For the Life of me...
Author
- Mattijs Diepraam
Date
- 8W May 1998 issue, offers are kindly accepted to extend the length of this article!
Related articles
- Engine failures - The worst engines of the 3.5-litre era, by Rainer Nyberg
- 1989 & 1990 prequalifying - Rise and failing to shine, by Mattijs Diepraam
Who?Gary Brabham What?Life L190 Where?Phoenix When?1990 United States GP |
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Why?
The amateur Life F1 effort is by far the worst excuse for an F1 team in the modern nineties - even edging out Andrea Moda, which was pretty much abysmal on its own terms. But no team was ever more the laughing stock of F1 than the little Italian team, officially called Life Racing Engines. Its campaign was planned around its own 'racing engine', a very, well, interesting W12. As it turned out, the Life W12 did very little racing.
In fact it didn't do any real racing at all, because veteran Bruno Giacomelli (who after two races replaced Gary Brabham, the youngest of Sir Jack's sons) invariably stumbled at the prequalifying hurdle, often doing no more than a recce lap before the W12 gave the ghost. The tragic unit was replaced with a reliable Judd engine but this only highlighted the chassis' shortcomings and in the (limited) running also completely destroyed young Brabham's career.