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 EuroBrun.
Ahead of the 1988 season Euroracing and Walter Brun, the owner of Brun Motorsport, decided to join forces and create a Formula One entry. Euroracing would provide the facilities and employees, while Brun would handle the management and finances of the team. The EuroBrun team was born.
The team hired Oscar Larrauri and Stefano Modena to drive the car for the 1988 season. The team’s debut in Brazil was not as strong as the team would have hoped. Larrauri failed to complete a lap due to the electrical issues and Modena was also unable to complete the race distance. Despite two disqualifications early in the season, the team’s first Formula One season was going quite well.
However, it wasn’t long before finances turned sour and management began to disagree. The team failed to qualify for many of the events in the second half of the season. Brun had attempted to replace Larrauri with Christian Danner, a driver with a poor reputation on the track, but was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Euroracing’s interest in Formula One was gradually dying.
Issues were evident in the 1989 season, as Euroracing dialed back their involvement with the team, providing only a few employees for the team, and the team was reduced to just a single car. The team kept the same chassis, making only minor adjustments to fit the new Judd engine. Gregor Foitek was given the car and failed to qualify in Brazil. However, that was just the tip of the iceberg for the team, as they would fail to advance through pre-qualifying in the rest of the events.
The team created a new chassis, but that didn’t help the results and Foitek quit after the Belgian Grand Prix. The team brought Larrauri back for the remaining five races, but he was also unable to make it to the grid.
Ahead of the 1990 season, Euroracing bailed on the team. However, the team made it to the grid and decided to run two cars. Roberto Moreno became the team’s primary driver, while Claudio Langes was given the second car. The chassis was the same one used during the 1989 season. Although Langes failed to pre-qualify for the season opener in America, Moreno made it to P16 on the grid as qualifying was cancelled due to rain. Moreno was able to advance to P13 in the race.
Moreno was able to make it to the grid in San Marino, but didn’t complete a single lap of the race due to a mechanical issue. Moreno was disqualified in Mexico for a push start and Langes, as with all of the races in the season, had failed to make it past pre-qualifying. After the Mexican Grand Prix, neither driver could pre-qualify the car. The team’s performance got worse and Brun lost his interest in the sport. The team withdrew from Formula One with two rounds remaining in the season.
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.
