Fondmetal - Team Fondmetal

Team Fondmetal

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.