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Fondmetal

Full name	Fondmetal Corse
Base	Bergamo,Italy
Founder(s)	Gabriele Rumi
Noted staff	Tino Belli Sergio Rinland
Noted drivers	Olivier Grouillard Gabriele Tarquini Andrea Chiesa Eric van de Poele
Previous name	Osella Squadra Corse
Formula One World Championship career
First entry	1991 United States Grand Prix
Races entered	29 (19 starts)
Engines	Ford
Constructors' Championships	0
Drivers' Championships	0
Race victories	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
Final entry	1992 Italian Grand Prix

Fondmetal S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer ofalloy wheels, founded in 1972 byGabriele Rumi.^[1]

AFormula Oneconstructor of the same name, also owned by Rumi, competed in the1991 and1992 seasons,^[1] 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 areTÜV approved.

In 1961, Gabriele Rumi took over the ironfoundry business that had been established by his grandfather inBrescia.^[2] A motor racing enthusiast, the business allowed him to compete inhillclimbs 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 madeinduction manifolds, waterconduits,clutchbellhousing,oil pumps,cylinder heads andengine blocks for clients such asMaserati Biturbo,Fiat,Iveco,OM andMagneti Marelli.

For Rumi this was not enough. He found himself too reliant on his customers in a sensitive time period followingthe oil crisis. This led him to launch 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 driverPiercarlo Ghinzani.^[3] In the mid-1980s, the company supplied wheels toWilliams,Tyrrell andLigier, while continuing to sponsor Ghinzani and, later, theOsella team. In 1989, Fondmetal became Osella's major sponsor, and by 1990 Rumi had become the team's majority shareholder.^[4] At the end of that year, he decided to take over the whole operation.

Rumi transferred the team from Volpiano near Turin to his headquarters inBergamo and ran it for one and a half years on his own. He initially persevered with Osella's driver,Olivier Grouillard, until he tired of the Frenchman's reckless side and attitude problem, replacing him withGabriele Tarquini. 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 contendersColoni orAGS.

For the 1991 Formula One season,Osella Squadra Corse was gone; the team re-appeared as Fondmetal Corse. Initially, Fondmetal entered theFA1M-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 byOlivier Grouillard, the blue and grey coloured machine was uncompetitive by any means. Although Fondmetal was able to useCosworth engines prepared byBrian Hart for the previous years'Tyrrell, evenPedro Chaves in hisColoni 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 theScuderia 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 the1991 Mexican Grand Prix, ahead of Andrea de Cesaris in the Jordan, who eventually finished 4th. In the end, Grouillard was replaced by formerAGS manGabriele Tarquini who finished twice (from three attempts), although he also failed to pre-qualify once; but no points were scored in the end.

At the end of 1991, the British subsidiary Fomet was sold. Its designers had been working on a new Formula One car since the previous summer. Tino Belli sold the designs of the new car to theLarrousse Formula One team which left Fondmetal without a new car for the next season. In late December 1991 Gabriele Rumi commissionedSergio Rinland from Astauto to design a new car. It was not ready for the start of the season, so the team used the previous year's car for the first few races. The car received a Ford HB V8 engine (from the previous year'sBenetton) to replace 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, Tarquini, the other one being the Swiss debutantAndrea Chiesa. Tarquini showed speed, but the car broke down frequently.

In late spring Rinland's new chassis was ready to race. TheGR02 had nothing in common with former years' Osellas and Fondmetals. The roots of its design dated back to late 1991 when he was working for theBrabham team on the Brabham BT61 that never saw the light of day. Elements of its design were carried over to the 1992 Fondmetal. Its drivers found it an improvement over the GR01, but it had disappointing race results, with minor problems often stopping the cars after they qualified well. The team was poorly funded so tests were few and development was slow. Finishes were rare. Tarquini often qualified his car relatively high in the order, and at theBelgian Grand Prix put in Fondmetal's best qualifying performance of the season to qualify 11th. Chiesa often failed to qualify, and was replaced byEric van de Poele for theHungarian Grand Prix.

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 theItalian Grand Prix in September 1992, the team withdrew from the championship for financial reasons, having scored 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 team's mounting debt coincided with aglobal recession. Rumi contemplated racingGiuseppe Bugatti as a pay-driver in order to get through the1992 Portuguese Grand Prix, but decided instead to close his team.

During 1992Sergio Rinland 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 toGuido Forti who started running a Formula One team calledForti by 1995. The team'sFG01 chassis still had several similarities to the, by then three year-old, 1992Fondmetal GR02.

Rumi would return toFormula One in a more modest capacity in 1994, with Fondmetal as a technical partner and sponsor ofTyrrell, and for 1996Minardi. Fondmetal's wind tunnel in Northern Italy was leased toTyrrell,Minardi and other teams. Rumi would gradually increase his interest in theFaenza outfit, becoming co-owner and chairman, even going as far as rebadging theFord 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 toPaul Stoddart. Rumi eventually died in May 2001. Fondmetal is still in operation as a wheel manufacturer.

(key)

Year	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Points	WCC
1991	Fondmetal FA1M-E Fomet-1	FordCosworth DFR 3.5V8	G		USA	BRA	SMR	MON	CAN	MEX	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	ESP	JPN	AUS	0	NC
				Olivier Grouillard	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	Ret	Ret	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNQ	10	Ret	DNPQ
				Gabriele Tarquini														12	11	DNPQ
1992	Fondmetal GR01 Fondmetal GR02	FordHBA5 3.5V8	G		RSA	MEX	BRA	ESP	SMR	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	JPN	AUS	0	NC
				Gabriele Tarquini	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	14	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret
				Andrea Chiesa	DNQ	Ret	DNQ	Ret	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	Ret	DNQ	DNQ
				Eric van de Poele											Ret	10	Ret
Sources:[5][6]

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Points	WCC
2000	Telefónica Minardi Fondmetal	Minardi M02	Fondmetal RV10 3.0V10	B		AUS	BRA	SMR	GBR	ESP	EUR	MON	CAN	FRA	AUT	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	USA	JPN	MAL	0	NC
					Marc Gené	8	Ret	Ret	14	14	Ret	Ret	16†	15	8	Ret	15	14	9	12	Ret	Ret
					Gastón Mazzacane	Ret	10	13	15	15	8	Ret	12	Ret	12	11	Ret	17	10	Ret	15	13†
Source:[7]

• Fondmetal website
• Fondmetal USA website

• 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
• 1972 establishments in Italy

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from November 2017
• Articles needing additional references from December 2012
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