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Fondmetal is a Italian wheel manufacturer, founded by Gabriele Rumi.

It also was a Formula One constructor from 1991 through 1992, as well as a Formula One engine supplier in 2000 and sponsor of several teams throughout this period. The team scored no points in 29 races and was never classified in either World Championship.

Team Fondmetal[link]

The team was spawned by Gabriele Rumi's Fondmetal alloy wheels company. Rumi, a motor racing enthusiast, was a regular sponsor of Italian teams in various classes. In the 1980s, Fondmetal supplied some Formula One teams with wheels, and by 1985, the Fondmetal name appeared for the first time on an Osella Formula One machine. In the next few years, Fondmetal remained a reliable sponsor for Osella; in fact many times it was the only major one. In 1989, Fondmetal turned out to be Osella's main sponsor, when two bright Osella Fa1Ms in unusual white livery wore large Fondmetal letters on the hood. As the years went by, Enzo Osella was forced to sell some interests in his team to Fondmetal. In 1990, Fondmetal owned the majority of the team, and at the end of the year, Gabriele Rumi finally took over the whole operation.

Rumi transferred the team from Volpiano near Torino to his headquarter in Bergamo and ran it for one and a half years on his own. He initially persevered with Osella's driver, Olivier Grouillard, until he tired of the Frenchman's reckless side and attitude problem, replacing him with Gabriele Tarquini. The new team was no more successful than in the Osella days, sometimes the results being even worse than those of its fellow back row contenders Coloni or AGS.

1991[link]

For the 1991 Formula One season, Osella Squadra corse was gone; the team re-appeared as Fondmetal Corse. Initially, Fondmetal entered the FA1/ME which was a mere carry-over from last year (and in fact from 1989 as Osella had not been able to construct a new car in 1990). Driven by Olivier Grouillard, the blue and grey coloured machine was uncompetitive by any means. In the first two races of the season, Grouillard was slower than anybody. Although Fondmetal was able to use Cosworth engines prepared by Brian Hart from last years Tyrrell team, even Pedro Chaves in his Coloni was ahead of the Bergamo car. In that hostile atmosphere, pre-qualification turned out to be impossible. But Rumi had high hopes for the European season. By the San Marino Grand Prix, a new car appeared, called the FOMET1. It was elaborated by a newly-founded think-tank in the UK called Fomet. The Bicester-based design office was headed by Tino Belli and founded by Rumi who thought that British input was necessary for gaining success. The FOMET 1 featured new aerodynamics, a new suspension and some other improvements, but apart from this, the new car obviously conserving its Osella roots. Finally, things improved a little, but not significantly. With the new car, Grouillard managed to be faster than the Coloni machine, but that does not mean that Fondmetal was able to pass pre-qualifying regularly. Only a handful of race participations were possible, but results were poor, although he qualified 10th for the 1991 Mexican Grand Prix, ahead of Andrea de Cesaris in the Jordan, who finished 4th. In the end, Grouillard was replaced by former AGS man Gabriele Tarquini who finished twice (from three attempts), although he failed to prequalify once but no points were scored.

1992[link]

Andrea Chiesa driving the GR01 during the Thursday practice session for the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix.

At the end of 1991, due to some financial troubles, the British FOMET subsidiary where the designers had been working on a new Formula One car since the previous summer found its way into independence. Tino Belli sold the layout of the new car to the French Larrousse Formula One team which left Fondmetal without a new car for the next season. Instead, Gabriele Rumi commissioned Sergio Rinland from Astauto to design a new machine late in December 1991. Naturally, it was not ready for the season opening so for the first few races, last year's car had to do it again. Now dubbed GR01, it had seen few modifications; the major change was the installation of a Ford HB V8 engine (a carry-over from last year's Benetton machine) that came instead of the Lamborghini V12 or the Judd V10 that Rumi had preferred. The engine and the chassis did not go together well. There were some cooling troubles, and reliability was poor. The team appeared with two drivers, one being Tarquini, the other one being the Swiss debutant Andrea Chiesa. Tarquini showed speed, but the car was fragile.

Things should be better in late spring when the new chassis found its way on the circuits. The GR02 had nothing in common with former years´ Osellas and Fondmetals. The roots of its design dated back to late 1991 when Sergio Rinland was working for the Brabham team on the new Brabham BT61 that never saw the light of day. Instead, the basic structures of this design were carried over to the 1992 Fondmetal. Hence, the GR02 had some qualities and indeed was well regarded by its drivers. However, results turned out to be disappointing, with minor problems often stopping the cars after they qualified well. The team had little funds so tests were few and development slow. Finishes were rare. Tarquini often qualified this car surprisingly high up the order, and at the Belgian Grand Prix put in Fondmetal's best qualifying performance of the season to qualify 11th. Chiesa never got going, however, usually failing to qualify, and was replaced by Eric van de Poele for the Hungarian Grand Prix. While he proved competitive, he also collided with Tarquini in Hungary, losing the Italian team's last chance of a points finish. Two races later in September 1992, the team withdrew, feeling the pinch of the worldwide recession and of scoring no results better than a pair of 10th places, although Tarquini managed to qualify for all the thirteen races in which the team participated in 1992 and Chiesa (in ten attempts) and van de Poele in only three qualified three times each.

Later relations with other teams[link]

Forti Corse[link]

During 1992 Sergio Rinland and his Astauto team started to work on a 1993 F1 car on the hope that Fondmetal would carry on. That was not the case, since the contract was cancelled by Fondmetal in September 1992, well before the end of the season due to lack of funds. The design of that car was finished in early 1993. A year later, Rinland sold that design to Guido Forti who started running a Formula One team called Forti Corse by 1995. The team's FG01 chassis still had several similarities to the, by then very old, 1992 Fondmetal GR02.

Tyrrell and Minardi[link]

Fondmetal sponsored the Tyrrell team in 1995.

Rumi would return to Formula One in a more modest capacity in 1994, with Fondmetal sponsoring Tyrrell, and for 1996 would switch his support to Minardi. Fondmetal also owned a wind tunnel in Northern Italy that was offered to Tyrrell, Minardi and other teams. Rumi would gradually increase his interest in the Faenza outfit, becoming co-owner and chairman. However, Rumi had contracted cancer, and was forced to withdraw his backing in 2000 when the team was sold to Paul Stoddart. Rumi eventually died in May 2001. Fondmetal is still in operation as a wheel manufacturer.

Complete Formula One results[link]

(key)

Year	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Points	WCC
1991	Fomet FA1M-E90 Fomet F1	Ford V8	G		USA	BRA	SMR	MON	CAN	MEX	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	ESP	JPN	AUS	0	NC
				Olivier Grouillard	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	Ret	Ret	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNQ	10	Ret	DNPQ
				Gabriele Tarquini														12	11	DNPQ
1992	Fondmetal GR01 Fondmetal GR02	Ford V8	G		RSA	MEX	BRA	ESP	SMR	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	JPN	AUS	0	NC
				Gabriele Tarquini	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	14	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret
				Andrea Chiesa	DNQ	Ret	DNQ	Ret	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	Ret	DNQ	DNQ
				Eric van de Poele											Ret	10	Ret

External links[link]

• Fondmetal website
• F1 Rejects article

Eric van de Poele

Born	(1961-09-30) 30 September 1961 (age 50)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Belgian
Active years	1991 - 1992
Teams	Modena, Brabham, Fondmetal
Races	29 (5 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1991 United States Grand Prix
Last race	1992 Italian Grand Prix

Eric van de Poele (born 30 September 1961 in Verviers) is a Belgian racing driver and former Formula One driver. He participated in 29 Grands Prix, debuting on 10 March 1991. He scored no championship points.

After a difficult 1984 season in French Formula 3, van de Poele then won the Belgian and Benelux Formula Ford titles, also racing in the Belgian Touring Car Championship.^[1] He subsequently raced in German Touring Cars Championships, winning the 1987 championship despite not winning a race all season.^[2] He also won the 1987 Spa 24 Hours, sharing a car with Didier Theys and Jean-Michel Martin.^[2] He also dabbled in British Formula 3. For 1989, he moved up to Formula 3000, placing fourth, and then finishing runner-up in 1990.

After this, he signed for the Modena Formula One team for 1991, driving their Lamborghini cars thanks to backing from long-time sponsors Lease Plan. He was unsuccessful in the first two races, failing to pre-qualify, but made it onto the grid for the 1991 San Marino Grand Prix. There he impressed in the rain, running 5th close to the end before the car ran out of oil, dropping him to 9th. The team, in financial difficulties, failed to build on this success, and van de Poele would not race again that year.

He then signed for Brabham in 1992, but the team were low on money. The Belgian qualified for the opening South African Grand Prix, finishing 13th, but then failed to qualify the outdated car again. He frequently matched team-mate Damon Hill in the other Brabham, however. For the Hungarian Grand Prix he switched to the promising Fondmetal team. He qualified the car at the first attempt, only to spin out. He then started an excellent 15th for the Belgian Grand Prix, finishing 10th, and qualified again for the Italian Grand Prix, only for the clutch to break. After this, Fondmetal also hit money troubles and withdrew, leaving van de Poele without a drive.

Aside from a largely unused capacity as test driver for Tyrrell in 1993, van de Poele has since found considerable success in Touring Cars and sports cars, winning the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1995 and 1996 and the Petit Le Mans in 1998. He has also added to his 1987 win in the Spa 24 Hours four more wins in 1998, 2005, 2006 and 2008, giving him the record of five wins in the event.^[3]

In 2008, van de Poele competed in the Rolex Sports Car Series.

Racing record[link]

Complete Formula One results[link]

(key)

Complete British Touring Car Championship results[link]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

24 Hours of Le Mans results[link]

Year	Class	No	Tyres	Car	Team	Co-Drivers	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1994	IMSA GTS	76	Y	Nissan 300ZX Turbo Nissan VRH35 3.0L Turbo V6	Clayton Cunningham Racing	Paul Gentilozzi Shunji Kasuya	25	DNF	DNF
1996	WSC	17	P	Ferrari 333 SP Ferrari F310E 4.0L V12	Racing for Belgium Team Scandia	Marc Goossens Eric Bachelart	208	DNF	DNF
1997	GT1	22	B	Nissan R390 GT1 Nissan VRH35L 3.5L Turbo V8	Nissan Motorsport TWR	Riccardo Patrese Aguri Suzuki	121	DNF	DNF
1998	LMP1	12	P	Ferrari 333 SP Ferrari F310E 4.0L V12	Doyle-Risi Racing	Wayne Taylor Fermín Vélez	332	8th	1st
2000	LMP900	2	P	Cadillac Northstar LMP Cadillac Northstar 4.0L Turbo V8	Team Cadillac	Wayne Taylor Max Angelelli	287	22nd	12th
2001	LMGTP	8	D	Bentley EXP Speed 8 Bentley (Audi) 3.6L Turbo V8	Team Bentley	Andy Wallace Butch Leitzinger	306	3rd	1st
2002	LMGTP	8	D	Bentley EXP Speed 8 Bentley 4.0L Turbo V8	Team Bentley	Andy Wallace Butch Leitzinger	362	4th	1st
2008	GT2	83	M	Ferrari F430 GT2 Ferrari 4.0L V8	Risi Competizione Krohn Racing	Tracy Krohn Nic Jönsson	12	DNF	DNF
2009	GT2	83	M	Ferrari F430 GT2 Ferrari 4.0L V8	Risi Competizione Krohn Racing	Tracy Krohn Nic Jönsson	323	22nd	3rd
2010	GT2	83	M	Ferrari F430 GT2 Ferrari 4.0L V8	Risi Competizione Krohn Racing	Tracy Krohn Nic Jönsson	197	DNF	DNF

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Profile on F1 Rejects