http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76648

I hope they do their homework.

Reynard was a respected aerodynamics/chassis open wheel racing builder and got their butt kicked when they went to F1 with BAR.

No repeat for Dallara please.

Its good to have them back, I too hope they do their homework. Gotta love the honesty 'its scary."

I wonder if they are worried about losing IRL business? Taking steps to branch out now.

hhmag70 - 02 July 2009 10:22 PM

I wonder if they are worried about losing IRL business? Taking steps to branch out now.

If you check out Dallara's website http://www.dallara.it/ they provide chassis for quite a few series GP2, World Series by Renault, Indy Lights, Formula 3, to name a few. Indy Car will probably stick with Dallara chassis for a year or two more since I doubt they will want to make the mistake Champ Car made by throwing a new (and consequently more expensive) chassis at a cash strapped series.

The biggest hit they took was losing A1GP to Ferrari.

Maybe someone who's more in the know could tell me what the profit margin would be on building chassis and developing aero for one Formula One team is verses providing a spec series chassis. It may be that a Formula One contract provides more cash flow but the risks are much higher. That may be what is 'scary' for Dallara, in as much as they don't just build the car and hand it over to the customer to go racing, they are an integral part of the competition, they will have to develop the car in season and out.

2010 is going to be fun.

You should also check out a few other web sites like this one:

http://www.4mula1.ro/history/team/Dallara

and of course, our old friends on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallara

You'll find Dallara were in Formula One from 1988 to 1992, with a number of different drivers, ALMS stars J.J. Lehto and Emanuelle Piro among them. Now, they're building cars for the new "Campos Mento" team.

Good luck to 'em anyway, they're going to need it.

Brawnista - 02 July 2009 09:47 PM

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76648

I hope they do their homework.

Reynard was a respected aerodynamics/chassis open wheel racing builder and got their butt kicked when they went to F1 with BAR.

No repeat for Dallara please.

BAR (British American Racing, named for British-American Tobacco company) was Ken Tyrrell's team before he retired and sold out. From what I gather, they were always chronically under-funded and not very competitive, even with Jacques Villeneuve driving for them.

Grey Wolf, I'm not sure BAR was "chronically under-funded" at all; the car was however not competative. (Remember Jacques went there for the money). Brawnista could probably fill everyone in on BAR, it did after all become the Honda team he had the misfortune of cheering for (I kid, supporting Williams hasn't been a cup of tea for some time either).

As for Dallara good luck to them, perhaps this commitment will require them to release their "exclusive" on Indy Car. This would force the powers that be to make a "call for proposals" for a new Indy Car Chassis, I hope Dallara participate in the process but I also hope there are viable responses from several builders and all are available for the teams to choose.

Hope there f1 car looks better than there god awful looking irl car.

OhioPower - 03 July 2009 12:14 PM

Hope there f1 car looks better than there god awful looking irl car.

Well... it is at least a ten year old design. Even so you'd have to go back quite a ways into F-1 history to find aero that looks similar to that.

stonethecrows - 03 July 2009 08:17 PM

OhioPower - 03 July 2009 12:14 PM

Hope there f1 car looks better than there god awful looking irl car.

Well... it is at least a ten year old design. Even so you'd have to go back quite a ways into F-1 history to find aero that looks similar to that.

I don't think the IRL car is quite that old, but it's getting there. In any case, the IRL has chosen Dallara as sole supplier of the next Indycar. They are in no danger of losing that business. (Unless of course, the IRL tanks out completely)

GreyWolf74 - 02 July 2009 11:58 PM

Brawnista - 02 July 2009 09:47 PM

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76648

I hope they do their homework.

Reynard was a respected aerodynamics/chassis open wheel racing builder and got their butt kicked when they went to F1 with BAR.

No repeat for Dallara please.

BAR (British American Racing, named for British-American Tobacco company) was Ken Tyrrell's team before he retired and sold out. From what I gather, they were always chronically under-funded and not very competitive, even with Jacques Villeneuve driving for them.

http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/con-bar.html

http://www.f1technical.net/f1db/teams/26


Underfunded: no.
Unreliable from 1999-2002: yes.
Not very competitive: yes.

"Tyrrell ran in 1998 under BAR auspices but no money was invested and both Ken and Bob Tyrrell left the team early in the year."

"British American Racing was established in 1997 with ambitious plans to build a competitive Formula 1 team. It was led by Jacques Villeneuve's manager Craig Pollock but was controlled by the tobacco giant British American Tobacco (BAT), which controlled a majority shareholding in the team. Also involved were Adrian Reynard and Rick Gorne of Reynard Racing Cars and Julian Jakobi, Pollock's partner."

http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/cref-reyadr.html

In December 1997 it was announced that Reynard would be a part-owner (15%) of the British American Racing F1 team and technical director of the team. The team debuted in 1999 but was not a success.

http://world.honda.com/news/1999/printerfriendly/c990521.html

British American Racing:
Managing Director Craig Pollock
Technical Director Adrian Reynard
Chief Designers Malcolm Oastler & Andrew Green (1998-2002)

Address Brackley, Northamptonshire, NN13 7BD
United Kingdom


'99 season drivers Jacques Villeneuve (1997 Drivers Championship Title)
Ricardo Zonta
'99 season chassis BAR01 equipped with Supertec FB01 V10 engine

The use of Supertec engines in 1999 (season debut) and in 2000-2001 underpowered Honda factory engines were partly responsible for their lack of competitiveness. However, under Oastler's and Reynard's responsibility, the chassis and aerodynamics were not on par with the top teams.

It wasn't until David Richards took over as CEO and hired Geoff Willis as designer and Honda changed their Chairman to Takeo Fukui and former Senna engine man from the McLaren Honda days , Takeo Kiuchi, took over as engine Project Leader, and they switched to Michelins that the BAR car became reliable and competitive with state of the art aerodynamics.


Campos & Dallara can learn a great deal from the BAR/Reynard experience in 1999.

The situations aren't too dissimilar in that the competitiveness and reliability of the Corworth engine is unproven and perhaps obsolete - similar to the Supertec engines and a proven winning open wheel aerodynamicist from North America can be caught unawares of the current design pearls known to the competitive teams in F1 - similar to Reynard.

How the chassis and aero uses the Bridgestone slicks with the proper dynamic balance will be Dallara's challenge.

Where will they get the database except from pre-season testing ?