Let us be honest. The last two North American Formula 1 endeavors were resounding failures, to wit, the USF1 race team and Craig Pollock's PURE engine. I find that both projects were very naive from the onset, thus their failure.
In USF1's case, I followed the project closely. I could tell it was ultimately doomed when the team announced its driver would be Argentine Jose Maria Lopez. Nothing against Argentines or Lopez, whom I rate highly. It seemed, though, that such a patriotically named team would only be successful with American sponsors and drivers. The fact it was turning to Argentine driver and funding augured poor for its future.
So, I see the current purchase of HRT by American-Canadian Scorpion Racing concern with a pinch of salt. I understand that what they are really doing is buying a slot, no more no less. They are certainly not buying HRT's race car designs, at least I hope not. In the time HRT was in F1, it just got worse and worse, in spite of drivers` and management's optimistic comments.
If the buyer were Penske, Andretti or Ganassi, for instance, I would be expecting great things. Such is not the case.
It they are buying the existing structure, such as designs and technology, then it is really worrisome, for they are buying the dudest of duds.
Thus, call me a pessimist, if you must, I think this is not going to progress very far. And I hope talented drivers Alexander Rossi and Robert Wickens are not in any fashion involved. Cosworth powered Formula 1 cars, until second notice, are a thing of the past in F1.
Then I recalled something.
Nowadays, we are used to race series where entrant lists are pretty much unchanged from race to race. This was not so, in the 70s. In the World Championship of Makes, for instance, some races had tons of cars on the grid, while others, few. Back in 1973, for example, the Targa Florio had 76 cars starting while the race with less starters had a mere 18. Entry lists consisted of giants in the world of motor racing, such as Ferrari, Alfa-Romeo and Matra-Simca, and cars that were literally put together and maintained at the simplest of garages, and enthusiastically, but poorly driven by inexperienced and slow unknown drivers.
The race with so few starters that year was the 1000 km of Oesterreichring, in Austria. There were a couple of reasons for that. Number one, no GTs or Group 2 cars were accepted, only prototypes. Number two, it was late in the season, and many a budget had been spent by that time.
It was thus a great opportunity for a small, garage team to participate.
One of the entries that year was a car entered by a team called Promoto. Car 26 was to be driven by Ed McDonough and John Blanckley. The 2-liter Cosworth powered race was called, believe it or not, the Scorpion JB-4. No relation to Scorpion Racing, of course.
The Scorpion JB-4 was the most consistent car that weekend. It was always the slowest car in qualifying, always raced in the back while on the track, and in fact, it was disqualified after 40 laps, being too slow and deemed too dangerous for other machines.
The Scorpion JB-4 is such a rarity, that I found no picture of it on the Internet. I have also not seen the car entered in any other race, so this might have been its only outing.
The irony is that almost 40 years down the line, another Scorpion attempts to make a crack in F1. I do hope it is not as unsuccessful as the number 26 machine. It would be quite ironic.
Carlos de Paula is a translator, writer and auto racing historian living in Miami
In USF1's case, I followed the project closely. I could tell it was ultimately doomed when the team announced its driver would be Argentine Jose Maria Lopez. Nothing against Argentines or Lopez, whom I rate highly. It seemed, though, that such a patriotically named team would only be successful with American sponsors and drivers. The fact it was turning to Argentine driver and funding augured poor for its future.
So, I see the current purchase of HRT by American-Canadian Scorpion Racing concern with a pinch of salt. I understand that what they are really doing is buying a slot, no more no less. They are certainly not buying HRT's race car designs, at least I hope not. In the time HRT was in F1, it just got worse and worse, in spite of drivers` and management's optimistic comments.
If the buyer were Penske, Andretti or Ganassi, for instance, I would be expecting great things. Such is not the case.
It they are buying the existing structure, such as designs and technology, then it is really worrisome, for they are buying the dudest of duds.
Thus, call me a pessimist, if you must, I think this is not going to progress very far. And I hope talented drivers Alexander Rossi and Robert Wickens are not in any fashion involved. Cosworth powered Formula 1 cars, until second notice, are a thing of the past in F1.
Then I recalled something.
Nowadays, we are used to race series where entrant lists are pretty much unchanged from race to race. This was not so, in the 70s. In the World Championship of Makes, for instance, some races had tons of cars on the grid, while others, few. Back in 1973, for example, the Targa Florio had 76 cars starting while the race with less starters had a mere 18. Entry lists consisted of giants in the world of motor racing, such as Ferrari, Alfa-Romeo and Matra-Simca, and cars that were literally put together and maintained at the simplest of garages, and enthusiastically, but poorly driven by inexperienced and slow unknown drivers.
The race with so few starters that year was the 1000 km of Oesterreichring, in Austria. There were a couple of reasons for that. Number one, no GTs or Group 2 cars were accepted, only prototypes. Number two, it was late in the season, and many a budget had been spent by that time.
It was thus a great opportunity for a small, garage team to participate.
One of the entries that year was a car entered by a team called Promoto. Car 26 was to be driven by Ed McDonough and John Blanckley. The 2-liter Cosworth powered race was called, believe it or not, the Scorpion JB-4. No relation to Scorpion Racing, of course.
The Scorpion JB-4 was the most consistent car that weekend. It was always the slowest car in qualifying, always raced in the back while on the track, and in fact, it was disqualified after 40 laps, being too slow and deemed too dangerous for other machines.
The Scorpion JB-4 is such a rarity, that I found no picture of it on the Internet. I have also not seen the car entered in any other race, so this might have been its only outing.
The irony is that almost 40 years down the line, another Scorpion attempts to make a crack in F1. I do hope it is not as unsuccessful as the number 26 machine. It would be quite ironic.
Carlos de Paula is a translator, writer and auto racing historian living in Miami
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