Tecno (motorsport)

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Tecno
Full name Tecno Racing Team
Base Bologna, Italy
Founder(s) Luciano Pederzani
Gianfranco Pederzani
Noted staff Gordon Fowell, Alan McCall, David Yorke
Noted drivers Italy Nanni Galli
United Kingdom Derek Bell
New Zealand Chris Amon
Formula One World Championship career
First entry 1972 Belgian Grand Prix
Races entered 10
Constructors'
Championships
0 (best finish: 11th, 1973)
Drivers'
Championships
0
Race victories 0 (best finish: 6th, 1973 Belgian Grand Prix)
Pole positions 0 (best grid position: 12th, 1973 Monaco Grand Prix)
Fastest laps 0
Final entry 1973 Austrian Grand Prix

Tecno was an Italian kart and racing car constructor. It started out as a conventional engineering business manufacturing hydraulic pumps. The company eventually became a Formula One constructor and participated in 10 grands prix, entering a total of 11 cars, and scoring one championship point.

History

In 1961 Tecno started their motor sport business as a constructor of karts in Bologna, run by the Pederzani brothers. By the mid-sixties the company had moved on up into car racing with Formula 3 (winning several championships in 1968) and Formula 2 chassis, the F2 being good enough to take the 1970 F2 championship in the hands of Clay Regazzoni.

Tecno was the first company to build an offset ('sidewinder') kart chassis to take advantage of the newly developed air-cooled rotary motors produced by Parilla. Tecno's first chassis was named the Kaimano (a play on the Italian word for the Camen crocodile and the source of the logo). The Kaimano's design was based on the American rear-engine karts of the early 1960s. The second chassis, the Piuma ('Feather'), revolutionized karting design,and was so successful that it won the World Championships in 1964,1965 & 1966.

Tecno was highly successful in junior formulae, and an interested sponsor in the shape of Count Rossi (of Martini & Rossi fame) was prepared to back the brothers in an attempt to build an F1 car and engine.

This made its first competitive appearance at the 1972 Belgian Grand Prix in the hands of Nanni Galli. The car was unremarkable, the engine a flat-12 very similar to the contemporary Ferrari unit, although apparently considerably less powerful. During that season, Galli shared the car with Derek Bell; neither managed to score points. Both chassis and engine were prone to breaking. Ron Tauranac, freelancing after selling Brabham, made some improvements to the car but performance did not improve significantly.

For 1973 Tecno found itself in the strange position of having two radically different cars, one of them backed by the team's sponsors and the other by the Pederzani brothers. Count Rossi had taken on experienced British racing manager David Yorke and driver Chris Amon (who had been unable to agree terms with March Engineering for the season). Yorke and Rossi commissioned a new chassis from designer Gordon Fowell, while the Pederzanis hired Alan McCall to design a new car for them. McCall left before the car was fully developed, just to add to the chaos. Tecno missed the early-season races and used the McCall car to little effect from Belgium on, and by the British Grand Prix both the Fowell "GorAl" car and the McCall car were available.

Having two different, underfunded and underdeveloped cars competing for scarce resources is hardly a recipe for success, and by mid-season there was a virtual civil war between the Pederzanis and Yorke and Rossi. Amon achieved the team's only point in the McCall car in Belgium. (He had severe difficulty even fitting into the cockpit of the GorAl car, which only ever appeared in practice - although Amon claimed that it had the potential to be one of the best chassis that he had ever raced.)

By the Austrian GP, he was disgusted with the whole mess and left the team, which subsequently folded - the Martini & Rossi money would go to Brabham in 1974, the Pederzani brothers retired from competition, and Amon finished the season guesting at Tyrrell.

In another manifestation of the poor luck and judgment for which Amon was legendary, he returned as a constructor in his own right in 1974. His designer once more, was Gordon Fowell.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

Year Chassis Engine(s) Tyres Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Points WCC
1972 Tecno PA123 Tecno Series-P
F12
F ARG RSA ESP MON BEL FRA GBR GER AUT ITA CAN USA 0 NC
United Kingdom Derek Bell DNQ Ret DNQ Ret
Italy Nanni Galli Ret Ret NC Ret
1973 Tecno PA123B
Tecno E731
Tecno Series-P
F12
F ARG BRA RSA ESP BEL MON SWE FRA GBR NED GER AUT ITA CAN USA 1 11th
New Zealand Chris Amon 6 Ret Ret Ret DNS