Larrousse

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Larrousse Formula One was a motorsports racing team founded in 1987 by Didier Calmels and former racer Gérard Larrousse, originally under the name Larrousse & Calmels. It was based in Antony, in the southern suburbs of Paris. It was renamed Larrousse when Calmels was arrested for shooting his wife in a domestic argument in the spring of 1989.

1 Formula One
2 Sportscars

[edit] Formula One

[edit] Lola chassis

Larrousse & Calmels commissioned a car from Lola and the result was the LC87, a car designed by Eric Broadley and Ralph Bellamy. The chassis was powered by a Cosworth DFZ V8 engine, and was entered in the undersubscribed normally-aspirated class.

The team started out with just one car for Philippe Alliot, with Yannick Dalmas joining the team in a second car the end of the year. By that time they had agreed to a three-year deal with Lola and Chris Murphy was recruited from Zakspeed to help Bellamy. The team then did a deal to run Lamborghini V12 engines in 1989.

In September 1988 the team hired top French engineer Gérard Ducarouge but in the spring of 1989 there was disaster when Calmels was arrested for shooting his wife. He was later jailed for seven years. As a result the team became known as Larrousse.

For the 1989 season Alliot stayed on but Dalmas, who had been ill with Legionnaires Disease, was dropped and replaced by rookie Éric Bernard and later by Michele Alboreto, who had recently left Tyrrell. At the end of the year, Larrousse sold 50% of his shares to the Japanese Espo Corporation, and Aguri Suzuki was hired to partner Bernard for the 1990 season. At the same time the team moved from Antony to new premises at Signes, near Paul Ricard.

1990 was Larrousse's best season, with Suzuki scoring the team's first podium at the Japanese GP and the team finishing sixth in the Constructors' Championship. Then things began to unravel when Lamborghini announced it was switching to Ligier. Of greater concern was the FIA considering taking away Larrousse's points because of an alleged "false declaration" about the design of the chassis^{[citation needed]}.

Larrousse signed an engine deal with Brian Hart for 1991 but early in the year Espo withdrew and the team struggled financially. Although difficult to set up, the car proved relatively quick and was usually a solid midfield runner before succumbing to the inevitable breakdown or driver error. Suzuki finished sixth in the first tace of the season at Phoenix, and thereafter never made the chequered flag again. Bernard's season was similarly fraught, with the Frenchman earning a single point for 6th at the Mexican GP. A nightmare season was capped off for him when he crashed heavily in qualifying for the Japanese GP at Suzuka's daunting 130R corner, badly breaking his leg, and putting him out of the F1 limelight until he returned with Ligier in 1994. Belgian Bertrand Gachot returned for the final race in Australia (after being released from jail for assault on a London taxi driver), but failed to make an impression either.

Thing were equally worse behind the scenes. As the funds began to run dry, the team sought protection from creditors with a French court in July. Japanese company Central Park bought into the team but soon afterwards Ducarouge left. Merger talks with AGS failed and the relationships with Lola and Hart were both ended without payment being made by Larrousse.

[edit] Venturi chassis

In the autumn of 1991 Gerard Larrousse signed up Robin Herd from Fondmetal for the construction of an F1 chassis and 65% of the team was sold to the Venturi car company. A new Lamborghini engine deal was agreed and Bertrand Gachot was kept on alongside Ukyo Katayama. In a season where all cars were anonymous against the might Williams-Renault FW14Bs, probably the only highlight for Larrousse occurred when Gachot scored the team's only point with sixth place at Monaco. Gachot and Katayama collided twice in the season, in Canada and then Japan.

In September 1992 Venturi sold its shareholding to a group called Comstock, headed by German Rainer Walldorf. He turned out to be on the run from the law and was later killed in a gun battle with German police.

[edit] Larrousse chassis

The team made a big loss in 1993 when Gerard Larrousse funded drivers Alliot and Érik Comas, and the drivers could only manage a brace of sixth placings.

In 1994 Larrousse reorganized the team again. Having failed to get Peugeot engines he reverted to customer Ford HB engines, which were a substantially lesser predecessor to the Ford Zetec-R used by the works Benetton team. New partners were brought in, in the form Swiss-based Fast Group SA, an organization headed by Ferrari dealer Michel Golay and former F1 racer Patrick Tambay. Sponsorship was found from the vast Danone group and the cars ran in Tourtel colors with Comas and Olivier Beretta driving. Reliability was generally very poor throughout the season. Comas scored two 6th placings in the Pacific and German GPs - the latter race had only 8 finishers after a huge start-line accident. Beretta's best result was 7th at the German GP as well.

Despite these occasional flash of speed, Comas and Beretta were very much consigned to the lower-midfield in what proved to be a tricky car powered by an ageing engine.

As the money ran short, however, pay-drivers replaced them, including Hideki Noda and Jean-Denis Deletraz, widely acknowledged as among one of the worst pay-drivers of all time.

[edit] Collapse

At the end of the year Gerard Larrousse fell out with Robin Herd and cars for 1995 were not built. There were attempts to merge Larrousse with DAMS and with the Formula 3000 operation Junior Team - headed by Laurent Barlesi and Jean Messaoudi with backing from Petronas - but in April 1995 the team finally folded with lawsuits flying in all directions.