Dallara LMP

Dallara is an Italian race car manufacturer, founded by its current President, Gian Paolo Dallara. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, in 1972 in his native village of Varano de' Melegari ( Parma), Italy he created "Dallara Automobili".

Dallara is also the sole manufacturer of racing cars for the IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, Formula 2, Formula 3 and Super Formula Championships. Dallara produces cars for endurance races such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Daytona.

Early years

The company was founded by designer Gian Paolo Dallara in 1972 in Varano de' Melegari, near Parma, Italy, and started building chassis for sports car racing and hillclimbing, racing in the smaller engine classes. Dallara designed his first Formula Three car for Walter Wolf Racing in 1978. Dallara also had a brief involvement in International Formula 3000, Formula 3000 in the mid-1980s.

Formula Three

The first F3 car under the Dallara name came in 1981, and the cars became particularly successful in Italy. Since 1985 Dallara drivers have taken the Italian Formula Three Championship every year except 1990. The late 1980s and early 1990s also saw Dallara make inroads into the German and French markets, winning the German title in 1987 and the French in 1987 and 1992.

1993 was the first year that Dallaras were entered in the British Formula 3 International Series, British Formula Three Championship and was the beginning of the company's dominance of Formula Three. The new F393 featured major aerodynamic changes compared to its predecessor and introduced a monodamper front suspension layout. The F393 won every race in the Italian, French and German championships that year, while the British series saw numerous entrants – including champion Kelvin Burt – forced to switch from Reynard Motorsports, Reynard or Ralt chassis to Dallara in order to remain competitive. TOM'S, TOMS would win the Japanese championship with its own cars in 1993 and 1994 before switching to Dallara chassis. From then on Dallara would dominate the Formula Three market, although Martini (cars), Martini had some success in France and Germany in the late 1990s, including Sébastien Bourdais winning the French title in 1999. Since then Dallara has won every major Formula Three title, although Ho-Pin Tung won the 2006 Recaro F3 Cup in a Lola Cars, Lola against a field that included several current Dallaras. Dallaras have won the Macau Grand Prix since 1993.

Formula One

In the company became a Formula One List of Formula One constructors, constructor, after being hired by BMS Scuderia Italia to build their chassis. The relationship between the Italian constructor and Beppe Lucchini's racing outfit endured until , with their best result being two third places: one at the 1989 Canadian Grand Prix with Andrea de Cesaris; the other at the 1991 San Marino Grand Prix, thanks to JJ Lehto. The Constructors' Championship results were: no classification in 1988, 8th in 1989 (with 8 points), 15th (with no points) in 1990, 8th in 1991 (with 5 points) and 10th in 1992 (with 2 points) by Pierluigi Martini.

Dallara returned briefly to F1 in 1999, building Honda RA099, the test-chassis for Honda's planned but aborted return to the series.

During 2004, Dallara recruited ex-Jordan Grand Prix, Jordan, Stewart Grand Prix, Stewart and Jaguar Racing, Jaguar F1 designer Gary Anderson (motorsport), Gary Anderson, leading to speculation that the Italian company was working on another F1 project. Late in 2004 the nascent Midland F1 Racing, Midland team announced that Dallara would be designing and building their Formula One chassis which was due to be entered for the 2006 season. Following Midland's purchase of the Jordan team for early entry to F1 in 2005, Dallara continued co-operating with the team technically. However, the relationship fizzled out as Midland focussed its resources on developing the existing Jordan infrastructure, and a new Dallara F1 chassis never appeared.

Dallara built the cars for HRT Formula 1 Team, Hispania's entry in the season. The Hispania team's financial problems—which delayed payment of money owed to Dallara and the completion of the cars—and the alleged low quality of the Hispania F110, F110 chassis resulted in the two parties officially ending their partnership in May 2010. The car was used in all 2010 races without any development except the graphics. They had only one aerodynamic configuration, used for all races, including Monaco Grand Prix, Monte Carlo and Monza Grand Prix, Monza. Geoff Willis, who joined Hispania in March 2010, criticized the F110, saying that he was disappointed at the quality and level of engineering in the car and that the design of the car was missing a lot of contemplating practices commonly employed in the process of building a Formula One car.

On 15 April 2014 Gene Haas confirmed his new Formula One team, Haas F1 Team, had entered talks to form a partnership with Dallara in 2015 for the build of their first car. On 21 February 2016, the Haas VF-16 was officially unveiled. This arrangement has continued since with Dallara designing all the Haas cars up to and including the season.

IndyCar

Dallara debuted as a chassis supplier at the IndyCar Series in 1997, and has been the single chassis supplier since 2007. The manufacturer has won seventeen of the twenty Indianapolis 500s they have contested. In 2013, Dallara reached its milestone 200th American Championship car racing, Indy car victory at Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, Barber.

In 2012 the company opened an engineering center in Speedway, Indiana, at the Speed Zone Redevelopment Area near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where they produce and assemble the IndyCar Series, IndyCar. The same building also houses an entertainment center, where visitors can learn how a racing car is manufactured.

First generation (IR-7)

Dallara was one of the original three chassis constructors when the IndyCar, Indy Racing League debuted its own chassis formula during the 1996–1997 Indy Racing League season, 1997 season. The first model year (1997) was named the IR-7. The cars were most notably differentiated from the competing Panoz Auto Development, G-Force chassis by the ovoid shape of the Ram-air intake, air intake inlet, while the G-Force's were triangular and molded around the roll bar. The IR-8 (1998) and IR-9 (1999) were essentially 1997 model year chassis with various update kits.

Jim Guthrie (racing driver), Jim Guthrie won Dallara's 1996–1997 Indy Racing League season, first American Championship car racing, Indy car race at 1997 Phoenix 200, Phoenix on 23 March 1997. Eddie Cheever won Dallara's first Indianapolis 500 in 1998 Indianapolis 500, 1998, in his Oldsmobile Aurora Indy V8 engine, Oldsmobile-powered IR-7 chassis.

Second generation (IR-00)

A new model chassis was introduced for the 2000 Indy Racing League season, 2000 season; named the IR-00. When updated for 2001 the chassis was designated as the IR-01 and for 2002 it was referred to as the IR-02.

Third generation (IR-03/IR-05)

For the 2003 IndyCar Series season, 2003 season, Dallara rolled out the new IR-03 chassis. This chassis would later become the ''de facto'' "Spec racing, spec-car" in the series. An aerodynamic update kit was released for 2007 IndyCar season, 2007, which changed its designation to IR-05. In addition, semi-automatic transmission, paddle-shifters began seeing use in 2008, further developing and evolving this generation of Dallaras. Chassis bearing both the IR-03 and the IR-05 designations saw use through the end of the 2011 season.
For the 2006 IndyCar Series season, 2006 season, over 80% of the field began the season with a Dallara, a possible symptom of Panoz Auto Development, Panoz's (manufacturer of the G-Force chassis) perceived lack of interest. This was around the time Panoz began delivering the Panoz DP01, DP01 chassis to the rival Champ Car series. From 2007 to 2011 all IndyCar teams used the IR-05 chassis, although a few teams entered a Panoz/G-Force chassis into the 2007 Indianapolis 500 singly. Some smaller teams continued to utilize the slightly older IR-03 designated chassis, particularly at Indianapolis, with update kits installed to bring it up to equally competitive ground with the newer-assembled IR-05. Dan Wheldon famously won the 2011 Indianapolis 500, 2011 Indy 500 driving a nine year old IR-03.
IndyCar implemented a general chassis and engine development freeze from the start of the 2009 IndyCar Series season, 2009 season. The series began focusing on a new chassis/engine package to be rolled out for 2012. By this time, the Dallara IR-03/05 was exclusively paired with the Honda Indy V8 engine, Honda Indy V8, as other engine manufactures had departed.

Fourth generation (IR-12/DW-12)

Starting in 2012 IndyCar Series season, 2012, Dallara began providing the common monocoque and suspension parts for the new IndyCar formulae – known as the IndyCar Safety Cell – with the intent that the bodywork and aero parts can and will be provided by other manufacturers. The cars will be branded by the make who provides the "Aero Kit." Dallara rolled out the chassis with its own optional spec aero kit. The aero kit concept was temporarily shelved due to cost concerns, making the Dallara kit the universal spec for 2012-2014. Unique aero kits (manufactured by Chevrolet and Honda, respectively) were introduced for 2015-2017, and Dallara ceased to support and production of their own. In 2018, the third generation of aero kits was introduced for the DW-12, again returning to a universal spec kit for all entries known as UAK18. On 18 October, Dallara confirmed that the 2012 series car would be named after the late IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon (DW-12) in honor of his work testing the car before his 2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championships, death two days prior at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, with the new bumper/nerf bar section being featured, it was designed to prevent many similar single-seater crashes such as the one that killed Wheldon.

Other formulae

In 2002, Dallara became the exclusive supplier for World Series by Nissan, a move that allowed them to gain the contract for the World Series by Renault in 2004. Dallara was also appointed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA to be the sole chassis builder of the FIA Formula 2 Championship (formerly GP2 Series) and the new FIA Formula 3 Championship (formerly GP3 Series), giving them a near-monopoly of every motorsport series used as a direct entry point into F1.

In 2007 Dallara created a new car model, known as the ''Formulino'' ("little formula"), in order to fill the gap between karts and Formula Three. The first series to use the new concept was the ADAC Formel Masters in 2008 ADAC Formel Masters season, 2008, and the MRF Challenge also adopted the car.

Dallara has provided the spec chassis to the Indy Lights series, formerly the Infiniti/Indy Pro Series since 2002. For the 2015 Indy Lights season, the car was replaced by the new generation Dallara IL-15, powered by Mazda's 2.0-litre Turbocharger, turbocharged Advanced Engine Research#MZR-R, MZR-R four-cylinder engine.

Dallara also designed the chassis for the Japanese Super Formula series, formerly known as Formula Nippon, called the Dallara SF19. This update to the previous chassis (the Dallara SF14) followed the FIA's new safety guidelines and added the "halo."

Endurance car racing

In the early 1980s, Dallara was responsible for the construction of the Lancia LC1 Group 6 (racing), Group 6 prototype as well as the later Lancia LC2, LC2 Group C car, along with Lancia's partner Abarth. It would not be until 1993 that Dallara returned to Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing, although very few chassis would take their name. The first project was the Ferrari 333 SP, made for the new IMSA GT Championship, WSC regulations in the IMSA GT Championship. The 333 SP, manufactured at Michelotto, won a great number of races both in North America and Europe. Ferrari also hired Dallara to develop the racing version of the Ferrari F50, the F50 GT, financed by French racing driver Fabien Giroix, but the project was aborted before it got off the ground, in 1998.

As a consequence, the company secured other contracts and built chassis for Toyota (Toyota GT-One, GT-One), Audi (various incarnations of the Audi R8 Race Car, R8) and Chrysler (the Oreca-run Chrysler LMP). Later, the Chrysler LMP would become Dallara's customer car available to privateers, known as the Dallara SP1, which has also served as a test mule for Nissan's aborted return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. All these cars were competitive in prototype sports car racing, with the Audi R8, in particular, becoming the most dominant chassis in modern times at the 24 Hours and the American Le Mans Series. In 2002, they built the Dallara GC21, GC21 for use in the Fuji Grand Champion Series; the car was based on the company's F3 cars.

In March 2008 the first Dallara Daytona Prototype appeared, built-in collaboration with Doran for Wayne Taylor's SunTrust Racing team.

In 2015 Dallara was named as one of four constructors for the new LMP2 and Daytona Prototype, DPi class regulations to debut in 2017, using its Dallara P217 chassis.

Other notable cars

In 2007, Dallara and KTM produced the KTM X-Bow, a sports car with two seats, which was launched at the Geneva Motor Show in 2008.

Dallara also provided engineering services for Renault (Renault Sport R.S. 01, R.S. 01), Alfa Romeo (Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, 8C and Alfa Romeo 4C, 4C), Bugatti (Bugatti Veyron, Veyron and Bugatti Chiron, Chiron), Maserati (Maserati MC20, MC20), and Lamborghini (Lamborghini Huracán#Motorsport, motorsport variants of the Huracán)

In 2017, Dallara showed its first road car, the Dallara Stradale, Stradale, on the occasion of Gian Paolo Dallara's 81st birthday.

Handbikes

Dallara also produces handbikes, under Z-Bike. They also designed a handbike for Alex Zanardi for the Men's Para-cycling at the Paralympic Games, Paralympics, leading Zanardi to win 4 gold and 2 silver medals at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, 2012 and 2016 Summer Paralympics, 2016 Paralympics respectively.

Aerospace

For the ''Rosetta (spacecraft), Rosetta'' probe, Dallara designed the drill that is part of the ''Philae (spacecraft), Philae'' robotic lander. Dallara has also partnered with Raytheon to provide the ADM-160 MALD, MALD for the United States Air Force.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(:Template:F1 driver results legend 2, key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

See also

* List of Dallara cars

References

External links

Official Dallara website

Dallara's Profile on Historic Racing

{{Formula One constructors

Formula One constructors
IndyCar Series
Italian racecar constructors
Automotive companies established in 1972
Car manufacturers of Italy
Sports car manufacturers
Italian companies established in 1972
Haas F1 Team
BMW in motorsport
Audi in motorsport