While Ferrari and McLaren battled at the front for the 1990 Formula 1 World Championship there was another intriguing story evolving at the far end of the pit-lane. Life Racing Engines entered Formula 1 with high hopes but were hopelessly ill-prepared for the challenge.
Life Acquire First F1 Car and W12 Engine
Ernesto Vita, the owner of Life, decided that buying the stillborn First Formula 1 chassis would be a good way of entering Grand Prix racing. The First had been designed by Richard Divila but never competed in a Grand Prix, although Gabriele Tarquini did drive the car in the 1988 end of season Bologna trophy.
Although the First was designed to accept a Judd V8 engine Vita decided against this, opting instead for a radical W12 design. The powerplant was the work of a former Ferrari employee, Franco Rocchi. He had a track record of interesting designs, having built a W18 for Ferrari in the 1960s. The W12 marked his return to racing after suffering health problems.
Brabham Signs for Life
When Gary Brabham, the son of triple world champion Jack Brabham, was invited to the Life factory he was hoping to secure a testing contract. Instead, to his amazement, he was offered a two year race deal. The team would field a single car in 1990 for him to drive.
Instead of two years, Brabham only lasted two races at Life before walking out. Even that early it was clear that the project was doomed to failure. During pre-qualifying in both the United States and Brazil the car had failed to complete a single lap. The team was so unprepared that they didn’t even possess a tyre pressure gauge.
Following Brabham’s departure Vita tried to sign Bernd Schneider, who resolutely refused to even try the car. Franco Scapini was also approached, but a best placed finish of tenth in a handful of Formula 3000 races meant he was never in danger of being granted a superlicense. Even less qualified was Rob Wilson, who up until then had only driven a Barber Saab Pro Series machine.
Giacomelli Replaces Brabham in F1 Team
The man who eventually accepted the unenviable task was veteran Italian driver Bruno Giacomelli, who had been out of Formula 1 for many seasons. Throughout the 1990 season his Life mechanics would replace the proper spelling of his surname with the Irish version “Jack O’Malley” on the side of his car.
In his first outing at Imola Giacomelli’s fastest lap was clocked at over seven minutes, and things hardly improved over the rest of the season. Vita realised that a switch to Judd engines would be beneficial, but didn’t have the money to buy them. When the W12 did hold together for more than a lap it was so underpowered that Giacomelli felt in danger of being struck from behind, such was the speed differential compared to other cars. At Spa the laid-back Italian offered his laconic take on events, which was published in the August 30th, 1990 issue of Motoring News. Giacomelli stated, “We did our usual five laps. Nothing impressive!”
Life eventually gave up two races before the end of the 1990 season. Giacomelli had failed to escape from pre-qualifying on 12 consecutive occasions. Incredibly, Eurobrun driver Claudio Langes had an even poorer record, failing to make the cut on 14 occasions.
The Coloni-Subaru Formula 1 disaster.
