Martini Racing

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the constructor of lower formulae single-seaters, see Automobiles Martini.
Porsche 917K of Marko/Lennep
The #21 Martini Langheck-917 did not finish

Martini Racing is the name under which various

Martini vermouth in Turin. Martini's sponsorship program began in 1958 as Martini International Club, founded by Count Metello Rossi di Montelera of Martini & Rossi.[1]
The race cars were marked with the distinctive dark blue, light blue and red stripes mostly on white or silver background body cars, but also red or green ones.

Beginnings

Nürburgring 1971, Porsche 908
Hippe-Car 917LH as entered in 1970 Le Mans
Winner of 1971 Sebring

Martini's first sponsorship program happened at the Daytona 3 hours in 1962 with two

Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ
Coda Troncas, but they had no Martini stickers or logos on them, only "Martini & Rossi Racing Team" written along the front quarter panels.

The two key individuals at the start of Martini Racing's grand adventure were Paul Goppert, head of publicity and public relations for Martini Germany, and his close friend Hans-Dieter Dechent (1940-2014), a racing driver specializing in endurance racing who ran his father Opel dealership in Saarbrücken, Germany.

At the start of 1968, advertising unrelated to racing was permitted for the first time on the bodywork of racing cars. Paul asked Hans-Dieter to place a few stickers on his car in exchange for overalls and similar equipment.

Martini stickers then appeared, in April 1968 on the Porsche 910 raced by Scuderia Lufthansa Racing Team set up by Robert Huhn, an executive manager of the German airline.

As Dechent wanted to race the sooner with its new car, the car's first appearance of 910-023 in its silver livery with front Lufthansa colors and Martini stickers was at

hill climb, the 28 April with n° 174. Then the same car appeared at Dijon-Longvic GP on the fifth of May (Nr 10) where it made 2nd just behind the Matra-Ford 630, then at Paris GP on May 12 (Nr 26) where it renewed its 2nd place and mostly known at the 1000 km of Nürburgring on May 19 (Nr 24). Later in a minor event at the Hockenheimring
on 21 July 1968 it did not finish (Nr 13).

Martini Racing was then formed to enter two Porsche 907 in several sports car races in 1969 to back up the factory effort.

Martini Porsche

The Martini brand came to prominence in the 1970 World Sportscar Championship, when the team of Hans-Dieter Dechent entered as "International Martini Racing Team", with

the

1000km Nürburgring
.

the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans


During the 1970s, Martini became famous in connection with

RSR Turbo, 935 and 936. In 1978, Martini only sponsored the works team in Le Mans, while in 1980 they were associated with Joest Racing
, once more only at Le Mans.

Targa Florio

1973 Targa Florio winner

In 1973, Martini sponsored the 911 Carrera RSR that won the Targa Florio.

Martini Lancia

Lancia LC1 1982
Lancia LC2 racing car (front) in the colours of Martini Racing

In 1981, Martini Racing supported the Italian

Group 6 Lancia LC1 and Group C Lancia LC2.[4] The works Lancia Martini drivers lineup included several contemporary Formula One racers, including Michele Alboreto, Teo Fabi and Riccardo Patrese. The association lasted until the 1986 24 Hours of Le Mans, but by then, Lancia was more involved with rallying. After that, Martini Racing has made only brief entries in sports car racing, including three seasons in the FIA Sportscar Championship with Gianni Giudici's Picchio
.

Formula One

An Alfa Romeo-Brabham BT45 Formula One car in red Martini & Rossi livery.
Carlos Reutemann in his Martini livered Lotus 79 at the 1979 Monaco Grand Prix
Williams F1 Martini Racing (Felipe Massa, 2015)
Williams F1 Martini Racing Testing (2018)

Martini Racing's association with Formula One began in 1972 with the Italian team Tecno.[5] However, disagreements between Rossi and the team owners over technical and sporting directions, resulted in an uncompetitive car and Martini withdrew its support to the program after an unsuccessful 1972 and 1973 season.[6][7]

Martini returned full-time in

Brabham BT44B
in 1975.

When the

John Watson all drove for the team during this time.[10][11]

For the 1979 season, the Martini sponsorship moved to Team Lotus.[12] In spite of having the 1978 championship winning Lotus 79 and Mario Andretti and Carlos Reutemann as drivers, the Martini Lotus association did not achieve a single win and by the end of the year, Martini withdrew from F1 once more.

After a long break from the category, the Italian company began sponsoring

2006 with a minor presence.[13]

2018
seasons. This partnership ended after the 2018 season.

Rallying

Main article:
Lancia in rallying
Lancia Delta S4
Lancia Delta Integrale HF 16V
driven at the 2018 Rally Moritz Costa Brava

Martini's first rally challenge was taken up by usual stalwart Porsche. In

1978, Porsche made a return to the World Rally Championship as a works team, running a 911 SC for Björn Waldegård and Vic Preston Jr. in the Safari Rally
. The project did not continue past this one-off entry, where Preston was 2nd and Waldegård 4th.

The second time Martini Racing sponsored a rally team was 1980, where Luigi Racing (Belgium) started with a BMW 323i E21 Group 2. Luigi Racing was before successful in the European Touring Car Championship with a BMW 3.0 Coupé CSL. Driver of the 323i have been Hermes Delbar[15] and Timo Mäkinen.[16]

In

1983, and consecutively with the Group A Delta from 1987 to 1992.[4]

In the following years, Martini returned with a smaller sponsorship program, restricted to the Italian Rally Championship, which the Martini Racing driver,

Ford Escort Cosworth
.

Martini returned to the WRC full-time for the

2002
.

The car model which has won the most titles for Martini Racing is the

Lancia Delta HF Integrale.[4]

Touring car racing

Martini Racing Alfa Romeo 155 V6 TI from 1996

It wouldn't be until 1992 that Martini Racing would be seriously involved with

Italian Touring Car Championship, which the team dominated, with Nicola Larini
taking the championship title.

This served as an appetizer to a bigger prize, most specifically the DTM, the German-based touring car series. Although the Martini Alfa Romeo connection only materialized in 1995 and by then the Alfas (driven by Larini and Alessandro Nannini, both ex-F1 drivers) weren't as competitive.

Powerboats

Between 1973 and 1975, Martini Racing sponsored Carlo Bonomi and Cesare Fiorio's Dry Martini boats in the Powerboat World Championship, winning back-to-back titles in 1973 and 1974. At the time, the Martini boat hit an average top speed of 66.9 mph. Martini returned to offshore racing in 1978 sponsoring Guido Niccolai's boats, who took the European titles in 1979 and 1981. The 35 foot Cigarette that was commissioned by Carlo Bonomi is currently owned and raced by Jonathan Sainsbury, a furniture designer from Dorset.

In 1982 Martini Racing entered the Formula 1 Powerboat World Championship supporting the defending champion Renato Molinari: he missed the title by a single point, but won the following two seasons.

In 1987 Martini was back again in offshore racing with a Molinari-designed powerboat equipped with Lancia-Ferrari engines. After two seasons with poor results, Molinari switched to a new catamaran design powered by Lamborghini engines. At the end of 1989 both Molinari and Martini retired from powerboat racing.

In 2014, the Vector-Martini team of Peter Dredge, Simon Powell and Mal Crease crossed the finish line at the Cowes Offshore Classic more than four

nautical miles ahead of their nearest rival.[17] The following year, the same team of Dredge, Powell and Crease (with new member David Gandy) won the race more than 19 minutes ahead of the second place team.[18]

References

  1. ^ "Count Rossi, 68". The New York Times. 28 January 1972.
  2. ^ "Eberbach Hill Climb | the Motor Racing Programme Covers Project".
  3. ^ "Eberbacher Bergrennen im Odenwald".
  4. ^ a b c d "Martini Racing: Twenty-five years of history". Lancia Rally. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  5. ^ "Tecno Cars". All Formula 1. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  6. ^ "Martini Racing 1972: Tecno". The Formula One Database. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  7. ^ "Martini Racing 1973: Tecno". The Formula One Database. 2009-03-29. Archived from the original on 2011-09-26. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  8. ^ Martini Racing 1975 : Brabham : The Formula One Database Archived 2007-10-10 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ "Brabham Racing". All Formula 1. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  10. ^ "Martini Racing 1976: Brabham". The Formula One Database. 2009-03-29. Archived from the original on 2012-02-06. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  11. ^ "Martini Racing 1977: Brabham". The Formula One Database. 2009-03-29. Archived from the original on 2011-09-26. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  12. ^ "Martini Racing Team Lotus 1979". The Formula One Database. 2009-03-29. Archived from the original on 2012-02-06. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  13. ^ "Ferrari confirms Martini". GrandPrix.com. Retrieved 2006-01-23.
  14. ^ "Williams to show Martini livery on March 6". Motorsport.com. Archived from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  15. ^ eWRC-results.com. "rally database". eWRC-results.com. Retrieved 2017-09-16.
  16. ^ eWRC-results.com. "Timo Mäkinen - rally profile". Ewrc-results.com. Retrieved 2017-09-16.
  17. ^ "All the action from the Cowes Torquay Powerboat Race 2014". Royal Yachting Association. Archived from the original on 18 June 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  18. ^ "Cowes Classic Powerboat Festival 2015 - Overall Results" (PDF). cowestorquaycowes.co.uk. 6 September 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2015.

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Martini Racing.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Martini_Racing&oldid=1208009323"