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 Apollon.
Having been unable to retain his seat with RAM Racing for the 1977 season, Swiss driver Loris Kessel was in desperate search for a team that could take him. He approached Frank Williams to ask for a drive, but Williams was unable to provide him an opening. However, Williams agreed to sell Kessel an old FW03 chassis that had been used during the 1975 season.
With some financial backing from the Swiss Jolly Club of Switzerland, Kessel was able to hire Giacomo Caliri, an ex-Ferrari designer, to update the FW03 chassis. The radical changes included a longer nose and radiators in front of the wheels. The car was painted in yellow and white and named Apollon Fly and fitted with a Ford Cosworth V8 engine.
The car was entered into the Belgian Grand Prix and the French Grand Prix in 1977, but transportation issues prevented the car from arriving at the circuits. The car was also entered into the race at Austria and the Dutch Grand Prix, but the team didn’t show up.
When the team finally arrived at the Italian Grand Prix, there was no garage space available for them and they had to setup camp outside. Having never tested the car, Kessel was not sure what to expect from the car. It was extremely slow and he lost control of the car during the final qualifying session. This prevented him from qualifying for the event.
Having failed to start a single race in 1977, the funding dried up and Kessel never made another Formula One appearance.
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.
