Louvet FA Team

**Louvet Formula A Team**, competing as **Louvet FA Team** is a Formula A constructor which made it's Formula A debut in the beginning of the 2023 Formula A World Championship. Currently owned by French automobile manufacturer Louvet Automobile, the team continues to serves as Louvet's works team. Based in different bases across europe, the team holds a French License

## **History**

### Foundation

Louvet was founded in the late 40s, being an offshoot of Dubois-Garnier, a corporation established during wartime to produce weapons and vehicles for the French military. The company quickly gained traction in the resurging economy after the second world war, making cheap and reliable vehicles for the French population. The cars quickly became popular in many other nations on the western side of the iron curtain and paired well with the growing road infrastructure of Europe. Louvet wouldn’t get their start in motorsport until considerably later, in the mid-50s, when they would supply factory support in many different rally series across Europe. Many teams liked the reliable and cheap cars that were easy to fix. Louvet would also enter various endurance races, and venture into the sports car market along with various other manufacturers at the time. They would gain notoriety as the fastest French manufacturer, winning in class at Le Mans 4 times from 1955 to 1963, with 2 of those being from a factory effort in 1957 and 1960. They wouldn’t live up to previous success later though, with regulation changes forcing them out of relevancy. They would later make multiple ventures into sports car racing, primarily working on engines. They would partner with various chassis designers to create multiple race-winning cars in the GSC, however recurring success at Le Mans would continue to illude them. They would also fight with Tsukuda in various rallies all across Europe, changing the landscape of rallying by bringing large efforts to large rallies such as Monte Carlo, Portugal, and the Tour de Corse, where they would find great amounts of success.

### Continued Motorsport Expansion

After achieving much success with rallying, they would eventually venture into GPWC in the early stages of the sport. They would provide engines for various teams, with multiple French privateer teams utilizing the engines and Louvet providing large sums of money and support to go along with it. Their first season would be in 1961, finishing in the midfield before rising to fight for consistent top 5s and podiums race after race. Despite this, a win would continue to illude them until 1964, when they would take their first win in Spain. Although proving competitive in many seasons and at many races, they would continue to play second fiddle to the titans of Kruse, SAMB, and Silver Leaf, who would dominate the series and refuse to let go of their iron grip on the series. At the turn of the decade in 1970, they backed out of motor racing as their company would falter due to the oil crisis, and take a backseat from motor racing until 1978, when they would reenter with British icons McKenzie. The team would post middling results until the end of the GPWC, with their best result being 4th in the championship in 1981.
In rallying, they would continue their impressive pedigree, joining in on the GSRS (Global Stage Rally Series), and later the GRC, continuing to fight against numerous different manufacturers, such as Tsukuda, Carlson, Sienna, and Torino. They would take the inaugural championship of the series and be consistent title contenders for much of the series’ history, making strides towards the RWD generation of the series. They would continue to develop upon their successful bases on their 200 series cars and would score multiple championships throughout the Class D (group 4) era of rallying.

### 1980's, IFS, Class O and Touring Car Efforts

In 1983, with the start of the IFS, Louvet would initially put forward a factory effort as well as supplying Silver Leaf. They would be one of the first teams to fully embrace turbochargers, running a twin-turbo V6 that would be considered one of the most legendary engine programs of all time. Silver Leaf would come out the gate swinging by providing one of the most dominant runs in IFS history, with them and George Weston taking 3 championships in a row. The Works Louvet team would also prove competitive, finishing 3rd in 1983 and 1984 and 4th in 1985. They would continue racing until the end of the decade, taking the occasional few wins and finishing decently in every season, before financial issues would result in them pulling out of the series in 1990. Along with this, they would continue competing in the GRC under the famous Class O regulations. They would achieve 2 championships in 1982 and 1984, dueling with countless other manufacturers in a golden age of rallying. The regulations would fall by the wayside due to countless amounts of safety issues. Louvet would find their home competing in rallycross, with the 800 proving to be an incredible chassis for the chaotic discipline of racing, providing them with incredible pace and winning the series multiple times. They would also find their home on the Hillclimb of Pikes Peak, winning the Hillclimb in 1987. Later, they would enter the next generation of rallying under the Class R regulations, complementing their efforts into touring car racing under the same regulations. They would enter a homologated version of the 800, achieving decent success. Although initially falling behind Sienna, they would bounce back in the later part of the decade and achieve championships in 1989 and 1990. Heading into the 90s, they would achieve decent success amongst privateers running the cars, however, the factory Louvet team would back out.

During this time, Louvet would create many successful touring cars for customer teams. They would prove to be incredibly popular for privateer entries, and they would find great success in Britain, especially with the British Touring Car League, where Louvet would win the manufacturer's championship 3 times from 1992 to 1999. The most famous of these efforts would be from Fletcher Racing, fielding iconic orange liveries because of their title sponsor at the time. They would prove to be a constant threat and were the closest Louvet had to entering a factory effort.

The reason for Louvet’s sudden departure from motorsport was due to significant financial trouble, causing the company to downsize massively. They would be eventually bought out by a large French investment group, and they would eventually stabilize after narrowly escaping bankruptcy in 1993. After regaining their footing, they would seek to reenter motorsport in 1995, uniting with McKenzie to bring them success by turning them into the factory Louvet team. Although the deal seemed credible on paper, the two teams had completely different design philosophies and the deal quickly turned into a disaster, proving incredibly unsuccessful for both teams and bringing them little success. The deal dissolved in 1999, when McKenzie would leave to unite with Tachibana to produce engines.

### 2000s – Continued IFS Racing

In 2001, Louvet would partner with Equipe Girault, a French team primarily known for competing in the GSC at the height of Group C, fielding multiple efforts with Kreuzer. The team would initially prove to be decent, finishing 5th in their first season in the IFS. As the series progressed, they would continually improve, although consistently finishing behind Barzetti, SAMB, Weston-Braun, and McKenzie. Their fortunes would continue to change as the decade would progress, achieving numerous good seasons and results one after another. Although they wouldn’t be close to the dominant Barzetti team, they would still post consistent good results and multiple wins across the start of the decade. Building on their solid foundation, they would capitalize on a turbulent McKenzie to achieve a new high of 2nd in the constructors in 2004, beating out SAMB as well in an incredible run by Anton Hackl in the swan song of his career. Louvet would continue to dedicate more funding and resources towards Equipe Girault as their performances increased, amplifying the positive feedback loop and enabling them to have another excellent 2005. Rookie Slovene August Svensek shocked the world by finishing 3rd in his debut season, with French veteran Theo Crozier finishing a distant 5th, slotting them 3rd in the constructors’ behind Barzetti and McKenzie in a titanic battle between the two. 2006 would prove to be a more difficult season, with Equipe Girault falling to 4th in the constructors as the transition to new engine regulations would cause them to have poor reliability all season. 2006 would also be the site of the last fatal accident in top-level open-wheel racing history, as August Svensek would tragically lose his life at the Italian Grand Prix, losing his life in a freak accident after striking a recovery vehicle at turn 1. The team would bring in Lucas Costa as his replacement, finishing out the season after an impressive win at Hockenheim in his first race for Equipe Girault, stating on the podium “that this race was for August, and that the racing world would never forget him.” 2007 would prove to be another difficult season, falling to 5th in the standings as Thomas Barker-Smith would struggle to adapt to the radically different low-drag setup the car was running for most of the season, and reliability problems plaguing them all season. They would continue to languish in 5th until 2009, where they would rise to 2nd in the championship, capitalizing on the quick development of their double diffuser, allowing them to have a great run of races in the opening half of the season.

### 2010s – Fading into the Background

The 2010s would prove to be a difficult decade for Equipe Girault, with 2010’s regulation changes putting a stop to their consistent front running. Despite the 2008 champion Vyktor Melnyk joining the team, they would only achieve one podium all year, with 3rd place in Belgium. They would finish 5th in the constructors, a far cry from Tsukuda, McKenzie, Barzetti, SAMB, and also the rising Polaris, who would have finished 5th if it wasn’t for their disqualification. Despite Vyktor Melnyk pushing the car to its absolute limits, they would continue to fall further and further back in the standings, with Melnyk finishing 8th and 9th in 2011 and 2012 respectively. He would leave the team in 2013 for McKenzie, and Equipe Girault would continue to have more and more issues. Eventually, the team would choose to leave the IFS in 2016, and Louvet would jump ship to McKenzie in 2018. Louvet would also bring in a full factory effort in 2019, sporting a full French lineup for the manufacturer. They would post decent results in the next few years, while McKenzie suffered greatly with the partnership as they struggled to adapt to the new Louvet power units. Louvet would stay in the IFS until its final season, where they would transition to Formula A.

### Transition to Formula A

Formula A would bring 2 new drivers to Louvet, Jax Montague and Aiden Langston. Louvet would have a disastrous 2023, being incredibly off-pace compared to all other factory teams and being behind the development curve for most of the season. 2024 would prove to have a slight uptick in fortunes, finishing one spot higher in the constructors’, but still having a poor season.