Leyton House Racing

Former F1 team
Short_name = Leyton House Racing
Long_name = Leyton House Formula One Racing Team

Base = Bicester, UK
Founders = Akira Akagi
Staff = Adrian Newey
Gustav Brunner
Drivers = Mauricio Gugelmin
Ivan Capelli
Karl Wendlinger
Engine = Judd, Ilmor
Debut = 1990 United States Grand Prix
Races = 32
Cons_champ = 0
Drivers_champ = 0
Wins = 0
Poles = 0
Fastest_laps = 0
Last race = 1991 Australian Grand Prix |

Leyton House Racing was a Formula One constructor that raced in the 1990 and 1991 seasons.

It was, in essence, a rebranding of the March team which returned to F1 in 1987. Leyton House, a Japanese real estate company, had been the team's marquee sponsor since that year, and went on to buy the team in 1989. Drivers Ivan Capelli and Mauricio Gugelmin, who had both been driving for the March team from 1987 to 1989, continued on with the team under its new guise.

1990 season

1990 proved to be a disaster from the beginning. The Leyton House CG901 chassis was unreliable and through the first six races of the season, the team had failed to score a single point and had failed to qualify numerous times; both Gugelmin and Capelli recorded DNQs for the Brazilian and Mexican Grands Prix. However at the next race, the French Grand Prix both cars not only qualified, but ran first and second for a period until Gugelmin's engine blew. Capelli actually led for much of the remainder of the race, before being caught by the eventual winner Alain Prost; still Capelli finished second, his only points finish and the team's only podium finish of the season.

Off the track, managing director Ian Phillips contracted meningitis and left his post after the Brazilian Grand Prix. Team manager Harry Mandel also resigned and technical director Adrian Newey was fired. Several other engineers, brought over from March Engineering, also departed that year.

Leyton House finished 1990 with 7 points, placing them 7th in the Constructors' Championship.

1991 season

Leyton House switched engines for 1991, dropping the Judd V8 in favour of the new Ilmor V10 engine, hoping the new equipment and new faces in management would translate to success on the track. It proved to do exactly the opposite; Capelli retired from the first nine Grands Prix of the season before finally recording the team's first and only point by finishing 6th at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Gugelmin's best finish all season was 7th, which he achieved three times: in France, Portugal and Spain.

In September 1991, team owner Akira Akagi was implicated in a financial scandal involving the Fuji Bank and was arrested. The team was run by Akagi associate Ken Marrable but money was short and the cars continued to struggle to finish races.

With two races remaining in the season, Capelli quit his post to make way for test driver Karl Wendlinger who, like Michael Schumacher earlier in the season, was eased into F1 in a low-key deal made by Jochen Neerpasch of Mercedes-Benz, for whose Sauber-Mercedes sports car team he was driving at the time. In this context, it is notable that the Ilmor V10 was used by the Sauber team to which Wendlinger returned on its F1 debut in 1993 and that Ilmor became the F1 engine manufacturing arm of Mercedes-Benz.

Capelli would go on to sign for Ferrari for the 1992 season and Gugelmin left for Jordan.

Aftermath

The team was sold to a consortium including Marrable, former technical director Gustav Brunner and others. It was announced that the team would continue in Formula One but return to the name March F1 for 1992, perhaps in an aim to distance itself from the controversy surrounding Akagi and his Leyton House company. Wendlinger agreed to stay on as a full-time driver and he was joined by Paul Belmondo. While the March F1 team raced the complete 1992 season, neither of these drivers completed the full schedule as both Belmondo and Wendlinger left with five and two races remaining, respectively. They were replaced by Emanuele Naspetti and Jan Lammers.

Attempts to sell the team following the season failed and despite signing Lammers and Jean-Marc Gounon to drive in 1993, finances were exhausted and the team folded in early 1993.

Complete Formula One results

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External links

* [http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/con-leyto.html Leyton House Racing at the Grand Prix Encyclopedia]
* [http://cfm.globalf1.net/?page_id=10 Chequered Flag Motorsports's profile of Leyton House]