Osella History & Team Record

Originally formed in 1965 the small company built a successful line of sports cars and smaller formulae cars before stepping up from F2 to the Grand Prix stage in 1980.  Handicapped by tiny budgets and a quest to put together a completely Italian effort, it is surprising the team managed to compete for 11 straight seasons.

With French veteran Jean-Pierre Jarier at the wheel of a simple Ford powered car in 1982 the team seemed to be on the  brink of breaking through, but the death of young Italian protege Riccardo Paletti at the Canadian GP derailed any progress.  The dominance of turbocharged engines and the high costs associated with them left the team with little choice but to run the Alfa Romeo units originally destined for the works team.  Little, if any, development was done on the powerplant in the five seasons they were run and the Osella's fell to the back of the grid or failed to even qualify.

1989 saw the switch back to less expensive, normally aspirated engines in F1 and Osella like many others relied on the Ford DFR customer units, but it also had to pay for tyres for the first time.  The cycle of lack of development, due to budget restraints, due to poor sponsorship finally forced the withdrawal of the team at the end of the 1990 season.  Partner Gabriele Rumi of Fondmetal took over the equipment, some personnel (including driver Olivier Grouillard) and entered the 1991 season under his own name.

Enzo Osella, however, continues to produce cars at the factory to this day, racing in domestic Italian sportscar events.

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