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Lola06/04/2005
The Bahrain GP was a cracking race not least because it left so many unanswered questions in its wake. It is the questions that make motor racing interesting. A new set of rules, which is the case in 2005, poses questions for teams to answer and the fascination is how they respond. While most attention was centred on Bahrain, there were other races in other places. Donington Park staged the opening two rounds of the British Formula Three Championship where the Brazilian, Danilo Dirani, took two wins. What is significant is that he was driving a Lola B05/30. For the first time in more than a decade, a question has arisen about Dallara's grip on the category. Formula Three is important for several reasons, and one is that it is the most senior international open wheeled category which is open to any constructor or engine supplier. From 1978 until the early 1990s, the chassis to beat in F3 had been whatever Ralt Ron Tauranac was making. March gave Ron a run for his money, but stopped making F3 cars from the end of 1981 whereupon F3 became Formula Ralt. From 1985, Reynard gave a fair account of itself in the formula but as Adrian Reynard himself admits, after Reynard won the first six races of the 1985 British Championship, he was so pleased with himself that he took a long holiday. While Adrian was water skiing, Ron Tauranac clawed back his lost ground. Reynard and Ralt became the main contenders in British F3 and no other series mattered that much in the 1980s. In 1989 Tauranac sold Ralt to March Group plc, but March Group plc crashed and was the subject of a management buy out. The new owners brought in the latest young hotshoe designer on Formula Three, while Ron was shunted off to North American Formula Atlantic. Ron's Atlantic cars won more championships, the last in 1997, than hotshoes' car won British F3 races. At the beginning of the 1993 British F3 Championship there were only two Ralts on the grid and Reynard dominated the first five races. Dallara 393s ran in the second round and though the team had problems the car was so clearly superior that every team that could slapped in an order. Neither Reynard nor Ralt ever sold another customer F3 car.
Danilo Dirani at Donington Park April 2005 - Picture by Jakob Ebrey That is how tough the production racing car business is. There was a time when a driver would merely have kicked himself for buying the wrong chassis but, by 1993, the car had become of relatively small part of the budget so if you found yourself with the wrong chassis you replaced it. If couldn't afford to do that, you weren't going to win in any case. In 1993, Dallara made the big breakthrough. Gian Paolo Dallara's CV included stints with Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati, and he established Dallara Automobili in 1972, with Dallara's attempts at building Formula 3000 cars veered towards the pathetic so nobody in Britain gave Dallara a second thought. Despite that, Dallara built Formula One cars for Scuderia Italia, 1988 92, and scored two third places. During 1992, Scuderia Italia decided to commission a car from Lola, which was a disaster, and by the end of 1993 Scuderia Italia had merged with Minardi. That left Dallara having to concentrate on the production racing car business, but it had a wind tunnel, by no means a given even in F1, it had good machine tools and it had F1 personnel. It also had Ron Tauranac's last F3 design, the hugely successful Ralt RT35 Alan Docking had sent one to Italy and the Dallara 393 used the suspension geometry of the Ralt RT35. The result of all those factors was a beautifully engineered and constructed racing car which pushed the envelop of Formula Three aerodynamics. Before the 1993 season began, Adrian Reynard had looked at the Dallara 393 and realised he could be in trouble if one arrived in Britain. His only comfort was that no Dallara F3 car had ever raced in Britain. Then Richard Arnold, father of the driver, Steve Arnold, a winner of points rather than of races, put together a deal to run Dallaras. The rest is history. Reynard tried to put together an exclusive deal with Renault for a works team in 1994. That did not happen and Reynard had a lucky escape because the Renault engine was crap. It was shown to be crap by running in Dallara chassis, had it been only in a Reynard, the chassis would have taken the blame. Ralt did run a two car works team in 1994 for a couple of races with a new car, designed by a relative novice, which was hopeless.
Martin Birrane in the Lola T212 at Silverstone in August in the LMES Endurance Classic - Picture by Lola Cars Not only did Dallara seize the moment, but it invested in even better tooling. Year on year Dallara improved in detail, not only in design, but in construction and, by 1997, even Ron Tauranac would say that the only way he could make a better F3 car was with the backing of a millionaire who would use it as a loss leader. There is no way of knowing if Danilo Darini's two wins at Donington is the start of a Lola renaissance in Formula Three. You cannot call it a revival because there is little Lola Formula Three history to revive. Throughout its entire 46 year history. Lola has never been much good at making F3 cars. A rough rule of thumb is: the bigger the engine, the greater the profit margin on the chassis. In the 1980s Lola made Formula Ford cars and lost money on every one. On the other hand, it was good training for young engineers, the cars kept the workforce busy and Lola made money on the replacement spares. Last year Lola got together with the Japanese company, Dome, and the Lola Dome F106 won eleven races world wide. That means the car occasionally shone while being swamped by Dallara. This year's Lola is not linked to Dome. Dallara has a lot of the IRL market, still dominates Formula Three, and has exclusive deals to supply Formula Nissan and the Infiniti Pro series Lola has F3000, Formula Nippon and the upcoming A1 GP, and almost the whole of Champ Car. Both companies also have consultancy divisions (Lola makes bobsleighs and competition rowing boats) and both have been involved in sports car racing. Lola was guided from its inception, 1958/59, by Eric Broadley who resisted Formula One unless he had a partner. In 1997 he was persuaded to go it alone, the two Lolas posted DNQs in Australia, did not even turn a wheel in Brazil and the company went into liquidation. The story of Lola's disastrous entry into F1 is complicated, suffice to say that Eric Broadley was under a lot of pressure from within the company and from without. Eric's achievement is that no other company devoted only to making racing cars has lasted so long under its founder. Enter Martin Birrane, a hugely successful Irish entrepreneur and sometime racing driver. Birrane was best known for saloon car racing in the 1970s, but he ran at Le Mans eight times, sometimes in Lolas. He managed a team in NASCAR and, from 1986, has been owner of Mondello Park, Ireland's only international circuit. Birrane does not maintain the high profile of some successful businessmen, but is usually to be found in the top fifty of the British 'rich list' published each year by The Sunday Times, mainly due to a property company he built from scratch. When he left Ireland, aged 17, his first job was as a hotel porter in London. Martin Birrane is that rarity, a hard headed businessman who is also a besotted racing fan. Who knows which part had the upper hand, which bought the shell of Lola Cars, all we need to know is that Lola Cars now makes a healthy profit. If you are not making money, pretty soon you are not making racing cars. For the first time in many years, I will be paying close attention to Formula Three because the battle between Dallara and Lola promises to be fascinating. We have two giants in contention and I reckon it will be one of the most intriguing contests we have seen in many a long day. The one thing which worries me is that Dallara has a deal to build Formula One cars for Jordan/Midland. No constructor has been successful in both Formula One and production racing cars for more than 30 years. March was making big money in the 1980s, it had F3000 and CART in the palm of its hand, then took on F1 as well. Every bright spark at March wanted to do F1 and the production car side collapsed. One of the reasons why Reynard went under was its involvement with BAR. When Dallara was supplying Scuderia Italia its production cars were not special. They became special when Dallara began to apply Formula One experience to production racing cars. Arrows was in F1 for more than a quarter of a century without winning a race, Minardi has been in for more than twenty years without even a podium. Formula One teams sell advertising space, companies like Dallara and Lola sell cars. To check out previous features from Mike, click here |
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