Onyx Grand Prix
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Onyx was a motor racing team and later Formula One constructor from Britain, founded by Mike Earle and Jo Chamberlain. Prior to entering Formula One, Onyx ran March Formula Two cars, taking over responsibility for the works F2 team towards the end of the formula's existence. They moved up to Formula 3000 before finding the funding to graduate to F1 with a Cosworth-powered car designed by Alan Jenkins. The team was initially funded by the colourful Jean-Pierre Van Rossem and his Moneytron product, but van Rossem's backing proved to be illusory.
The team participated in 26 Grands Prix, making a total of 52 entries. They achieved 1 podium with Stefan Johansson and scored 6 championship points.
After van Rossem's departure, Onyx was owned by the Middlebridge Group (also owners at that time of Brabham) and then sold to Swiss businessman and car manufacturer Peter Monteverdi, who renamed the team after himself. Monteverdi, who had last built racing cars in the early 1960s, decided that he could do better than the design team.
They suffered from several organisational mistakes, including fitting a differential the wrong way round at one point, and even taking spares from Monteverdi's collection of sports cars. It was rumoured Monteverdi was also ordering the drivers how to set up their cars. The team withdrew from Formula 1 just before the 1990 Belgian Grand Prix. They failed to score any points in 1990. Despite this a car for 1991 was built and can be viewed on the website f1rejects.com. The car was never raced.
Earle later founded the Arena team which has raced Honda cars in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) and still runs the works Zytek sports prototypes.
[edit] Complete Formula One results
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)
| Year | Chassis | Engine(s) | Tyres | Driver(s) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Points | WCC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Onyx ORE-1 | Ford DFR V8 | G | BRA | SMR | MON | MEX | USA | CAN | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | POR | ESP | JPN | AUS | 6 | 10th | |
| Stefan Johansson | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | Ret | Ret | DSQ | 5 | DNPQ | Ret | Ret | 8 | DNPQ | 3 | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | ||||||
| Bertrand Gachot | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | 13 | 12 | DNQ | Ret | Ret | Ret | ||||||||||
| JJ Lehto | DNPQ | Ret | DNPQ | Ret | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1990 | Onyx ORE-1 Onyx ORE-1B |
Ford DFR V8 | G | USA | BRA | SMR | MON | CAN | MEX | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | POR | ESP | JPN | AUS | 0 | NC | |
| Stefan Johansson | DNQ | DNQ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Gregor Foitek | Ret | 7 | Ret | 15 | DNQ | DNQ | Ret | DNQ | ||||||||||||||
| JJ Lehto | DNQ | DNQ | 12 | Ret | Ret | Ret | DNQ | DNQ | NC | DNQ |
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