AGS?

[Kuwashima]

OK - We'll start the ball rolling on the suggestion of AGS from the latest podcast. AGS stands for Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives, and had such luminaries as Tarquini, Dalmas, Fabre, Moreno, Capelli, Barbazza drive for them in F1 from 86 to 91.

So... any memories of AGS? Any tidbits we should include in a profile? Any details of their life before F1?

[Debaser]

Well I'm reading the team report for AGS in the 1990 Grand Prix Annual (which my Dad bought for me a few years ago in a charity shop) and the info is they were sponsored by fashion house Ted Lapidus,the fashion house then didn't pay up when they nearly went bust,but when Lapidus was taken over they got their money.Michel Costa designed the car in 1990 (Reject designer who also worked at Ligier and Coloni) and in the 1990 Spanish GP both cars (driven by Gabriele Tarquini and Yannick Dalmas-both rejects) qualified.There's more info which is probably accessible elsewhere and too long to write here,but the annual's last quote about AGS in 1990 is "This was the year AGS left behind its small image and grew up into one of the bigger teams.Further progress will always be difficult but the right steps have been made".

[SuperAguri]

AGS still exist, although now as a F1 driving school, where you could drive the JH24 which in 1988 and 1989 racked up a lot of DNPQs, as well as Alesi's Prost AP02, Rosa's Arrows A20 and Alesi's Jordan EJ11.

I am sure you could email them and get some more information on their wonderful team.

http://www.agsformule1.com/en/drive-a-formula-1.php

Although I love the following...

In 1986, after winning several F2 titles, AGS joined F1 and became ‘AGS FORMULE 1’.
During the next 6 years, many famous drivers sat behind the wheel of AGS single-seaters in the F1 World Championships and repeatedly scored points in the ‘Drivers’ and ‘Constructors’ classifications: PIRONI, CAPELLI, FABRE, MORENO, STREIFF, TARQUINI, WINKELOCK, DALMAS...

If repeatedly can be two single points over 18 months apart.... (scored by Tarquini and the man with less hair then Perry McCarthy, Moreno....)

[rffp]

I remember they lined up in the 1987 season with a modified 1983 Renault, which was hopelessly slow, though reliable, they were always the slowest car aided by the fact that it was driven by the reject Pascal Fabre. In the end, they ditched Fabre and picked the legendary Roberto Moreno, who in the Australian Grand Prix was able to finish ahead of a Zakspeed (!!) and score a point!

In 1988, the car driven by Philippe Streiff showed potential but lost all the reliability and missed scoring opportunities in Canada and the US. In 1989, another legend drove for them, Gabriele Tarquini, and he scored the other point in AGS history, finishing 6th in Mexico. But after the good participation in the US GP, they plunged into mediocrity and were trapped in the pre-qualifying where the Pirelli teams dominated. Yannick Dalmas missed the German GP pre-qualifying cut by 0.001s.

In the 1991 season, they would surface out of pre-qualifying by having a 9th place finish (!!!) in 1990. But by the end of the year they folded! Too bad!

[Barbazza]

As you can tell by my alias, I was a big fan!

I think Tarquini performed miracles in the various different cars he raced in for the team, and kudos to Pascal Fabre for being on top once....in the 1987 Austrian GP pileup where as he was naturally at the back and therefore arriving quite late, he managed to drive right on top of Ghinzani's Ligier. I remember the TV footage of him getting out and looking completely bemused.

[Revelo]

With all due respects to the people who run F1Rejects when I first logged onto the site a couple of years ago I was surprised to see the reject teams lacked an AGS article. But I realize they are busy and other things need to come first.

Looking back i wonder why they did not merge with Coloni. Match made in heaven in some respects.

[eytl]

Yes, there are in fact lots of glaring omissions from the team and driver profiles. As the site author, I'm afraid that there's just not enough time to properly research and write more than a few profiles each year (if that) any more. But AGS is definitely one of those heroic little teams especially from the late '80s and early '90s that inspired this site. Tarquini's giant-killing performances in the first third of 1989 were nothing short of astounding. At Monaco he qualified the JH23 13th and ran 5th for a while ... you just don't see that kind of variety in F1 these days.

[Captain Hammer]

I remember a re-named AGS appeared in the original Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix. I won so many races with the car, largely because they were all identical save for liveries, and also because seventeen was, an still is, my lucky number.

[runningboots]

AGS still exist, although now as a F1 driving school

I remember reading an article in Autosport c.1989/1990 when AGS built their own test track I think it was called the Circuit du Lac or something like that. It talked about the town of Gonaforon and the AGS founder Henri Julien like they were going to emulate Modena and Enzo Ferarri



The best bit of the 1987(3) AGS(Renault) was the shiny wheels IMO. I also agree that seeing Moreno finish 6th in Adelaide was one of F1's momentous moments and was purely down to skill and performance and not luck and attrition

PS Hello all

[midgrid]

It would have been interesting to see a rehabilitated Didier Pironi drive for AGS in 1987. Sadly he made the fateful decision to concentrate on powerboat racing.

[runningboots]

It would have been interesting to see a rehabilitated Didier Pironi drive for AGS in 1987. Sadly he made the fateful decision to concentrate on powerboat racing.

Hmmm, not sure whether that would have ever happened. if it had, Nigel roebuck in Autosport would have been a tough critic as he was a big G.Villeneuve fan.

[WeirdKerr]

AGS also raced a couple of races in '86 using Motori Moderni engines in Italy and Portugal starting 25th both times with Ivan Capelli driving retired in italy on lap 31 with a puncture and lap 6 in portugal with transmission failure.....

[bduddy]

I remember a re-named AGS appeared in the original Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix. I won so many races with the car, largely because they were all identical save for liveries, and also because seventeen was, an still is, my lucky number.

On the same topic, the default car you drive in that game is a Fondmetal driven by "Andre Lux" (Oliver Grouillard), probably because they were a single-car team and the game didn't want a teammate clogging up your pitbox. In that game, at least, it's as good as any Williams or McLaren...

[minrdi]

AGS also raced a couple of races in '86 using Motori Moderni engines in Italy and Portugal starting 25th both times with Ivan Capelli driving retired in italy on lap 31 with a puncture and lap 6 in portugal with transmission failure.....

I believe those two races were historic in that the starting grid was expanded both times to 27 drivers, instead of the maximum 26. I think I read that on Allen Berg's F1 Rejects bio, if I'm not mistaken?

[Bleu]

Renault entered three cars in Portuguese GP 1984 (Philippe Streiff) and German GP 1985 (Francois Hesnault) and in those races the grid was expanded, I think they didn't want any regular driver to miss the race because of additional entry.

[Barbazza]

Those instances were both to test in-car cameras IIRC, so I guess it was felt that it was in the sport's interest to expand the entry. I remember both of them lasted about a dozen laps and provided not much in the way of footage.

One of them, Streiff's presumably, had a camera that looked enormous which can't have helped much!

Francois Hesnault...jeez, he was bad. I can't remember if he has an entry on the site, if not then he should have!!

[thehemogoblin]

Those instances were both to test in-car cameras IIRC, so I guess it was felt that it was in the sport's interest to expand the entry. I remember both of them lasted about a dozen laps and provided not much in the way of footage.

One of them, Streiff's presumably, had a camera that looked enormous which can't have helped much!

Francois Hesnault...jeez, he was bad. I can't remember if he has an entry on the site, if not then he should have!!

He definitely does have one. It's better than his F1 career.

[Svenko Wankerov]

I distinctly remember reading this on the website:

"Like Ferrari in terms of having a test track. Unlike Ferrari in terms of results."

I have been waiting for that profile ever since.

[Faustus]

I remember that in, I think, 1989, AGS run a 1988 car in some tests, modifed to run the MGN W12 engine. The Norma attempted to qualify for Le Mans (1990? 1991?) with the engine.

The last AGS was a really nice looking car. It was first seen in Monza 1991 and I remember seeing it run (unsuccessfully) in Estoril '91. Very clearly Williams-inspired, including the engine intake and cover. Some very nice detailing there, as well. The 1990 car was also Williams-inspired, as it was the only other car besides Williams to have an oval horizontal air intake.

AGS was bought by Cyril de Rouvre in 1990 and the livery changed to a black and silver job. Cyril de Rouvre later bought the Ligier team from Guy Ligier and later sold it to Flavio Briatore and Tom Walkinshaw.