DAMS GD-01
Encyclopedia
The DAMS GD-01 was an unraced Formula One car
Formula One car
A modern Formula One car is a single-seat, open cockpit, open wheel racing car with substantial front and rear wings, and an engine positioned behind the driver. The regulations governing the cars are unique to the championship...
used by the French motorsport
Auto racing
Auto racing is a motorsport involving the racing of cars for competition. It is one of the world's most watched televised sports.-The beginning of racing:...
team, Driot-Arnoux Motor Sport
DAMS
Driot-Arnoux Motorsport is a racing team from France, involved in many areas of motorsports. DAMS was founded in 1988 by Jean-Paul Driot and former Formula One driver René Arnoux. It is headquartered near Le Mans, only 2 km from the Bugatti Circuit.- History :The year after its foundation,...
(DAMS). The GD-01 was designed and built by a collaboration of DAMS and Reynard
Reynard Motorsport
Reynard Motorsport was at one time the world's largest racing car manufacturer. Initially based at Bicester and latterly at Reynard Park, Brackley, England the company built successful cars in Formula Ford 1600, Formula Ford 2000, Formula Vauxhall Lotus, Formula Three, Formula 3000 and Indy...
engineers from 1994 to 1995, and was intended to establish the team—which had achieved considerable success in lower categories—in Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
(F1), the premier Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile is a non-profit association established as the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users...
(FIA)-sanctioned level of racing. However, due to insufficient financial backing, the team never entered the championship, despite completing construction of the chassis and conducting limited testing.
Concept
DAMS was founded by Jean-Paul Driot and F1 driver René ArnouxRené Arnoux
René Alexandre Arnoux is a retired French racing driver who is a veteran of 12 Formula One seasons...
in 1988, and was based in Le Mans
Le Mans
Le Mans is a city in France, located on the Sarthe River. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Mans. Le Mans is a part of the Pays de la Loire region.Its inhabitants are called Manceaux...
. The team quickly became a competitive force in International Formula 3000, the level of motorsport immediately below F1, winning the 1990, 1993 and 1994 drivers' championships with Érik Comas
Érik Comas
Érik Comas is a former Formula One driver from France. He was French Formula 3 champion in 1988, and then Formula 3000 champion in 1990, after scoring the same number of points as Jean Alesi in 1989 but losing on a count-back of positions. He participated in 63 Grands Prix, debuting on 10 March...
, Olivier Panis
Olivier Panis
Olivier Panis is a French racing driver. Panis is best known in F1 not only as a test driver for the McLaren team but for his win at the eventful Monaco Grand Prix in 1996 for the Ligier team after starting 14th...
and Jean-Christophe Boullion
Jean-Christophe Boullion
Jean-Christophe "Jules" Boullion is a former Formula One driver who raced for the Sauber team....
respectively. Driot aimed to take the next step in the team's progression by moving up to F1, thus emulating the examples of the Jordan
Jordan Grand Prix
Jordan Grand Prix was a Formula One constructor that competed from 1991 to 2005. The team is named after Irish businessman and founder Eddie Jordan...
, Pacific
Pacific Racing
Pacific Racing was a motor racing team from the United Kingdom...
and Forti
Forti
Forti Corse, commonly known as Forti, was an Italian motor racing team chiefly known for its brief, and unsuccessful, involvement in Formula One in the mid-1990s. It was established in the late 1970s and competed in lower formulae for two decades...
teams, all successful Formula 3000 teams which graduated to F1 in the first half of the 1990s.
In order to design and build a competitive F1 car, DAMS established a partnership with British constructor Reynard
Reynard Motorsport
Reynard Motorsport was at one time the world's largest racing car manufacturer. Initially based at Bicester and latterly at Reynard Park, Brackley, England the company built successful cars in Formula Ford 1600, Formula Ford 2000, Formula Vauxhall Lotus, Formula Three, Formula 3000 and Indy...
, an experienced constructor of racing cars for junior formulae
Formula racing
Formula racing is a term that refers to various forms of open wheeled single seater motorsport. Its origin lies in the nomenclature that was adopted by the FIA for all of its post-World War II single seater regulations, or formulae. The best known of these formulæ are Formula One, Formula Two, and...
and the American racing
American Championship Car Racing
Since 1916 there has been a recognized United States national automobile racing National Championship for drivers of professional-level, single-seat open wheel race cars. The championship has been under the auspices of several different sanctioning bodies since 1909. Since 1911, the Indianapolis...
scene. The company had also provided data which assisted with the construction of the Benetton B192
Benetton B192
The Benetton B192 was a Formula One racing car designed by Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne and raced by the Benetton team in the 1992 Formula One season....
and Ligier JS37 F1 cars, and had also built its own chassis, which ultimately became the Pacific PR01
Pacific PR01
The Pacific PR01 is a Formula One car, designed by Paul Brown for the 1993 season. However, due to financial problems, it did not race until 1994.- Name and Livery :...
after Reynard's plan to operate its own team fell through. DAMS set up an office near Reynard's headquarters, and assigned former Ligier designer Claude Galopin
Claude Galopin
Claude Galopin is a French automotive engineer who currently works for Pescarolo Sport.-Career:In , Galopin was recruited by the Ligier Formula One team as a race engineer, a position he remained in for four years. He then stepped down to International Formula 3000 to work for the GBDA Motorsport...
and Reynard employee Rob Arnott to lead the chassis design team.
Construction
Construction of the GD-01 began in 1994, but progress was slow due to limited financial backing. Sponsorship proved hard to find due to the presence of two existing French teams in the sport—Ligier and LarrousseLarrousse
Larrousse Formula One was a motorsports racing team founded in 1987 by Didier Calmels and former racer Gérard Larrousse, originally under the name Larrousse & Calmels. It was based in Antony, in the southern suburbs of Paris. It was renamed Larrousse after the departure of Calmels for legal reasons...
—and the Le Mans region's focus on its 24-hour race
24 Hours of Le Mans
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world's oldest sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since near the town of Le Mans, France. Commonly known as the Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency, race teams have to balance speed against the cars' ability to run for 24 hours without sustaining...
. In addition, changes to the sport's technical regulations—as a result of the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger
Roland Ratzenberger
Roland Ratzenberger was an Austrian racing driver who raced in Formula Nippon, Formula 3000 and Formula One...
and Ayrton Senna
Ayrton Senna
Ayrton Senna da Silva was a Brazilian racing driver. A three-time Formula One world champion, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time...
at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix
1994 San Marino Grand Prix
The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on May 1, 1994 at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Italy. It was the third race of the 1994 Formula One season...
—further hindered progress. By the beginning of the 1995 season
1995 Formula One season
The 1995 Formula One season was the 46th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1995 FIA Formula One World Championship, which was contested over 17 races from March 26 to November 12, 1995. For the second year in succession, the Drivers' Championship was won by Michael Schumacher,...
, nevertheless, the GD-01 was nearly complete. This led Gérard Larrousse
Gérard Larrousse
Gérard Larrousse is a former sports car racing, rallying and Formula One driver from France.He participated in two Grands Prix, debuting on 12 May 1974, scoring no championship points. He drove Brabham BT42s for Scuderia Finotto....
, whose eponymous F1 team was struggling to survive due to restrictions on alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
and tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
sponsorship caused by the Evin Law
Loi Evin
The Loi Évin is the French alcohol and tobacco policy law passed in 1991...
, to enter into negotiations with Driot over the possibility of Larrousse running the GD-01 instead of its planned Larrousse LH95 chassis—which it could not afford to build—or an updated LH94
Larrousse LH94
The Larrousse LH94 was the Formula One car built and raced by the Larrousse team for the 1994 Formula One season. It was the second car to be fully constructed by Larrousse, which had previously contracted specialist chassis-builders to build its cars: Lola from to and Venturi in...
, which would be extremely uncompetitive due to modifications needed to comply with the rules. Driot refused to allow his chassis to be raced by another team unless he could have greater involvement; Larrousse eventually folded without contesting a single 1995 race.
The chassis featured a triple bulkhead monocoque
Monocoque
Monocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...
made of a composite of carbon fibre
Carbon fiber
Carbon fiber, alternatively graphite fiber, carbon graphite or CF, is a material consisting of fibers about 5–10 μm in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded together in crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber...
and aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
honeycomb, which was manufactured by the Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
-based SNPE company. The bodywork was quite bulky, as the sidepods housed large water and oil coolers
Radiator (engine cooling)
Radiators are used for cooling internal combustion engines, mainly in automobiles but also in piston-engined aircraft, railway locomotives, motorcycles, stationary generating plant or any similar use of such an engine....
. The GD-01 had a conventional suspension, featuring wishbones
Double wishbone suspension
In automobiles, a double wishbone suspension is an independent suspension design using two wishbone-shaped arms to locate the wheel. Each wishbone or arm has two mounting points to the chassis and one joint at the knuckle. The shock absorber and coil spring mount to the wishbones to control...
with pushrod-actuated shock absorber
Shock absorber
A shock absorber is a mechanical device designed to smooth out or damp shock impulse, and dissipate kinetic energy. It is a type of dashpot.-Nomenclature:...
s. The car featured a low-nose configuration, which was gradually being abandoned in favour of higher noses by other F1 teams at the time, although the Reynard engineers had tested both configurations. The car's overall aerodynamic package has been described by motorsport author Sam Collins as "underdeveloped". The GD-01 was powered by a Ford
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
Cosworth
Cosworth
Cosworth is a high performance engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in engines and electronics for automobile racing , mainstream automotive and defence industries...
ED V8 engine
V8 engine
A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....
—a new unit for the three-litre era of F1 that began in 1995—which was a standard contemporary choice for smaller teams due to its low cost and ease of installation. The engine had a mileage of 400 miles (643.7 km) before rebuilds, a weight of 129.5 kilograms (285.5 lb), a rev limit
Rev limiter
A rev limiter is a device fitted to an internal combustion engine to restrict its maximum rotational speed. This is usually carried out to prevent damage to the engine, however sometimes these devices are fitted to prevent an engine reaching the point at which it develops maximum power...
of 13,500 rpm, and maximum power of 610 bhp at 13,200 rpm. It was initially thought that the chassis would be powered by a Mugen
Mugen Motorsports
Mugen Motorsports is a Japanese company formed in 1973 by Hirotoshi Honda, the son of Honda Motor Company founder Soichiro Honda, and Masao Kimura. Mugen, meaning "Without Limit", or "Unlimited", is an engine tuner and parts manufacturer closely associated with the Honda Motor Company...
-Honda
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
engine as part of a low-key return to F1 for Honda, but negotiations between the parties came to nought. The car's transmission was a six-speed sequential unit built specially for the team by British company Xtrac
Xtrac Limited
Xtrac Limited, also known as Xtrac Transmission Technology, is a British engineering company founded in 1984 by the former Hewland engineer Mike Endean to make 4WD systems and gearboxes for rallycross and later rally and racing cars...
, which also supplied the team's differential. Xtrac gearboxes were also used in the Minardi M195
Minardi M195
The Minardi M195 was a Formula One car designed by Aldo Costa for Minardi team for the 1995 Formula One season. The number 24 seat was taken by Luca Badoer, with Pierluigi Martini in the number 23 seat. However, he was dropped before the German Grand Prix and his seat was taken by Pedro Lamy. The...
and Simtek S951
Simtek S951
The Simtek S951 was a Formula One car for the 1995 season. The number 11 seat was taken by Domenico Schiattarella and the number 12 seat was taken by Jos Verstappen. The teams test driver was Hideki Noda. Noda was set to take the number 11 seat for the second half of the season, but the team closed...
chassis in 1995. The car's electronics were supplied by Pi Research, its Goodyear
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling. Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, SUVs, race cars, airplanes, farm equipment and heavy earth-mover machinery....
-supplied tyres fitted on Enkei wheels, and it was fuelled with Elf
Elf Aquitaine
Elf Aquitaine was a French oil company which merged with TotalFina to form TotalFinaElf. The new company changed its name to Total in 2003...
petrol. Only one chassis was built.
Launch and testing history
DAMS unveiled the GD-01 on the starting grid of the Circuit de la SartheCircuit de la Sarthe
The Circuit des 24 Heures, also known as Circuit de la Sarthe, located near Le Mans, France, is a semi-permanent race course most famous as the venue for the 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race. The track uses local roads that remain open to the public most of the year...
in the late summer of 1995. The launch was attended by Driot, Galopin and Arnott, in addition to drivers Érik Comas
Érik Comas
Érik Comas is a former Formula One driver from France. He was French Formula 3 champion in 1988, and then Formula 3000 champion in 1990, after scoring the same number of points as Jean Alesi in 1989 but losing on a count-back of positions. He participated in 63 Grands Prix, debuting on 10 March...
, Emmanuel Collard
Emmanuel Collard
Emmanuel Collard is a French racing driver. He is a member of the Porsche Junioren factory team, but drives also for other marques....
and Jan Lammers
Jan Lammers
Johannes "Jan" Lammers, , is a racing driver and team principal from the Netherlands. He participated in 41 Formula One Grand Prix races, debuting on January 21, 1979. He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1988 and later participated in the race with his own team Racing for Holland...
. The car was presented in a blue, white and yellow scheme with minimal sponsorship; the stickers present on the car were from technical partners such as Elf. By this time, it was already obsolete as the monocoque did not fully comply with the 1995 regulations, but the team's engineers were confident that it could be modified in order to do so.
The GD-01 was tested by Comas and Lammers at the Circuit Paul Ricard
Circuit Paul Ricard
The Paul Ricard Circuit is a motorsport race track built at Le Castellet, near Marseille, France, in 1969 with finance from the eccentric drinks magnate Paul Ricard, who created what essentially became Pernod Ricard...
in the south of France in October. It proved to be off the pace due to its cautious bodywork and aerodynamic design, indicating that it would need a thorough development programme in order for it to compete effectively in F1, particularly with the introduction of the 107% rule—which prevented drivers who were too slow in relation to the pole position
Pole position
The term "pole position", as used in motorsports, comes from the horse racing term where the number one starter starts on the inside next to the inside pole. The term made its way, along with several other customs, to auto racing. In circuit motorsports, a driver has pole position when he or she...
time from qualifying—for the 1996 season
1996 Formula One season
The 1996 Formula One season was the 47th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1996 FIA Formula One World Championship, which commenced on March 10, 1996, and ended on October 13 after sixteen races...
. However, the team's struggle to acquire a sufficient budget to race meant that Driot missed the deadline to apply for the 1996 championship. He hoped to apply for the 1997 season
1997 Formula One season
The 1997 Formula One season was the 48th FIA Formula One World Championship season. It commenced on March 9, 1997, and ended on October 26 after seventeen races.-Season summary:...
, but the continuing struggle to find financial backing, the increasing obsolescence of the GD-01's design, and the failure of the Simtek, Pacific and Forti teams to maintain an F1 team using the Cosworth ED engine, eventually persuaded him to abandon the venture altogether.
Legacy
Throughout the development, construction and testing of the GD-01, DAMS maintained its International Formula 3000 team, which survives to this day in the GP2 SeriesGP2 Series
The GP2 Series, GP2 for short, is a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Ecclestone also has the rights to the name GP1...
. The sole GD-01 chassis is in the team's factory, whilst the car's design drawings and documentation are in the possession of Adrian Reynard
Adrian Reynard
Adrian Reynard was the founder of Reynard Motorsport, which was a successful racing car manufacturer before it went bankrupt in 2002....
. The car's Xtrac transmission was subsequently used in the Dome F105
Dome F105
The Dome F105 was an unraced Formula One car designed and built by the Japanese motorsport constructor, Dome.-Concept and construction:Dome was founded in 1975 by brothers Minoru and Shoichi Hayashi, who had built their first racing car ten years earlier...
, another F1 test project which was never entered in a Grand Prix. Reynard continued to expand its operations, designing the British American Racing
British American Racing
British American Racing was a Formula One constructor that competed in the sport from 1999 to 2005. BAR began by acquiring Tyrrell, and used Supertec engines for their first year...
team's first F1 cars from onwards, and moving into other series such as Champ Car
Champ Car
Champ Car was the name for a class and specification of open wheel cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades, primarily for use in the Indianapolis 500 auto race...
, before filing for bankruptcy in 2002.