During the 1986 Formula One season, Julien took the opportunity to get involved in Formula 1. The French Formula 1 team Renault F1 retired at the end of the 1985 Formula One season and sold essential parts of its equipment to Julien. Julien and Christian Vanderpleyn used these parts for their first Formula 1 car, the AGS JH21C which was powered by a 1.5-litre turbocharged engine by Motori Moderni. Financial backing came from Jolly Club of Italy. The team showed up first at the 1986 Italian Grand Prix. The only driver was Ivan Capelli. AGS was the smallest Formula 1 team of the 1980s with only 6 employees including the driver, while the more established teams had more than 100 employees at that time.