page_title: Onyx Grand Prix
section_title: 1989 season
hierarchical_section_title: Onyx Grand Prix / 1989 season
caption_attribution_description: Bertrand Gachot - Onyx-Ford. Scan Diapo argentique.
context_page_description: Onyx Grand Prix is a former Formula One constructor from Britain that competed in the 1989 and 1990 Formula One seasons. The team participated in 26 World Championship Grands Prix and scored six World Constructors' Championship points. Its best result was third place, in the 1989 Portuguese Grand Prix, for Stefan Johansson.
context_section_description: Despite all of the excitement and preparation, Onyx only just made it to their first Grand Prix. Their cars were only completed on the morning of their launch, before having to be hastily packed and sent off to Heathrow Airport the same day for transportation to Brazil, the scene of the season's first race. Having had no testing to fine-tune the cars, neither car would make it out of pre-qualifying in the first 3 rounds. Things got worse as a testing accident completely destroyed one chassis prior to the race at Imola and at the race itself, brake failure on Johansson's car resulted in another car-destroying crash. Positive signs were beginning to show as Gachot just missed out on pre-qualifying in Imola, Johansson would do the same at Monaco, before finally Johansson would make it out of pre-qualifying in Mexico, setting the 6th fastest time in Saturday free practice before qualifying 21st for the race, ahead of the illustrious Nelson Piquet and respected drivers Pierluigi Martini, René Arnoux and Eddie Cheever. The car however, and expectedly, would suffer a mechanical failure in its debut race, but progress was being made. More good news arrived at Phoenix with the return of Greg Field who replaced Dickson as Team Manager and Johansson once again making the grid, qualifying 19th before a front suspension failure ended his day. Johansson was once again on the grid in Canada, this time 18th. Gachot had yet to make his first Grand Prix start but he was getting ever closer.
  During this upswing things started to look ominous. Van Rossem's lavish lifestyle and extravagance came to the fore, having purchased a US$20 million Gulfstream IV business jet prior to the Phoenix Grand Prix. Johansson was also disqualified in Canada after a botched pit-stop saw him tear the air gun rig apart. Amidst all the dark clouds, a sunny day arrived at the 1989 French Grand Prix. Both cars were ideally suited to the Paul Ricard circuit and comfortably finished 1–2 in pre-qualifying. They both had an even more impressive qualifying proper, with Gachot ending up 11th on the grid and Johansson 13th. Gachot ran with Alesi, who finished 4th, before a battery problem put him down to 13th, while Johansson scored the team's first points with a fine 5th place. The two points were now set to get the team out of pre-qualifying for the remainder of the season, but it came to nothing at the next round in Britain as Johansson failed to qualify and Gachot qualifying 21st before having his race blighted by handling problems. The Minardis would finish 5th and 6th however, condemning Onyx to the ruthless world of pre-qualifying, although the fact that the two Brabhams and Dallara's Alex Caffi were no longer pre-qualifiers made this task easier for them. Johansson would qualify in Germany, Hungary and Belgium, with Gachot missing out in Germany (which would be the only time during the 1989 season that an Onyx would succeed in getting through pre-qualifying without then going on to qualify). Trouble flared up once again with Van Rossem and his flamboyancy as he had been quoted in the press as saying he was attempting to attract top drivers to the team and was in the process of investing US$40 million into Porsche's F1 engine project while, in reality and behind closed doors, Van Rossem was beginning to bemoan the cost of running a Formula One team and was even rumoured to be reluctant to pay the team's bills. Van Rossem went one step further by saying on Belgian TV that he would quit F1 if the Porsche engine deal fell through. Many saw this as an admission that he was tired of the sport and sought a reason to get out. Van Rossem's spectacularly destructive and erratic antics went on: he also made some controversial comments in a Belgian newspaper during the Belgian GP weekend, drawing the ire of two of F1's most powerful men, F1 commercial rights holder and F1 management CEO Bernie Ecclestone and then-FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre. He denied apparent allegations that he had referred to Balestre as a Nazi (Balestre apparently was part of the pro-Nazi Vichy Fre
caption: Bertrand Gachot at the 1989 Belgian Grand Prix
exif: {"Image Software": "Picasa", "Image DateTime": "2017:06:24 13:44:39", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image ExifOffset": "96", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "364", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4410", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:06:23 19:51:15", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1311", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "1800", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1311", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "228", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "813fa5a23bd45195378e4acda051ee12"}