Dallara

Dallara Automobili is an Italian chassis manufacturer for various motor racing series, being most notable for its near-monopoly in Formula Three since 1993. Dallara also produces the chassis used by the IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, FIA Formula 2 Championship, Renault Sport Series, GP3 Series, Super Formula, Formula E and ADAC Formel Masters and is formerly one of the manufacturers in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. In recent years their engineering activities have expanded considerably (now represents 40% of total sales), both in terms of the racing cars and high performance road cars.

This article is about the Italian racing car manufacturer. For other uses, see Dallara (disambiguation).

Dallara Automobili S.p.A.
Private
IndustryAutomotive
Founded1972
FounderGian Paolo Dallara
HeadquartersVarano de' Melegari, Italy
Key people
Gian Paolo Dallara (president)
Andrea Pontremoli (CEO)
Websitedallara.it
Bruno Senna drives a Dallara F304 Formula Three car during a support race at the 2006 Australian Grand Prix

Early years

The company was founded by designer Gian Paolo Dallara in 1972 in Varano de' Melegari, near Parma, Italy, and started building chassis for sports car racing and hillclimbing, racing in the smaller engine classes. Dallara designed his first Formula Three car for Walter Wolf Racing in 1978. Dallara also had a brief involvement in Formula 3000 in the mid-1980s.

Formula Three

The first F3 car under the Dallara name came in 1981, and the cars became particularly successful in Italy. Since 1985 Dallara drivers have taken the Italian Formula Three Championship every year except 1990. The late 1980s and early 1990s also saw Dallara make inroads into the German and French markets, winning the German title in 1987 and the French in 1987 and 1992.

1993 was the first year that Dallaras were entered in the British Formula Three Championship and was the beginning of the company's dominance of Formula Three. The new F393 featured major aerodynamic changes compared to its predecessor and introduced a monodamper front suspension layout. The F393 won every race in the Italian, French and German championships that year, while the British series saw numerous entrants – including champion Kelvin Burt – forced to switch from Reynard or Ralt chassis to Dallara in order to remain competitive. TOMS would win the Japanese championship with its own cars in 1993 and 1994 before switching to Dallara chassis. From then on Dallara would dominate the Formula Three market, although Martini had some success in France and Germany in the late 1990s, including Sébastien Bourdais winning the French title in 1999. Since then Dallara have won every major Formula Three title, although Ho-Pin Tung won the 2006 Recaro F3 Cup in a Lola against a field that included several current Dallaras. Dallaras have won the Macau Grand Prix since 1993.

Formula One
A Dallara 191 Formula One car from the 1991 season.

In 1988 the company became a Formula One constructor, after being hired by BMS Scuderia Italia to build their chassis. The relationship between the Italian constructor and Beppe Lucchini's racing outfit endured until 1992, with their best result being two third places: one at the 1989 Canadian Grand Prix with Andrea de Cesaris; the other at the 1991 San Marino Grand Prix, thanks to JJ Lehto. The Constructors' Championship results were: no classification in 1988, 8th in 1989 (with 8 points), 15th (with no points) in 1990, 8th in 1991 (with 5 points) and 10th in 1992 (with 2 points) by Pierluigi Martini.

Dallara returned briefly to F1 in 1999, building the test-chassis for Honda's planned and aborted return to the series.

The Dallara-designed Hispania F110 chassis being driven by Bruno Senna before the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix.

During 2004, Dallara recruited ex-Jordan, Stewart and Jaguar F1 designer Gary Anderson, leading to speculation that the Italian company was working on another F1 project. Late in 2004 the nascent Midland team announced that Dallara would be designing and building their Formula One chassis which was due to be entered for the 2006 season. Following Midland's purchase of the Jordan team for early entry to F1 in 2005, Dallara continued co-operating with the team technically. However, the relationship fizzled out as Midland focussed its resources on developing the existing Jordan infrastructure, and a new Dallara F1 chassis never appeared.

Dallara built the cars for Hispania's entry in the 2010 season.[1] The Hispania team's financial problems—which delayed payment of money owed to Dallara and the completion of the cars—and the alleged low quality of the F110 chassis resulted in the two parties officially ending their partnership in May 2010. The car was used in all 2010 races without any development except the graphics. They had only one aerodynamic configuration, used for all races, including Monte Carlo and Monza.[2] Geoff Willis, who joined Hispania in March 2010, criticized the F110, saying that he was disappointed at the quality and level of engineering in the car and that the design of the car was missing a lot of practices commonly employed in the process of building a Formula One car those days.[3]

On 15 April 2014 Gene Haas confirmed his new Formula One team, Haas F1 Team, had entered talks to form a partnership with Dallara in 2015 for the build of their first car.[4] On 21 February 2016, the Haas VF-16 was officially unveiled.[5] This arrangement has continued since[6] with Dallara designing all the Haas cars up to and including that for the current, 2020 season.

IndyCar
Dallara IndyCar Factory near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Dallara debuted as chassis supplier at the IndyCar Series in 1997, and has been the single chassis supplier since 2007. The manufacturer has won seventeen of the twenty Indianapolis 500s they have contested. In 2013, Dallara reached its milestone 200th Indy car victory at Barber.[7]

In 2012 the company opened an engineering center in Speedway, Indiana, at the Speed Zone Redevelopment Area near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where they produce and assemble the IndyCar. The same building also houses an entertainment center, where visitors can learn how a racing car is manufactured.[8]

First generation
Dallara's first Indianapolis 500 victory was achieved by Eddie Cheever in 1998.

Dallara was one of the original three chassis constructors when the Indy Racing League debuted its own chassis formula during the 1997 season. The first model year (1997) was named the IR7. The cars were most notably differentiated from the competing G-Force chassis by the ovoid shape of the air intake inlet, while the G-Force's was triangular. The IR8 (1998) and IR9 (1999) were essentially 1997 model year chassis with update kits.

Jim Guthrie won Dallara's first Indy car race at Phoenix on 23 March 1997.[7] Eddie Cheever won Dallara's first Indianapolis 500 in 1998.

Second generation

A new model chassis was introduced for the 2000 season. When updated for 2001 the chassis was designated as the IR-01 and for 2002 it was referred to as the IR-02.

Third generation (IR3/IR5)
A Dallara IR5 practicing for the Indianapolis 500

For the 2003 season, Dallara rolled out the new IR3 chassis. This chassis would later become the de facto "spec car" in the series. An aerodynamic update kit was released for 2007, which changed its designation to IR5. In addition, paddle-shifters began seeing use in 2008, further developing and evolving this generation of Dallaras. Chassis bearing both the IR3 and the IR5 designations saw use through the end of the 2011 season.

For the 2006 season, over 80% of the field began the season with a Dallara, a possible symptom of Panoz (manufacturer of the G-Force chassis)'s perceived lack of interest. This was around the time Panoz began delivering the DP01 chassis to the rival Champ Car series. From 2007 to 2011 all IndyCar teams used the Dallara IR5 chassis, although a few teams entered a Panoz/G-Force chassis into the 2007 Indianapolis 500 singly. Some smaller teams continued to utilize the slightly older IR3 designated chassis, particularly at Indianapolis, with update kits affixed to make it on equally competitive ground with the newer-assembled IR5. Due to IndyCar IR-05 chassis and Honda Indy V8 engine development freeze for reason of focusing on 2012 new car from the start of the 2009 season, Dallara did not build new IndyCar chassis until the 2011 season.

Fourth generation (IR12/DW12)
Main article: Dallara DW12
Dallara DW12 IndyCar Chassis fitted with the 2012 Dallara "spec" aero kit.

Starting in 2012, Dallara began providing the common monocoque and suspension parts for the new IndyCar formulae – known as the IndyCar Safety Cell – with the intent that the bodywork and aero parts can and will be provided by other manufacturers. The cars will be branded by the make who provides the "Aero Kit." Dallara rolled out the chassis with its own optional spec aero kit. The aero kit concept was temporarily shelved due to cost concerns, making the Dallara kit the universal spec for 2012-2014. Unique aero kits (manufactured by Chevrolet and Honda, respectively) were introduced for 2015-2017, and Dallara ceased support and production of their own. Beginning in 2018, the third generation of aero kits would be introduced for the DW-12, again returning to a universal spec kit for all entries. On 18 October, Dallara confirmed that the 2012 series car would be named after the late IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon (DW12) in honour of his work testing the car before his death two days prior at Las Vegas, with the new bumper/nerf bar section being featured, it was designed to prevent many similar single-seater crashes such as the one that killed Wheldon.[9]

Other formulae
A Dallara Indy Lights car practicing at Indianapolis.

In 2002, Dallara became the exclusive supplier for World Series by Nissan, a move that allowed them to gain the contract for the World Series by Renault in 2004. Dallara was also appointed by the FIA to be the sole chassis builder of the FIA Formula 2 Championship (formerly GP2 Series) and the new FIA Formula 3 Championship (formerly GP3 Series), giving them a near-monopoly of every motorsport series used as a direct entry point into F1.

In 2007 Dallara created a new car model, known as the Formulino ("little formula"), in order to fill the gap between karts and Formula Three. The first series to use the new concept was the ADAC Formel Masters in 2008, and the MRF Challenge also adopted the car.

Dallara has provided the spec chassis to the Indy Lights series, formerly the Infiniti/Indy Pro Series since 2002. For the 2015 Indy Lights season, the car was replaced by the new generation Dallara IL-15, powered by Mazda's 2.0-litre turbocharged MZR-R four-cylinder engine.[10]

Dallara also designed the chassis for the Japanese Super Formula series, formerly known as Formula Nippon, called the Dallara SF19. This update to the previous chassis (the Dallara SF14) followed the FIA's new safety guidelines and added the "halo."

Sports car racing
Racing Team Nederland's Dallara P217 LMP Prototype raced by Jan Lammers and Frits van Eerd in the 2017 4 Hours of Spa.
Rollcentre Racing's Dallara SP1 (ex-Chrysler/Oreca) at the 2005 1000km of Spa.
Action Express Racing's Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi- V.R. at the Petit Le Mans.

In the early 1980s, Dallara was responsible for the construction of the Lancia LC1 Group 6 prototype as well as the later LC2 Group C car, along with Lancia's partner Abarth. It would not be until 1993 that Dallara returned to endurance racing, although very few chassis would take their name. The first project was the Ferrari 333 SP, made for the new WSC regulations in the IMSA GT Championship. The 333 SP, manufactured at Michelotto, won a great number of races both in North America and Europe. Ferrari also hired Dallara to develop the racing version of the Ferrari F50, financed by French racing driver Fabien Giroix, but the project was aborted before it got off the ground, in 1998.

As a consequence, the company secured other contracts and built chassis for Toyota (GT-One), Audi (various incarnations of the R8) and Chrysler (the Oreca-run Chrysler LMP). Later, the Chrysler LMP would become Dallara's customer car available to privateers, known as the Dallara SP1, which has also served as a test mule for Nissan's aborted return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. All these cars were competitive in prototype sports car racing, with the Audi R8 in particular becoming the most dominant chassis in modern times at the 24 Hours and the American Le Mans Series. In 2002, they built the GC21 for use in the Fuji Grand Champion Series; the car was based on the company's F3 cars.

In March 2008 the first Dallara Daytona Prototype appeared, built in collaboration with Doran for Wayne Taylor's SunTrust Racing team.

In 2015 Dallara was named as one of four constructors for the new LMP2 and DPi class regulations to debut in 2017,[11] using its Dallara P217 chassis.

Other notable cars

In 2007, Dallara and KTM produced the KTM X-Bow, a sports car with two seats, which was shown in its final version at the Bologna Motor Show.

Dallara also provided engineering services for Renault (R.S. 01), Alfa Romeo (8C and 4C), Audi (DTM and LeMans series), Bugatti (Veyron and Chiron), Ferrari, Porsche, and Maserati (MC12).

In 2017, Dallara showed its first road car, the Stradale, on the occasion of Gian Paolo Dallara's 81st birthday.[12]

Aerospace

For the Rosetta probe Dallara designed the drill that is part of the Philae robotic lander. Dallara has also partnered with Raytheon to provide the MALD for the United States Air Force.[13][14]

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine Tyres Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Points WCC
1988 BMS Scuderia Italia 3087
F188		 Ford DFR 3.5 V8 G BRA SMR MON MEX CAN DET FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR ESP JPN AUS 0 NC
Alex Caffi DNPQ Ret Ret Ret DNPQ 8 12 11 15 Ret 8 Ret 7 10 Ret Ret
1989 BMS Scuderia Italia F189 Ford DFR 3.5 V8 P BRA SMR MON MEX USA CAN FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR ESP JPN AUS 8 8th
Alex Caffi DNPQ 7 4 13 Ret 6 Ret DNPQ Ret 7 Ret 11 Ret Ret 9 Ret
Andrea de Cesaris 13 10 13 Ret 8 3 DNQ Ret 7 Ret 11 Ret Ret 7 10 Ret
1990 BMS Scuderia Italia F190 Ford DFR 3.5 V8 P USA BRA SMR MON CAN MEX FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR ESP JPN AUS 0 NC
Emanuele Pirro Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 11 Ret 10 Ret Ret 15 Ret Ret Ret
Andrea de Cesaris Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 13 DSQ Ret DNQ Ret Ret 10 Ret Ret Ret Ret
Gianni Morbidelli DNQ 14
1991 BMS Scuderia Italia F191 Judd GV 3.5 V10 P USA BRA SMR MON CAN MEX FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR ESP JPN AUS 5 8th
Emanuele Pirro Ret 11 DNPQ 6 9 DNPQ DNPQ 10 10 Ret 8 10 Ret 15 Ret 7
JJ Lehto Ret Ret 3 11 Ret Ret Ret 13 Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 8 Ret 12
1992 BMS Scuderia Italia F192 Ferrari
037 3.5 V12		 G RSA MEX BRA ESP SMR MON CAN FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR JPN AUS 2 10th
JJ Lehto Ret 8 8 Ret 11 9 9 9 13 10 DNQ 7 11 Ret 9 Ret
Pierluigi Martini Ret Ret Ret 6 6 Ret 8 10 15 11 Ret Ret 8 Ret 10 Ret
gollark: Not the `fancy stuff which I don't really understand` bit.
gollark: The `store a table` bit anyway.
gollark: That was what I was going to do anyway.
gollark: ... kind of?
gollark: And I'm doing this out-of-game so it won't be constrained by Luaj.

See also

References
  1. "2010 FIA Formula One World Championship Entry List" (Press release). FIA. 30 November 2009. Archived from the original on 3 December 2009. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
  2. Beer, Matt (26 May 2010). "Hispania and Dallara end partnership". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Archived from the original on 28 May 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
  3. Rencken, Dieter; Elizalde, Pablo (2 April 2010). "Willis unimpressed by HRT's car design". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Archived from the original on 5 April 2010. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
  4. "Haas confirms Dallara talks". planetf1.com. PlanetF1. 15 April 2014. Archived from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  5. Perkins, Chris (21 February 2016). "Haas F1 Reveals First U.S. F1 Car in 30 Years, The VF16". Road & Track. Archived from the original on 26 March 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  6. "Haas VF-17". 26 February 2017. Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
  7. Lewandowski, Dave (1 April 2013). "Dallara to mark its 200th win in series at Barber". IndyCar. Archived from the original on 24 February 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  8. "Official Site Dallara Automobili". Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  9. "Dallara to name 2012 IndyCar in honour of Dan Wheldon". Autosport.com. 18 October 2011. Archived from the original on 20 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
  10. DiZinno, Tony (31 October 2013). "No surprise: Indy Lights confirms Dallara for new 2015 chassis". NBC Sports. NBC Universal. Archived from the original on 20 February 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  11. "2017 LMP2 REGULATIONS – THE FOUR CHASSIS CONSTRUCTORS SELECTED". 9 July 2015. Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
  12. "Stradale! First ever Dallara road car is here, doors optional". carmagazine.co.uk. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  13. "Philae SD2". Politecnico di Milano. Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
  14. Marchesi, M.; Campaci, R.; Magnani, P.; Mugnuolo, R.; Nista, A.; et al. (2001). Comet sample acquisition for ROSETTA lander mission. 9th European Space Mechanisms and Tribology Symposium. 19–21 September 2001. Liège, Belgium. Bibcode:2001ESASP.480...91M.
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