Onyx Grand Prix - 1990 Season

1990 Season

After what should have been a solid foundation to build on in 1989, things started coming apart heading into the 1990 Formula One Season. At the back end of 1989, Van Rossem's lack of interest began to show. Finances quickly dried up and Van Rossem's flamboyant and uncooperative personality had resulted in Earle and Chamberlain quitting the team, with Field quitting the team for a second time. Alan Jenkins took charge of the team with Peter Rheinardt taking over as Team Manager from Field. Having failed to secure a deal for either Honda or Porsche V10's for the 1991 Formula One Season, Van Rossem acted on his threats and left the team, taking his Moneytron sponsorship with him. Now seeking new ownership, Swiss car-collector and former racer Peter Monteverdi purchased 50% of the team with the father of driver Gregor Foitek, Karl Foitek purchasing 25% and Brune Frei purchasing the remaining 25%. The team was already in such dire financial straights that Foitek had to pay for Goodyear tyres used by the team in 1989 before the company would provide them with tyres for the 1990 season. The team would then rehire Earle and Chamberlain but Alan Jenkins was soon fired after refusing to work with Earle, and to make matters worse, Earle and Chamberlain would leave once again along with Team Manager Rheinhardt and the bulk of Onyx's experienced staff. This loss of key personnel would be the team's first crisis of 1990.

For 1990 the team had retained JJ Lehto but in an obvious move they had opted to go with Gregor Foitek in the 2nd car, as he was the son of part owner Karl Foitek. But, Foitek was contracted to Brabham for two races so Johansson was kept for the opening two rounds. As little money had been put into developing a car for the 1990 season, the team arrived at the opening two rounds with last year's ORE1. Neither driver managed to qualify for the first two races with Johansson destroying two chassis in the process. On to Imola for round 3 and the team arrived with slightly updated ORE1B chassis. Foitek was finally available to the team and he replaced Johansson, but this would result in the second crisis of 1990 as Stefan Johansson was upset by the team's disloyalty and sued them for breach of contract and along with Alan Jenkins, he attempted to get a court injunction to block Monteverdi's planned relocation of the team. Imola did prove to have a happy ending as both cars made the grid with Lehto coming home 12th. At Monaco, Foitek was running 6th late in the race when he collided with Eric Bernard's Larrousse, resulting in him being classified 7th, a result that would be Onyx's best finish of the season. Both cars made the grid in Canada and Mexico, but could only manage one finish between them with Foitek's 15th place in Mexico. In July Monteverdi had fulfilled his desire to move the team to Switzerland, but that improved nothing. A clear indication of how far behind the team had fallen came in France where both cars failed to make the grid, whereas at the same track last season, they had both qualified high up and netted a points finish. On to Britain and once again neither car made the grid. By the time of the German Grand Prix, Monteverdi had succeeded in changing the teams name to Monteverdi Onyx Formula One, but once again it meant nothing as although both cars scraped onto the grid, Foitek retired early and Lehto finished 6 laps behind and was unclassified.

There were also alarming rumours beginning to circulate regarding poor car preparation, including broken suspension parts being welded back together instead of being replaced and the cannibalising of Monteverdi's sports car collection to replace parts on the Formula One cars due to a lack of spare parts. One instance saw Lehto repeatedly complaining of poor handling, a problem that was finally solved when his driveshaft was discovered to have been installed the wrong way around. At around this time part-owner Karl Foitek withdrew his money and barred his son from driving a car that he now felt was a death-trap. With finances already a huge problem, Foitek's withdrawal was the final straw and the team would ultimately not see out the championship, wrapping up operations at the Hungarian Grand Prix in a sad ending for a team that had entered the sport with such promise and potential.