Information AboutDallara |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT DALLARA | |
| formula one constructors | |
| indy racing league | |
| italian racecar constructors | |
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EARLY YEARS The company was founded by designer Giampaolo Dallara in 1972 , near Parma , Italy and started building chassis for Sports Car racing and Hillclimbing , racing in the smaller engine classes. In 1978 the company moved to the Italian F3 Championship, where it dominated the field and won the championship ever since. They have also built chassis for Formula 3000 in the mid-80s. FORMULA 1 In 1988 the company became a Formula One Constructor , after being hired by Scuderia Italia to build their chassis, a relationship that endured until 1992 , with their best result being a 3rd place at the 1991 San Marino Grand Prix thanks to JJ Lehto . Dallara would return briefly to F1 in 1998, building the test-chassis for Honda 's planned return to the series. OTHER FORMULA In 1993 they built their F393 chassis for Formula 3, a car that was so competitive that forced every team to drop their Reynard and Ralt chassis, driving them out of every F3 market, which became Dallara's playground in the following years, with only a few one-off entries attempting to fight the italian company's dominion. Dallara eventually branched into other areas with equal success, establishing another near-monopoly in the Indy Racing League , starting in 1997. In 2002 they become 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 supplier of the GP2 Series . SPORTS CAR RACING 1993 was also the year the company 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 rules in the IMSA Championship, winning a great number of races both in North America and Europe. Ferrari also hired Dallara to develop the racing version of the Ferrari F50 , 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 Mopar LMP, which is now serving as a test mule for Nissan 's planned return to Le Mans). INDYCARS Dallara was one of the original chassis contructors when the IRL debuted its own chassis in late 1996. 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, a design characteristic that both manufacturers still retain. Dallara cars have won 5 of the 9 Indianapolis 500 's they have contested. For the 2006 Season , over 80% of the field is expected to consist of Dallaras, a possible symptom of competitor Panoz 's perceived lack of interest in the series. |
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