Johanssen's onyx

[alesi95]

During the winter months i crack out my classic eighties f1 reviews, watching the 89 review i was reminded of the exploits of the humble Onynx team. A new team having graduated from f3000 the car was designed by Alan Jenkins and Johanssen (suffering from a bad 88 with ligier.) and Gachot were the drivers.

The car had incredible potenial, but it was late in development and unreliable and the car failed to qualify for the first four or so races.

By the time it was qualifying it was doing so down in 20th position and eventually mid-grid. At the french gp it managed to score 2 points, but no one can quite work out how the hell it managed to finish 3rd at portugal!

A single set of tyres helped but there was still plenty of runners at the finish.

Of course the team was desperately short on money and was sold to Monterverdi where it was sun into the ground.

BUT HOW THE HELL DID IT FINISH 3RD AT PORTUGAL?

[The Moon Monkey]

alot of retirements???

[alesi95]

HERES A PIC

[alesi95]

14 finishers, ahead of Nannini's Benetton

1 Berger (28) Ferrari 1:36:48.546 71
2 Prost (2) McLaren-Honda 1:37:21.183 +32.637 71
3 Johansson (36) Onyx-Ford 1:37:43.871 +55.325 71
4 Nannini (19) Benetton-Ford 1:38:10.915 +1:22.369 1
5 Martini (23) Minardi-Ford 1:36:54.373 +5.827 70
6 Palmer (3) Tyrrell-Ford 1:37:15.830 +27.284 70 7 Nakajima (12) Lotus-Judd 1:37:48.693 +1:00.147 70
8 Brundle (7) Brabham-Judd 1:37:58.667 +1:10.121 70 9 Alliot (30) Lola-Lamborghini 1:37:58.920+1:10.3770
10 Gugelmin (15) March-Judd 1:37:00.756 +12.210 69
11 Alboreto (29) LolaLamborghini1:37:33.401+44.85569 12 Perez-Sala (24) Minardi-Ford 1:37:54.600 +1:06.054 13 Arnoux (25) Ligier-Ford 1:37:58.645 +1:10.099 69
14 Modena (8) Brabham-Judd

[Lee Janotta]

Yup, but only three of the "contenders" survived, and he could have simply outdriven Nannini, especially if Nannini had setup problems or something. There was a Minardi in 5th, so definitly a weird day.

[iucrmh]

Not such a daft day, Peirluigi Martini actually qualified 5th in the Minardi (a large proportion of the grid were running Cosworth engines - unlike today where the engine must be a large part of Minardi's problems). Johansson qualified 12th in the Onyx. Those were the days.....

[Inigo Montoya]

Originally posted by alesi95
11 Alboreto (29) LolaLamborghini1:37:33.401+44.85569

Every time I see Michele's name, I get a lump in my throat...

[NiceGuyEddie]

Same question could be asked about Damon Hill, Arrows and Hungary 1997. That one stood apart from any other achievement by either Hill or Arrows that season. And why? Because Hill suddenly got brilliant? Because the Arrows-chassis likes it tracks twisty and narrow? Because the Bridgestones were starting to perform? I don´t know.

[NiceGuyEddie]

Originally posted by iucrmh
Not such a daft day, Peirluigi Martini actually qualified 5th in the Minardi (a large proportion of the grid were running Cosworth engines - unlike today where the engine must be a large part of Minardi's problems). Johansson qualified 12th in the Onyx. Those were the days.....

didnt Pierluigi put the Minardi second on the Phoenix 1990 grid?

[Bononi]

Originally posted by alesi95
BUT HOW THE HELL DID IT FINISH 3RD AT PORTUGAL?

That's the ultimate proof that changes are needed or the kids of today will only know procession races !!!!

[alesi95]

Damon Hill was help no end by the fact that Bridgestones were by far the superior tyre that day.

Johanssen had no such tyre advantages (perhaps a very good set of hards helped.)

Minardi was quite competitive at this time of the year and they carried on their string of good performances into the start of 1990 with a little help of Pirelli.

And ofcourse the Brabhams of Brundle and Modena had proved points winning at least at the beginning of the season and Alesi and Alboreto had shown that the Tyrrell had sufficent speed to be challenging for podiums too.

[ASCII Man]

Yeah, Phoenix '90 was a beauty.

[steve_r]

Isn't it great just reading the race result - Brabham, Tyrell, March, Lola, Ligier.

If I remember rightly Nannini occasionally put in super quick laps in the middle of races, but could never seem to hold such a pace for a whole race. I seem to recall James Hunt sounding exasporated that he could show no pace all day, and then put in a couple of amazing laps mid-race.

[Bononi]

Can we expect to this happening again ?

Minardis in 5th...

[R]

Originally posted by alesi95
And ofcourse the Brabhams of Brundle and Modena had proved points winning at least at the beginning of the season

Winning? F1 Grands Prix?!? Neither Brundle nor Modena ever won an F1 GP. Brundle's best result in 1989 was his 5th place in Japan, while Modena's best finish (and only points) came from his 3rd place in Monaco.

Damon Hill's almost win in the Arrows stands out more than Johansson's third place in the Onyx, I think. In fact, there were many interesting results in 1997 - the results sheets were a lot more varied than they've been in any other season in the last 10 years in F1. Remember the Prost cars also were very good on several circuits (Olivier Panis was actually third in the WDC standings before breaking his legs in Canada).

[Adam43]

Ah, a tyre war, can be good fun (as in 1997).

[ASCII Man]

Originally posted by R
Winning? F1 Grands Prix?!? Neither Brundle nor Modena ever won an F1 GP. Brundle's best result in 1989 was his 5th place in Japan, while Modena's best finish (and only points) came from his 3rd place in Monaco.

Points winning! Not actually winning

[R]

Yeah, the Prosts ran on Bridgestones too, didn't they?

[R]

Originally posted by ®îjñtjûh
Points winning! Not acually winning

Ahh. OK! I read that as having "proved points" by winning! Points winning is of course true, that they did.

[ghinzani]

IIRC Martini in the Minardi led a lap at estoril or spain late on in 89 or 90. Biggest shock leader since Purley in the Lec at Zolder in 77!

[f1manoz]

Martini led, for a solitary lap, at Estoril during the same race Johansson came third. It was a brilliant moment!

Johansson came third through a mix of hard racing, good set-up and good luck, but it was thoroughly deserved. He kept his nose clean, laps consistent and he was rewarded with a podium.

Lets consider, too, that after the Williams, McLaren, Ferrari and Benetton, there was a mass of cars capable of points, and in those days the top cars DID retire often enough for the smaller teams to regularly score points. Plus, some teams such as Minardi, Tyrrell and Lotus were often capable of getting points on their own accord.

*begins to dream of better days than now*

[DNQ]

In some ways, the late 1980's were the greatest era in Formula One. Maybe there wasn't the bravery and skill of the 50's and 60's but it was the perfect mix between business and motor racing - the races were still what mattered, and it was still possible for someone to flatter their machinery and finish towards the front in ill-performing cars (Alesi, Martini, Capelli etc). And of course, their was still plenty of room for privateers.

Driver wise, we had many superstars - not just one like today (Schumacher). There was Senna, Mansell, Prost and Piquet. We had Lotus, Brabham, Tyrrell still doing the rounds, and the great tracks on the calendar - Spa, the real Hockenheim, Adelaide, the classic Osterreichring, Estoril, the pre-'94 Imola, the Monza with the 'good' chicanes and others...

Ah good times...too bad I am not enough to remember them well

And by all accounts that Onyx was a real pig of a car...but one of the first to feature power steering. There was an article in Motorsport a few years ago I remember.

[DNQ]

Just look at this -

1 McLaren Honda 141
2 Williams Renault 77
3 Ferrari Ferrari 59
4 Benetton Ford 39
5 Tyrrell Ford 16
6 Lotus Judd 15
7 Arrows Ford 13
8 Dallara Ford 8
9 Brabham Judd 8
10 Onyx Ford 6
11 Minardi Ford 6
12 March Judd 4
13 Rial Ford 3
14 Ligier Ford 3
15 AGS Ford 1
16 Lola Lamborghini 1

Interesting that off the 16 teams listed, only 4 (McLaren, Williams, Ferrari and Minardi) remain on the grid in 2003. Of course BAR (Tyrrell) and Renault (Benetton) can trace their roots back, and Lola and Dallara exist in Indy car racing, but it's a shame so many of these teams are gone.

[Kex]

Another impressive performance of 1990 was by the Leyton House team (March). They failed to qualify both cars in Mexico yet in the next race (France) they ran first and second in the race. Indeed Capelli finished just 8 or 9 seconds behind Prost. You wouldn't see that now.

[DNQ]

Exactly - one reason for this, I believe is that all 16 circuits are now so close in configuration, that there is no huge difference in strengths and weaknesses.

Back in the 80's, you'd have the ultra fast Monza and Hockenheim, tight and twisting tracks like Monaco, really bumpy tracks like Mexico, Detroit, sweeping tracks like the Osterreichring, and more than one street circuit - different tracks each week...now we're heading towards 16 sterile Tilke autodroms.