Died Ted Toleman, founder of the team that revealed Ayrton Senna

Died Ted Toleman, founder of the team that revealò Ayrton Senna

È Ted Toleman, founder of the British team that revealed Ayrton Senna’s talent to the world, has died at 86. Toleman Motorsport was born in 1977, thanks to Ted, as a rib of the’company founded in 1926 by his grandfather Edward and bearing their surname.

It began with Formula Ford, and then moved from the following year into Formula 2, a category it dominated in 1980 with its drivers: Brian Henton was European champion and Derek Warwick second, and even at Zolder four cars from the team finished in the top four places: in order with Huub Rothengatter, Henton, Siegfried Stohr and Warwick.

In 1981 then the jump to Formula 1 was decided, with a Hart-powered single-seater but the first two seasons were disastrous with Warwick, Henton in the first and Teo Fabi in the second. In 1983 Warwick collected two fourths, a fifth and a sixth place and Bruno Giacomelli a sixth.

But it was in 1984, the last year with Rory Byrne as designer, that there was the highlight of the stable: there came Ayrton Senna, who as a rookie showed all his talent in the very famous Monaco Grand Prix in which he came second behind Alain Prost with race interrupted by rain while he was catching him. The Brazilian was also third in Britain and Portugal, while Stefan Johansson was fourth at Monza.

Finally in 1985, with Piercarlo Ghinzani and Teo Fabi at the wheel, no points arrived, and the team at the end of the season was sold to the Benetton group, which also took over the name. Incredibly, the Alpine team that races in F1 today è the direct descendant of Toleman, which è was precisely Benetton from 1986 to 2001, Renault from 2002 to 2011, Lotus from 2012 to 2015, Renault again from 2016 to 2020 and finally Alpine from 2021.