Onyx Grand Prix

**Onyx Grand Prix** was a Formula One constructor located in Britain that competed in 1989 and 1990. The team's best result was Stefan Johansson's third place finish at the 1989 Portuguese Grand Prix. The team was shutdown midway through the 1990 season as a result of fincancial and management issues.

## Background

Onyx Grand Prix was founded in late 1978 by colleagues Mike Earle and Greg Field. The duo had previously worked together on the LEC racing team which was founded by David Purley and competed in Formula Atlantic, Formula 2, European Formula 5000, and a few Formula One races. Earle also had previous experience running Church Farm Racing in Formula 3, Formula 2, and Formula 5000.

## Before Formula One

The team initially wanted to create their own chassis for the 1979 Formula 2 season, but after that proved to be unsuccessful, they decided to run a March chassis the following year. The team signed drivers Johnny Cecotto and Riccardo Paletti. After some successful results in Formula 2, Paletti earned a promotion to Formula One with Osella for 1982. Onyx planned to develop their own Formula One for 1983 with Paletti again on the team, but these plans were halted after Paletti was killed in a crash at the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix.

Shortly after this, Field left the team, selling his ownership to Jo Chamberlain.

For the 1983 Formula 2 season, Robin Herd of March Engineering had decided to outsource the operation of the works March Formula 2 team to Onyx. The programme was relatively unsuccessful in 1983 and 1984.

Then team moved to the new Formula 3000 series in 1985, still running the works March effort in the series. This series proved to be more successful for the team, winning the 1987 Formula 3000 championship title with Stefano Modena. The team failed to retain the title in 1988, but Earle was pleased with the success of Onyx's efforts and started plans to enter Formula One.

## Formula One

Onyx's time in Formula One was short-lived. Despite what should have been a solid inaugural season to build upon in the future, the team's management and finances ultimately collapsed during the second season. This led to the abrupt shut down of the team during the 1990 season.

### 1989

At the end of 1988, the majority stake in the team was sold to Paul Shakespeare and the team had reached a sponsorship agreement with Marlboro, securing the funding needed to enter Formula One. Stefan Johansson and rookie Bertrand Gachot were hired as drivers. Gachot brought a sponsorship with Moneytron to the team. Moneytron owner Jean-Pierre Van Rossem would ultimately buy Shakespeare's share in the team later that year.

With the help of Alan Jenkins, who has previously worked at McLaren, the Onyx ORE-1 was developed. It was only just completed in time for the first race of the season in Brazil, leaving no time to test or tune the car. The car was the slowest in the field and neither driver managed to pre-qualify for the race.

To make matters worse, one of the chassis was destroyed during a testing session in the weeks after the first race of the season. Another car was badly damaged when Johansson was trying to pre-qualify for the San Marino Grand Prix.

Despite these setbacks, progress was being made on the car. Johansson was finally able to qualify at the Mexican Grand Prix, although his transmission failed during the race. He again qualified for the United States Grand Prix, but suffered a suspension failure.

At this time, Greg Field was reunited with the team, replacing Martin Dickson as team manager.

Johansson qualified for the Canadian Grand Prix, but left the pits dragging pit equipment after his second pit stop. He was shown the black flag for this violation and was later disqualified when he ignored them.

Gachot was unable to qualify for any of the races until the French Grand Prix, which was also the source of the team's first ever championship points. Johansson earned two points after finishing fifth from 13th on the grid. Unbeknownst to the team, this would ultimately be the only race in which both cars would finish the race distance.

However, this would not be the team's only highlight of the season, as the 1989 Portuguese Grand Prix would see them finish on the podium for the first and only time. But by this time, Gachot was no longer on the team, having been fired after the Belgian Grand Prix for complaining about the team's lack of testing and the behaviour of his increasingly erratic boss.

Despite claiming to be investing in Porsche engine project, Van Rossem was growing unhappy with the costs of running the Onyx team. During the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Van Rossem landed himself in hot water with F1 management CEO Bernie Ecclestone and FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre after making some controversial comments to the Belgian media. He denied allegations that he had referred to Balestre a Nazi and Ecclestone a Mafia boss, but was banned from attending any future Grand Prix by Ecclestone.

Rookie JJ Lehto was drafted to drive the team's second car. Having only tested for Ferrari that year, it took him time to become accustomed to driving the car, but he still managed to race in two of the races late in the season, while Johansson failed to qualify for any further events that year.

### 1990

The off-season was challenging for the team. Finances quickly dried up and personal conflicts with Van Rossem saw Earle and Field both quit the team. Alan Jenkins took the reins in their absence, appointing Peter Rheinardt as the team manager. After failing to secure an engine deal with Honda or Porsche Van Rossem abandoned the team, terminating the team's Moneytron sponsorship.

Peter Monteverdi purchased 50% ownership of the team, with Karl Foitek and Brune Frei splitting the remaining 50%. The team's financial situation was so poor that Foitek was forced to pay the team's 1989 tyre bill before Goodyear would provide them with tyres for the 1990 season.

After the change in ownership, Earle was hired back to the team, but Jenkins was fired shortly after because be refused to work with Earle. It didn't matter though because Earle left again before the start of the season, as did Rheinardt and many other experienced team members.

JJ Lehto was retained for the 1990 season to race alongside Gregor Foitek, the son of the team's part-owner. However, due to a previous contract with Brabham, Foitek could not race with Onyx for the first two races of the season. Johansson participated in those first two races, although he would eventually sue the team for breach of contract after he was replaced by Foitek.

At the start of the season, neither driver managed to qualify the car for the race. Due to poor finances, the team was forced to run the 1989 car. Adding to the team's misfortune, Johansson destroyed two chassis.

With Foitek now behind the wheel, the team introduced a slightly updated ORE-1B chassis, which performed slightly better. At the Monaco Grand Prix, Foitek was on track to secure one point for sixth position, but collided with Éric Bernard late in the race and dropped to seventh position. This would be the team's best finish that year.

In July the team was moved to Switzerland, despite an attempted court injunction by Johansson and Jenkins. The team was renamed to *Monteverdi Onyx Formula One* after the majority team owner.

With money tight and many experienced members of the team having left, rumours began to surface of dangerous practices within the team. Some of these included the welding together of broken suspension and using spare parts from Monteverdi's personal sports car collection. The team was also accused of installing the driveshaft of Lehto's cart he wrong way around.

Fearing for his son's safety, Karl Foitek pulled his funding from the team and took his son off the driver lineup. The team was subsequently shut down after the Hungarian Grand Prix.

## After Formula One

After his experience in Formula One, Mike Earle went on to found Arena International Motorsport in 1999, which competed in touring car and sports car racing. The team was eventually sold to Capsicum Racing, which ran it until folding the team in 2012.

Earle then attempted to enter the 2014 World Touring Car Championship under the Onyx name using a Ford Fiesta, but the plans were quickly dropped because Ford did not suppor the idea. Instead, Onyx worked to build the Ford Focus ST for the 2015 TCR International Series, but the car was uncompetitive. The team assets were sold to Formula Racing Development.