Fondmetal S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of
alloy wheel
In the automotive industry, alloy wheels are wheels that are made from an alloy of aluminium or magnesium. Alloys are mixtures of a metal and other elements. They generally provide greater strength over pure metals, which are usually much soft ...
s, founded in 1972 by Gabriele Rumi.
A
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
constructor of the same name, also owned by Rumi, competed in the and seasons, scoring no championship points. The company also sponsored, and supplied wheels to, numerous other constructors from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s.
In 2014 the Fondmetal brand expanded to the United States and became known as Fondmetal USA. All wheels continue to be made in Italy and are TUV approved.
Early years
In 1961, Gabriele Rumi took over the iron
foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...
business that had been established by his grandfather in
Brescia
Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...
.
A motor racing enthusiast, the business allowed him to compete in
hillclimbs and in the Formula Monza category during the 1960s.
Rumi had a passion for cars and racing and saw a demand for the manufacturing of parts for the automobile industry. In Palosco they made induction manifolds, water conduits, clutch bellhousing, oil pumps, cylinder heads and engine blocks for clients such as Maserti Biturbo, Fiat, Iveco, OM and Magneti Marelli.
For Rumi this was not enough. He found himself too reliant on his customers in a sensitive time period following the oil crisis. This led him to the courageous decision of launching his own product line in 1972.
The choice of product was alloy wheels, due to his involvement and passion for the automobile industry. From there the Fondmetal brand grew, and was established as a leader in forged and cost wheel design, engineering and manufacturing in Italy.
Fondmetal first appeared in Formula One in 1983 as a sponsor for Italian driver
Piercarlo Ghinzani
Piercarlo Ghinzani (born 16 January 1952) is a former racing driver from Italy. He currently manages his own racing team, Team Ghinzani, which was created in 1992 and is currently involved in several Formula Three championships.
Early career
Bef ...
. In the mid-1980s, the company supplied wheels to
Williams,
Tyrrell and
Ligier
Ligier (() is a French automobile and minibus maker created by former racing driver and rugby player Guy Ligier (1930–2015), specialized in the manufacturing of microcars.
Ligier is best known for its involvement in the Formula 1 World Champio ...
, while continuing to sponsor Ghinzani and, later, the
Osella
Osella is an Italian racing car manufacturer and former Formula One team. They participated in 132 Grands Prix between 1980 and 1990. They achieved two points finishes and scored five championship points.
Early days
Named after its founder V ...
team. In 1989, Fondmetal became Osella's major sponsor, and by 1990 Rumi had become the team's majority shareholder.
At the end of that year, he decided to take over the whole operation.
Team Fondmetal
Rumi transferred the team from Volpiano near Torino to his headquarters in
Bergamo
Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...
and ran it for one and a half years on his own. He initially persevered with Osella's driver,
Olivier Grouillard
Olivier Grouillard (born 2 September 1958) is a racing driver from France. He started racing go-karts from the age of fourteen competing in events such as the Volant Elf. He progressed to Formula Renault winning the title before Grouillard compet ...
, until he tired of the Frenchman's reckless side and attitude problem, replacing him with
Gabriele Tarquini
Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian racing driver. He participated in 78 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on May 3, 1987. He scored a single championship point, and holds the record for the most failed attempts to qualify. He h ...
. The new team was no more successful than in the Osella days, sometimes the results being even worse than those of its fellow back row contenders
Coloni or
AGS.
1991
For the 1991 Formula One season, Osella Squadra Corse was gone; the team re-appeared as Fondmetal Corse. Initially, Fondmetal entered the FA1M-E car which was a mere carry-over from the previous year (and, in fact, from 1989 as Osella had not been able to construct a new car in 1990). Driven by Olivier Grouillard, the blue and grey coloured machine was uncompetitive by any means. Although Fondmetal was able to use Cosworth engines prepared by
Brian Hart
Brian Roger Hart (7 September 1936 – 5 January 2014) was a British racing driver and engineer with a background in the aviation industry. He is best known as the founder of Brian Hart Limited, a company that developed and built engines for mot ...
for the previous years'
Tyrrell, even
Pedro Chaves
Pedro António Matos Chaves (; born 27 February 1965) is a Portuguese racing driver.
Chaves was the second Portuguese Formula Ford Champion, in 1986, starting an international career in 1987 in the British Formula Ford Championship. In 1990 ...
in his
Coloni was ahead of the Fondmetal car. In that hostile atmosphere, pre-qualification turned out to be impossible. But Rumi had high hopes for the European season. By the San Marino Grand Prix, a new car appeared, called the Fomet-1. It was conceived by a newly founded think-tank in the UK called Fomet. The Bicester-based design office was headed by Tino Belli and founded by Rumi who thought that British input was necessary for gaining success. The Fomet-1 featured new aerodynamics, a new suspension and some other improvements, but apart from this, the new car obviously preserved its Osella roots. Finally, things improved a little, but not significantly. With the new car, Grouillard managed to be faster than the Coloni machine, but that does not mean that Fondmetal was able to pass pre-qualifying regularly. Only a handful of race participations were possible, but results were poor, although Grouillard did qualify 10th for the
1991 Mexican Grand Prix, ahead of Andrea de Cesaris in the Jordan, who eventually finished 4th. In the end, Grouillard was replaced by former
AGS man
Gabriele Tarquini
Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian racing driver. He participated in 78 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on May 3, 1987. He scored a single championship point, and holds the record for the most failed attempts to qualify. He h ...
who finished twice (from three attempts), although he also failed to pre-qualify once; but no points were scored in the end.
1992
![1992 Andrea Chiesa Fondmetal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/1992_Andrea_Chiesa_Fondmetal.jpg)
At the end of 1991, due to some financial troubles, the British Fomet subsidiary where the designers had been working on a new Formula One car since the previous summer found its way into independence. Tino Belli sold the layout of the new car to the French
Larrousse
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 La ...
Formula One team which left Fondmetal without a new car for the next season. Instead, Gabriele Rumi commissioned
Sergio Rinland
Sergio Rinland (born 17 March 1952) is an Argentine engineer best known for his work in Formula One. He is currently owner and managing director of the automotive engineering and management consulting company Astauto Ltd.
Career
Born in Bueno ...
from Astauto to design a new machine late in December 1991. Naturally, it was not ready for the season opening so for the first few races, last year's car had to be used again. Now dubbed GR01, it had seen few modifications; the major change was the installation of a Ford HB V8 engine (a carry-over from last year's
Benetton machine) that came instead of the Lamborghini V12 or the Judd V10 that Rumi had preferred. The engine and the chassis did not go together well. There were some cooling troubles, and reliability was poor. The team appeared with two drivers, one being Tarquini, the other one being the Swiss debutant
Andrea Chiesa
Andrea Chiesa (born 6 May 1964) is a former Formula One driver from Switzerland. He participated in 10 Grands Prix, debuting on 1 March 1992.
Career
Chiesa began racing in 1980 with karts, and continued to cars in 1985, competing in Italian For ...
. Tarquini showed speed, but the car was fragile.
Things got better in late spring when the new chassis found its way onto the circuit. The
GR02 had nothing in common with former years' Osellas and Fondmetals. The roots of its design dated back to late 1991 when Sergio Rinland was working for the
Brabham
Brabham () is the common name for Motor Racing Developments Ltd., a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. Founded in 1960 by Australian driver Jack Brabham and British-Australian designer Ron Tauranac, the team won four ...
team on the new Brabham BT61 that never saw the light of day. Instead, the basic structures of this design were carried over to the 1992 Fondmetal. Hence, the GR02 had some qualities and indeed was well regarded by its drivers. However, results turned out to be disappointing, with minor problems often stopping the cars after they qualified well. The team had little funds so tests were few and development was slow. Finishes were rare. Tarquini often qualified his car surprisingly high up the order, and at the
Belgian Grand Prix
The Belgian Grand Prix (French: ''Grand Prix de Belgique''; Dutch: ''Grote Prijs van België''; German: ''Großer Preis von Belgien'') is a motor racing event which forms part of the Formula One World Championship.
The first national race of ...
put in Fondmetal's best qualifying performance of the season to qualify 11th. Chiesa never got going, however, usually failing to qualify, and was replaced by
Eric van de Poele
Eric van de Poele (born 30 September 1961) is a Belgian racing driver and former Formula One driver. He participated in 29 Grands Prix, in 1991 and 1992. He is a three-times class winner at 24 Hours of Le Mans, and won three Formula 3000 races i ...
for the
Hungarian Grand Prix
The Hungarian Grand Prix ( hu, Magyar Nagydíj) is a motor racing event held annually in Mogyoród. Since 1986, the race has been a round of the FIA Formula One World Championship.
History Origins
The first Hungarian Grand Prix was held on 21 ...
.
While van de Poele proved competitive, he spun off on the third lap in Hungary, losing the Italian team's last good chance of a points finish. Tarquini had already collided with Herbert's Lotus and with the Ligiers of Boutsen and Comas in the first lap.
Only two races later after the
Italian Grand Prix
The Italian Grand Prix ( it, Gran Premio d'Italia) is the fifth oldest national Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix (after the French Grand Prix, the United States Grand Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix and the Russian Grand Prix), having been he ...
in September 1992, the team withdrew from the championship, feeling the pinch of the worldwide recession and having not scored better than a pair of 10th places, although Tarquini managed to qualify for all thirteen races in which the team participated in 1992 and Chiesa (in ten attempts) and van de Poele (in only three) qualified three times each.
The financial crisis meant that Rumi nearly hired
Giuseppe Bugatti
Giuseppe Bugatti (born 1 March 1965) is an Italian former Auto racing, racing driver.
References
1965 births
Living people
Italian racing drivers
International Formula 3000 drivers
Place of birth missing (living people)
Karting World Champ ...
as a pay-driver just to get through the
1992 Portuguese Grand Prix, but he instead pulled the plug on his team due to the mounting debt.
Later relations with other teams
Forti Corse
During 1992
Sergio Rinland
Sergio Rinland (born 17 March 1952) is an Argentine engineer best known for his work in Formula One. He is currently owner and managing director of the automotive engineering and management consulting company Astauto Ltd.
Career
Born in Bueno ...
and his Astauto team started to work on a 1993 F1 car in the hope that Fondmetal would carry on. That was not the case, since the contract was cancelled by Fondmetal in September 1992, well before the end of the season due to lack of funds. The design of that car was finished in early 1993. A year later, Rinland sold that design to
Guido Forti
Guido Forti (10 July 1940 – 11 January 2013) was the founder and team manager of the now-defunct Formula One team Forti.
Forti co-founded his "Forti Corse" racing team with businessman Paolo Guerci in the late 1970s, initially running in ...
who started running a Formula One team called
Forti
Forti Corse, commonly known as Forti, was an Italian motor racing team chiefly known for its brief and unsuccessful involvement in Formula One in the mid-1990s. It was established in the late 1970s and competed in lower formulae for two decades ...
by 1995. The team's
FG01 chassis still had several similarities to the, by then three year-old, 1992 Fondmetal GR02.
Tyrrell and Minardi
![Ukyo Katayama 1995 Britain 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Ukyo_Katayama_1995_Britain_2.jpg)
Rumi would return to
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
in a more modest capacity in 1994, with Fondmetal as a technical partner and sponsor of
Tyrrell, and for 1996
Minardi
Minardi was an Italian automobile racing team and constructor founded in Faenza in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. It competed in the Formula One World Championship from 1985 until 2005 with little success, nevertheless acquiring a loyal followin ...
. Fondmetal's wind tunnel in Northern Italy was leased to
Tyrrell,
Minardi
Minardi was an Italian automobile racing team and constructor founded in Faenza in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. It competed in the Formula One World Championship from 1985 until 2005 with little success, nevertheless acquiring a loyal followin ...
and other teams. Rumi would gradually increase his interest in the
Faenza
Faenza (, , ; rgn, Fènza or ; la, Faventia) is an Italian city and comune of 59,063 inhabitants in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated southeast of Bologna.
Faenza is home to a historical manufacture of majolica-ware glazed eart ...
outfit, becoming co-owner and chairman, even going as far as rebadging the Ford Zetec-R engines in 2000. However, Rumi was diagnosed with cancer, and was forced to withdraw his backing later that year when the team was sold to
Paul Stoddart
Paul Stoddart (born 26 May 1955) is an Australian businessman, airline owner and former Minardi Formula One team boss.
Personal life
Born in Coburg, Melbourne, Australia, and attended Preston Technical School and St Joseph's College Melbourn ...
. Rumi eventually died in May 2001. Fondmetal is still in operation as a wheel manufacturer.
Complete Formula One results
(
key
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
)
As engine supplier
External links
Fondmetal websiteFondmetal USA website
References
{{Formula One constructors
Fondmetal
Formula One entrants
Italian auto racing teams
Italian racecar constructors
Wheel manufacturers
Italian brands
Auto racing teams established in 1991
Auto racing teams disestablished in 1992