Dome F105

The Dome F105 is a Formula One designed and built by the Japanese aspiring constructor in . The car was never raced, as none of Dome's plans to join the Formula One grid were successful. Only a single car was ever constructed.
After leaving his position as team manager of in 1995, Tadashi Sasaki joined Dome. The company had been developing cars for other formulae, including Formula 3 and Formula 3000, since 1980.
In the Summer of 1995, the team began working on a Formula One chassis. It was based off the team's F104 Formula 3000 chassis. Thanks to his connection to Minardi, Sasaki was able to strike a deal with the Italian-based team to purchase old gearboxes and hydraulic systems that Minardi had used.
The team secured engines, having been closely associated with that engine supplier in lower formulae. The tyres were supplied by Goodyear, although there was speculation that the team was a front set up by Japanese tyre supplier Bridgestone to gain insight into how Goodyear's tyres worked. Bridgestone had announced plans to start supplying tyres for the 1997 Formula One Season.
The car was finished on March 17, 1996. Dome hired their Japanese Formula 3000 championship winning driver Marco Apicella for the testing phase of the project. Dome also selected two other Japanese drivers: Naoki Hattori and Shinji Nakano. Apicella was the most experienced Formula One driver of the trio, having competed in the 1993 Italian Grand Prix with , although he crashed on the first lap of the race. Hattori also had some Formula One experience with in , although he failed to pre-qualify for any events.
The car made its testing debut at the Mine circuit in Japan before moving to Suzuka for the rest of the testing. It was not entirely smooth sailing, as the car was damaged in a fire causing by an oil leak during testing.
Dome had planned to participate in some of the European rounds of the 1996 Formula One Season, but this plan was never executed due to lack of funding. After the 1996 Japanese Grand Prix, the team ran a test at the same circuit, although the fastest lap set by Hattori was more than 7 seconds slower than the pole time set by Jacques Villeneuve and it would not have met the 107% Rule.
In the Fall of 1996, it became clear that Dome would not have the sponsorship funding to enter the 1997 Formula One Season. Attempts were made to enter the 1998 Formula One Season, but the team could not secure the necessary funding to do so.
By , the chassis was rendered obsolete by changes to the technical regulations, meaning that a newer chassis would need to be constructed. Dome reached a tentative agreement with a Dutch company to complete some additional testing with the F105 chassis before starting development on a newer F106 car for the 2000 Formula One Season. However, the deal was dependant on Dome securing a supply of engines. Honda was unwilling to sign new customer teams during this time, due largely to the company's intentions to join Formula One as a works team.
Dome officially abandoned their plans to join Formula One.
Category:1996 Cars
Category:Cars that never raced