 Osella retained Ghinzani and gave the second car to the young Austrian Jo Gartner. Ghinzani was able to score points when he finished fifth at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix. Gardner finished fifth at Monza but both him and countryman Gerhard Berger, who had finished sixth on ATS, didn't receive any points as their teams at the beginning of the season had only officially entered one car. For the 1985 season, Ghinzani was paired with Huub Rothengatter but none of the two were able to score any points. In 1986, in order to stay afloat, the team started asking their drivers to bring sponsorship. Whilst some of the drivers who started their F1 careers with the team would go on to have respectable careers, such as Alex Caffi and Gabriele Tarquini, others disappeared as quickly as they had come, such as Allen Berg and Franco Forini. None of these drivers were able to push the team forward, and Osella continued with little or no improvement in competitiveness.
In the mid-1980s, Osella was the beneficiary of factory Alfa Romeo engines, both in naturally-aspirated (1983–84) and turbo (1984–88) forms. The Alfa engine program helped the team to survive the increasingly professional turbo era but it failed to improve its competitiveness. The Alfa turbo engine, the 890T, was not reliable. Turbos blew up regularly and power output had to be reduced down to the level of the non-turbo cars just to achieve the necessary reliability. Alfa Romeo's chief designer, Carlo Chiti, offered some technical input to the team. Beginning with the 1984 Osella FA1F, which was based on the 1983 works Alfa Romeo 183T, all the following Osella models up to the FA1L in 1988 had their origins in the initial Alfa design.
For 1988 – the last year before turbos were banned – the team re-branded the 890T as the "Osella V8". This came about after Alfa's parent company, Fiat, grew tired of the negative publicity the team had given the 890T and, while allowing them to continue using the engine, refused to allow the Alfa Romeo name to be used.
After driver Nicola Larini managed some impressive times in pre-season testing at Monza, the team were quietly confident of a decent showing through 1988, as many teams had switched to naturally-aspirated engines in preparation for 1989. However, the FA1L, with its outdated turbo, was not up to the challenge. Larini often failed to qualify or even pre-qualify, and was also excluded from the San Marino Grand Prix before practice after failing to get through scrutineering due to illegal changes made to the chassis. At the end of the season, Enzo Osella terminated his agreement with Alfa Romeo.
The 1989 season saw some improvement. The all-new, Cosworth DFR-powered Osella FA1M performed better in the qualifying sessions (most notably in the Japanese Grand Prix, where Larini qualified 10th). The fine qualifying performance, however, didn't translate into good results in the races. The cars rarely saw the finish line due to several technical failures. The most frustrating race was the Canadian Grand Prix, where Larini had climbed to third during the race but retired when the FA1M's electrics failed due to water ingress. At the end of the season, on the occasion of the Australian Grand Prix, Ghinzani suffered a high-speed collision with the Lotus of Nelson Piquet, leaving him with an injured ankle. Right after, Ghinzani announced his retirement.
In 1990, Enzo Osella sold shares in his team to metalwork magnate Gabriele Rumi, as part of a sponsorship deal with Rumi's Fondmetal company. During 1990, the team entered a single car for French driver Olivier Grouillard. At the end of 1990, Rumi took over the remainder of the team and renamed it Fondmetal. The involvement of Rumi meant the end of Osella's activities in Formula One.
During his Formula One years, Osella had continued building sports cars. In fact this was one of the few projects that regularly brought work and money to Volpiano, especially in hillclimb races, with Mauro Nesti many times winner of European and Italian Championship, and many other drivers, with PA9 and PA9/90 models.
A few of those sports cars even found their way to the Can Am series, although without much success. The most prestigious result was during the 1984 Can Am season with a third place in the championship for the 2-litre class; the car was the Osella PA10 driven by Armando Trentini, and was the only two-seater in the championship; the rest of the 2-litre class field comprised single-seater F2 cars with covered wheels.
In the 1990s, Osella moved to Atella in the south of Italy where he built a new ultra-modern facility to produce some very competitive sports cars. Many of them were sold to privateers, while others were entered in several classes by the Osella works team. The works team was particularly successful in hillclimb races. In 1995 Osella works team driver Pasquale Irlando won all 9 races of the European hillclimb championship using the Osella PA20. He won the title in 1997, 1998 and 1999 consecutively. His successor Fabio Danti died in one of Osella's cars when he was competing in the 2000 Championship. Hillclimb stars like Franz Tschager and Martin Krisam continue to use Osella cars. In 2001 the factory was transferred back near Turin, in Verolengo, and continued activity building sport cars for hill climbing and minor sport race championship.
At the end of 2022, Osella Motorsports LTD merged with Osella Engineering. Under the leadership of Enzo Osella and Giuseppe Angiulli, the company, now known as Osella corse, produced cars such as the PA21 JrB from the E2B class, that can be equipped with motorcycling propellers from 1000 to 1600 cc., with a set-up both for hill climbing and track. This new collaboration, according to Enzo Osella, "breathed life into Osella and also into the spirit that has been driving the team".
(key)
Year | Chassis | Engine | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1974 | Osella PA2 | BMW | BAR | HOC | PAU | SAL | HOC | MUG | KAR | PER | HOC | VAL | |||||
Arturo Merzario | Ret | ||||||||||||||||
1975 | Osella FA2 March 742 | BMW | EST | THR | HOC | NÜR | PAU | HOC | SAL | ROU | MUG | PER | SIL | ZOL | NOG | VAL | |
Giorgio Francia | 4 | 10 | 5 | 6 | Ret | 5 | 5 | DNS | 4 | 9 | 5 | Ret | Ret | ||||
Diulio Truffo | 5 | 6 | 8 | Ret | 6 | 6 | Ret | 5 | 5 | Ret | |||||||
Roberto Filannino | 15 | Ret | DNQ | ||||||||||||||
Arturo Merzario | Ret | Ret | |||||||||||||||
1976 | Osella FA2 | BMW | HOC | THR | VAL | SAL | PAU | HOC | ROU | MUG | PER | EST | NOG | HOC | |||
Giorgio Francia | DNQ | Ret | 11 | ||||||||||||||
Gianfranco Trombetti | Ret | Ret | DNQ | ||||||||||||||
Arturo Merzario | DNQ | ||||||||||||||||
1979 | Osella FA2/79 | BMW | SIL | HOC | THR | NÜR | VAL | MUG | PAU | HOC | ZAN | PER | MIS | DON | |||
Eddie Cheever | 1 | 5 | Ret | 8 | Ret | Ret | 1 | Ret | 1 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)
Year | Chassis | Engines | Tyres | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | WCC | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1980 | FA1 | Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 | G | ARG | BRA | RSA | USW | BEL | MON | FRA | GBR | GER | AUT | NED | ITA | CAN | USA | NC | 0 | |||
Eddie Cheever | DNQ | DNQ | Ret | Ret | DNQ | DNQ | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 12 | Ret | Ret | ||||||||
1981 | FA1B FA1C | Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 | M | USW | BRA | ARG | SMR | BEL | MON | ESP | FRA | GBR | GER | AUT | NED | ITA | CAN | CPL | NC | 0 | ||
Miguel Ángel Guerra | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | Ret | ||||||||||||||||||
Piercarlo Ghinzani | 13 | DNQ | ||||||||||||||||||||
Giorgio Francia | DNQ | |||||||||||||||||||||
Jean-Pierre Jarier | 8 | 8 | 10 | Ret | 9 | Ret | Ret | |||||||||||||||
Beppe Gabbiani | Ret | DNQ | DNQ | Ret | Ret | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | |||||||
1982 | FA1C | Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 | P | RSA | BRA | USW | SMR | BEL | MON | DET | CAN | NED | GBR | FRA | GER | AUT | SUI | ITA | CPL | 12th | 3 | |
Jean-Pierre Jarier | Ret | 9 | Ret | 4 | Ret | DNQ | Ret | Ret | 14 | Ret | Ret | Ret | DNQ | Ret | Ret | DNS | ||||||
Riccardo Paletti | DNQ | DNPQ | DNQ | Ret | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNS | Ret | ||||||||||||||
1983 | FA1D | Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 | M | BRA | USW | FRA | SMR | MON | BEL | DET | CAN | GBR | GER | AUT | NED | ITA | EUR | RSA | NC | 0 | ||
Corrado Fabi | Ret | DNQ | Ret | Ret | DNQ | Ret | DNQ | Ret | ||||||||||||||
Piercarlo Ghinzani | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | |||||||||||||||||||
FA1E | Alfa Romeo 1260 3.0 V12 | Corrado Fabi | DNQ | DNQ | 10 | 11 | Ret | DNQ | Ret | |||||||||||||
Piercarlo Ghinzani | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | Ret | DNQ | Ret | Ret | 11 | DNQ | Ret | Ret | Ret | ||||||||||
1984 | FA1F | Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5 V8 t | P | BRA | RSA | BEL | SMR | FRA | MON | CAN | DET | DAL | GBR | GER | AUT | NED | ITA | EUR | POR | 12th | 2 | |
Piercarlo Ghinzani | Ret | DNS | Ret | DNQ | 12 | 7 | Ret | Ret | 5 | 9 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 7 | Ret | Ret | ||||||
Jo Gartner | Ret | Ret | Ret | 12 | 5‡ | Ret | 16 | |||||||||||||||
FA1E | Alfa Romeo 1260 3.0 V12 | Jo Gartner | Ret | |||||||||||||||||||
1985 | FA1F FA1G | Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5 V8 t | P | BRA | POR | SMR | MON | CAN | DET | FRA | GBR | GER | AUT | NED | ITA | BEL | EUR | RSA | AUS | NC | 0 | |
Piercarlo Ghinzani | 12 | 9 | NC | DNQ | Ret | Ret | 15 | Ret | ||||||||||||||
Huub Rothengatter | Ret | 9 | NC | Ret | NC | DNQ | Ret | 7 | ||||||||||||||
1986 | FA1G FA1F FA1H | Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5 V8 t | P | BRA | ESP | SMR | MON | BEL | CAN | DET | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | AUT | ITA | POR | MEX | AUS | NC | 0 | |
Piercarlo Ghinzani | Ret | Ret | Ret | DNQ | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 11 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | ||||||
Christian Danner | Ret | Ret | Ret | DNQ | Ret | Ret | ||||||||||||||||
Allen Berg | Ret | Ret | Ret | 12 | Ret | Ret | 13 | 16 | NC | |||||||||||||
Alex Caffi | NC | |||||||||||||||||||||
1987 | FA1I FA1G | Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5 V8 t | G | BRA | SMR | BEL | MON | DET | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | AUT | ITA | POR | ESP | MEX | JPN | AUS | NC | 0 | |
Alex Caffi | Ret | 12 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | DNQ | Ret | Ret | DNQ | ||||||
Gabriele Tarquini | Ret | |||||||||||||||||||||
Franco Forini | Ret | Ret | DNQ | |||||||||||||||||||
1988 | FA1I FA1L | Osella 890T 1.5 V8 t | G | BRA | SMR | MON | MEX | CAN | DET | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | POR | ESP | JPN | AUS | NC | 0 | |
Nicola Larini | DNQ | EX | 9 | DNQ | DNQ | Ret | Ret | 19 | Ret | DNPQ | Ret | Ret | 12 | Ret | Ret | DNPQ | ||||||
1989 | FA1M | Cosworth DFR 3.5 V8 | P | BRA | SMR | MON | MEX | USA | CAN | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | POR | ESP | JPN | AUS | NC | 0 | |
Nicola Larini | DSQ | 12 | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | Ret | DNPQ | Ret | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | Ret | DNPQ | Ret | Ret | Ret | ||||||
Piercarlo Ghinzani | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | Ret | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | Ret | DNPQ | Ret | ||||||
1990 | FA1M-E | Cosworth DFR 3.5 V8 | P | USA | BRA | SMR | MON | CAN | MEX | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | POR | ESP | JPN | AUS | NC | 0 | |
Olivier Grouillard | Ret | Ret | Ret | DNQ | 13 | 19 | DNPQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNPQ | 16 | Ret | DNQ | Ret | DNQ | 13 |
‡ Not eligible for points.
Edward McKayCheever Jr. is an American former racing driver who raced for almost 30 years in Formula One, sports cars, CART, and the Indy Racing League. Cheever participated in 143 Formula One World Championship races and started 132, more than any other American, driving for nine different teams from 1978 through 1989. In 1996, he formed his own IRL team, Team Cheever, and won the 1998 Indianapolis 500 as both owner and driver. The team later competed in sports cars.
The 1984 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 9 September 1984. It was the fourteenth race of the 1984 Formula One World Championship.
The 1986 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 7 September 1986. It was the thirteenth race of the 1986 Formula One World Championship.
The 1988 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 29 May 1988 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City. It was the fourth race of the 1988 Formula One World Championship. The 67-lap race was won by Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-Honda, with teammate Ayrton Senna second and Gerhard Berger third in a Ferrari.
The 1987 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 41st season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1987 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1987 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a sixteen-race series that commenced on 12 April and ended on 15 November.
The 1984 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 38th season of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1984 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1984 Formula One World Championship for Manufacturers, both of which commenced on 25 March and ended on 21 October after sixteen races.
Gabriele Tarquini is an Italian former racing driver. He participated in 78 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 3 May 1987. He scored a single championship point, and holds the record for the most failed attempts to qualify. He has subsequently raced successfully in Touring Cars, winning the BTCC in 1994, the ETCC in 2003 the WTCC in 2009 and the WTCR in 2018.
Piercarlo Ghinzani is a former racing driver from Italy. He currently manages his own racing team, Team Ghinzani, which was created in 1992 and is currently involved in several Formula Three championships.
Nicola Larini is an Italian racing driver. He participated in 75 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 6 September 1987. He finished second in the tragic 1994 San Marino Grand Prix on a substitute outing for Ferrari, but only scored points once more in his career. He enjoyed greater success in touring car racing, primarily for Alfa Romeo.
Fondmetal S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of alloy wheels, founded in 1972 by Gabriele Rumi.
Coloni Motorsport, also known as Scuderia Coloni, was an auto racing team from Italy. Founded by former racing driver Enzo Coloni in 1983, the team participated in Formula Three between 1983 and 1986, before racing in Formula One as Enzo Coloni Racing Car Systems between 1987 and 1991. They made 82 attempts to take part in a Formula One race but only qualified 14 times. Since then, under the management of Enzo Coloni's son Paolo, the team has been successful in Formula Three, Formula 3000 and GP2 Series. Between 2006 and 2009 the team ran under the name of Fisichella Motor Sport, with support from Formula One driver Giancarlo Fisichella and his manager Enrico Zanarini.
Carlo Chiti was an Italian racing car and engine designer best known for his long association with Alfa Romeo's racing department. He also worked for Ferrari and was involved in the design of the Ferrari 156 Sharknose car, with which Phil Hill won the 1961 championship.
The Alfa Romeo 184T is a Formula One car which was used by the Alfa Romeo team during the 1984 and 1985 Formula One seasons.
Italian motor manufacturer Alfa Romeo has participated multiple times in Formula One. The brand has competed in motor racing as both a constructor and engine supplier sporadically between 1950 and 1987, and later as a commercial partner between 2015 and 2023. The company's works drivers won the first two World Drivers' Championships in the pre-war Alfetta: Nino Farina in 1950 and Juan Manuel Fangio in 1951. Following these successes, Alfa Romeo withdrew from Formula One.
The Brabham BT53 was a Formula One car designed by Gordon Murray for the Brabham team for the 1984 Formula One season and was a development of the BT52 which had carried the team's lead driver Nelson Piquet to the 1983 championship.
The Ligier JS29 was a Formula One car designed by Michel Têtu and Michel Beaujon for the Ligier team for use in the 1987 season. It was originally developed for use with an Alfa Romeo turbo power plant but prior to the start of the season, Ligier lost the use of the engine. The car had to be re-designed around a Megatron Straight 4 turbo engine. Redesignated the JS29B, it scored a single point during the season when driver René Arnoux finished 6th in the Belgian Grand Prix. Later in the season, the car was further refined to a JS29C specification.
Giorgio Stirano is an Italian racing car engineer, who worked for Forti and Osella in Formula One.
The Osella FA1L was a Formula One car designed by Antonio Tomaini and raced by Osella in the 1988 FIA Formula One World Championship. The car was the last Osella to be powered by a turbocharged engine, the 1.5-litre V8 named the Osella 890T. The car was driven by young Italian Nicola Larini who had made his F1 debut with Coloni in 1987.
Vincenzo "Enzo" Osella is an Italian former racing driver and team owner. He is the founder and chairman of Italian auto manufacturer Osella. The team competed in Formula One between 1980 and 1990.
Alfa Romeo has made three 8-cylinder Grand Prix racing engines designed for both Formula One and sports car racing; in both inline and V engine configurations. Their first was the supercharged 158/159, a straight-eight engine, with the 1.5 L engine configuration imposed by the FIA for forced induction engines, in 1950. After a 20-year gap, their second engine was the Tipo 33 engine, a 3-liter naturally-aspirated V8 engine, in 1970. Their third and final engine was the turbocharged 890T V8 engine in 1983, which was used by both Alfa Romeo until 1985, and Osella until 1988, until Alfa Romeo eventually pulled out of F1 that same year.