It’s that time of the week again: time for us to look at the past teams that made an exit from the sport of Formula One, having scored no points. This week, we remember Eifelland.
Ahead of the 1972 season, Gunther Hennerici was interested in creating a German Formula One car, while also advertising his caravan manufacturing company, Eifelland. He was surrounded by racing. His brother Heinz was a successful racing driver, his third wife Hannelore Werner was a successful driver in Formula 2 and his grandson Marc was also involved in the racing world.
Discussions between interested partners began in 1971, although differences left only Ford Cologne onboard the team. The team purchased a March car and Cosworth engine, but they later redesigned the chassis based on the 1971 Tyrrell car that had won the 1971 World Drivers’ Championship title.
The car design was rather unusual, with an air intake in the front to guide the air around the cockpit and into the engine. The car also featured a single rear view mirror that was mounted on the center of the chassis in front of the driver. The car made its Formula One debut at the South African Grand Prix in 1972 with German racing driver Rolf Stommelen behind the wheel, although Hennerici did not attend the event due to a factory fire at his caravan company. The car qualified for 25th on the grid and were able to climb to 13th position by the end of the race, two laps behind the leader.
News of financial difficulties were already floating around the media, as the team suffered an accident at the Spanish Grand Prix. Monaco and Belgium yielded successful results for the team, with a tenth and eleventh respectively. The team also scored a tenth place finish at the British Grand Prix. Despite the success, Hennerici sold Eifelland and effectively the team to the window manufacturer Meeth. The company had no interest in motorsport and wanted to eliminate the unnecessary spending.
As a result, the team was given to Stommelen for free. Stommelen found enough funds to get the car on the grid for his home Grand Prix in Germany, although an electrical failure prevented him from finishing. The car was also taken to Austria for that year’s Grand Prix, where Stommelen was classified in P15 despite a late engine failure.
Stommelen wasn’t able to maintain the team financials on his own and he was searching for a sponsor from Germany. When no company expressed interest, he broadened his search to other companies outside of the country. The search was unsuccessful and Stommelen closed down the team before the Italian Grand Prix, putting an end to the team despite the impressive reliability of the car.
Although the team would have scored two points using today’s points system, it was not enough for the system at the time, which require a minimum of a sixth place finish to score a point.
Points are a difficult thing to obtain in Formula One. In this weekly series, we will look back the past teams who gave it their all, but fell short.
Points are a difficult thing to obtain in Formula One. In this weekly series, we will look back the past teams who gave it their all, but fell short.
