Dywa
| Dywa | |
|---|---|
| |
| Full Name | Dywa Racing Cars Engineering |
| Base | Canegrate, Italy |
| Founder(s) | Pietro Monguzzi Walter Nebuloni |
| Team Principal(s) | Pietro Monguzzi |
| Technical Director | N/A |
| Current Drivers | #35 - Renzo Zorzi #36 - Alberto Colombo |
| Other Noted Drivers | Renzo Zorzi, Alberto Colombo, Giancarlo Martini |
| Debut | 1976 Spanish Grand Prix |
| Races | 7 (0 starts) |
| Constructors' Championships | 0 |
| Drivers' Championships | 0 |
| Race Wins | 0 |
| Podiums | 0 |
| Points | 0 |
| Pole Positions | 0 |
| Fastest Laps | 0 |
Dywa was an Italian Formula One constructor based in Canegrate. Founded by Pietro 'Dydo' Monguzzi and his brother-in-law Walter Nebuloni in the mid-1960s, they built single-seaters for various categories with very limited success. Attempts to enter Formula One in 1974 and 1975 failed before finally making their debut in 1976.
1976 Formula One Season
The Dywa-001 broke cover at the Spanish Grand Prix, which was the first European round of the season. The chassis was a modified version of Monguzzi's previous attempt. The bodywork was angular and primitive, the car was overweight and generally lacked build quality. The Dywa cars were powered by the Renzo V8 engines, shoddily assembled Ford Cosworth clones made from sub-par components. Predictably, Giancarlo Martini and Renzo Zorzi failed to pre-qualify. Despite being completely outclassed by the rest of the field, Dywa struggled on and entered six further Grands Prix during 1976. They could always be found towards the end of the timing sheets, outperforming only the farcical ÖASC team.
1977 Formula One Season
Despite making little changes to both chassis and engine, Dywa entered the 1977 season and even managed to find drivers willing to part with their money to drive the contraption on Friday mornings. Giancarlo Martini had abandoned ship and headed to Hesketh and in his place was Formula 2 driver Alberto Colombo, but this did little to lift the fortunes of the team. In pre-qualifying itself, Dywa found themselves suddenly competing against other Renzo-powered teams, Wheatcroft Racing and B&S Fabrications, the latter of which having fallen from grace after pre-qualifying on four occasions in 1976. In addition, the team also found themselves competing against the ambitious but completely out-of-depth North Star squad, whose year-old Lolas were hideously off the pace.
Effective team leader Renzo Zorzi would go on to regularly qualify ahead of Dywa's rivals, despite being 6-8 seconds off the pace and still in the lower half of the timesheets. Alberto Colombo would not share the same 'success', struggling with the unwieldy and unsafe Dywa-001 season-long.
1978 Formula One Season
Undeterred by a chronic lack of results, Dywa continued to compete in 1978, missing the flyaway races opening and closing the season, but entering all European rounds of the championship. Renzo Zorzi and Arsenio Matarazzo never managed to pre-qualify for a World Championship Grand Prix. However, the Dywa made a race appearance at the non-championship Trofeo Dino Ferrari at Imola. The two cars trundled around at the back of the field, ten seconds off the pace, and while Zorzi finished five laps down, Matarazzo was not classified. In parallel to its Formula One effort, Dywa partnered with Renzo Engineering to create the single-make Dywa Grand Prix series, which quickly became notorious for poor driving standards, dangerous tracks and dismal build quality of its cars. Nonetheless it proved popular with young and amateur drivers all across Europe. As an affordable entry-level series, several of its drivers went on to compete in Formula One.
1979 Formula One Season
1979 brought the introduction of a new ground-effect chassis and a revised engine by Renzo Engineering. Lead driver Zorzi left for the rival Merzario team and was replaced by Beppe Gabbiani for the opening rounds of the European season. Any hopes of increased competitiveness were quickly scuppered at the Spanish Grand Prix, Matarazzo and Gabbiani being the usual ten seconds off the pace. The team's fortunes didn't improve at Zolder, where they were even further away from the rest of the field.
At the non-championship BRDC International Trophy, Monguzzi exchanged the two regular drivers for Ottavia Cacciatori and Lena Troscchi. Trosschi had been seriously injured in a Dywa GP event the previous year. Cacciatori was able to extract the maximum performance from the car, which meant that she was twelve seconds slower than pace-setter Jody Scheckter, while Trosschi, not fully recovered from her accident, was twenty seconds off the pace. Both cars miraculously saw the chequered flag, but neither driver was classified, as they finished seven and nine laps down, respectively, in a forty-lap race. As Gabbiani had left the team after Zolder, Troscchi was supposed to replace him at Monaco, but was forced to withdraw. Reports disagree whether health reasons or her lack of pace forced her out, or if it were in truth her communist convictions that were the reason for her withdrawal. Cacciatori, already present at Monaco to compete in the Procar race, took her place in the Dywa instead. Matarazzo and Cacciatori raced for the team at the Race of Champions, neither finished. At the San Marino Grand Prix, the team were denied access to the paddock, the official reason given was that they had failed to pay their entry fees. Matarazzo left the team for Merzario.
Dywa withdrew from the French Grand Prix without explanations, but to the dismay of many in the paddock returned for the British Grand Prix with an all-new lineup of Enrico Uncini and Guido Daccò. Uncini and Daccò failed to pre-qualify for all three rounds they contested, but Dywa unsuccessfully raced in the Tony Brise Memorial Trophy and the Gunnar Nilsson Memorial Trophy, where Daccò was replaced by local Kaal Wigin. At the German Grand Prix, a spares shortage brought Dywa's performance to an all-time low, as Uncini could only set a lap 36 seconds down and Daccò couldn't complete one at all. The team struggled on to Austria, but once again the cars were over thirty seconds slower than their competitors. Dissatisfied with their drivers' poor pace, Dywa let go of Uncini and Daccò, and turned to two familiar, desperate faces.
Renzo Zorzi, having lost his place at Merzario, was desperate enough to return to Dywa for the Dutch Grand Prix, as was his compatriot Ottavia Cacciatori. Inspired by the success of Renault with their turbocharged engine, Renzo had attempted to replicate the concept, and the contraption was hastily installed in the two Dywa cars. Amazingly, it worked. Zorzi got within five seconds of pace-setter René Arnoux in the Boro, outperforming not only his teammate Cacciatori, but also the privately entered Martini cars of Dywa GP veterans Timo Fuchs and Peter Krieg, and even the Spartec of Freddy Kottulinsky.