Ted Toleman, 1938-2024

[dinizintheoven]

Ted Toleman, original founder of the team now floundering at the back of the field as Alpine, has had the misfortune to die - and on the same day as O.J. Simpson, so we all know who the Mainstream Media will focus all their attention towards. Let me correct their error.

At the end of Ted Toleman's life, it seems fitting that the team he founded has gone back to the very rear of the field, as that's where they found themselves in 1981 as Derek Warwick and Brian Henton dragged the hewn-from-a-breeze-block TG181 to one finish, one retirement, and 22 failures to qualify. Nicknamed the "General Belgrano" as it carried on lumbering around to little effect in 1982, Toleman rejectfully jumped the gun two races before the end of the season and released the TG183. Although this was a better car, and scored enough points to spare the team a profile on t'old site by the end of the 1983 season, it was (a) repellently ugly, in stark contrast to some of the other no-more-ground-effect 1983 designs, and (b) gave Eyeayrton Senna his one and only taste of life on the sidelines on race day. Future Life driver Bruno Giacomelli scored a point with it, though.

And then... the rather less gopping TG184 took His Soon-To-Be-Holiness to second place at That Monaco Grand Prix He Should Have Won Except That French Alain Prost Colluded With Equally French Jean-Marie "Adolf" Balestre And Got The Race Stopped So That He Could Win And If It Had Gone All The Way Prost Should Have Won And Would Have Won The World Championship Instead Of Niki Lauda But ACKSHYUALLY Stefan Bellof Would Have Beaten Both Senna And Prost But He Was Disqualified From The Whole Season And... anyway, the TG184 was also good for two more third places in Senna's hands, to the surprise of absolutely nobody by this time. And as he left to keep the corpse of Lotus warm for three seasons, Toleman had to pull out of the early races of 1985 because they didn't have any tyres, only fielded one car for half the season suspiciously decorated with sponsorship from "United Colours Of Benetton", and never scored any points all year, even if Teo Fabi (and not his brother this time) managed to drag it to pole position once. In the other car was reject legend Piercarlo "it's better to be in F1 in a backmarker car than not in F1 at all" Ghinzani, having a busman's holiday from Osella in a faster car than usual but even less likely to get on the scoresheet.

The the sponsors took over the team, and that, as they say, was that. Look at those wheels, though, and the BMW turbo engine, and what do you know, Gerhard Berger's just taken his first win, and the team's, Nelson Piquet had an Indian summer when everyone thought he was well past it, and some bloke called Michael Schumacher might bring even more glory at some stage soon... but none of it was under the Toleman name.

And now, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly are sitting in the car that's five rename-tokens further down the line from Toleman, thinking "sacre bleu, un pizza delivery moped would be faster than this... boîte de stinkyweed." Derek Warwick and Brian Henton were unavailable for comment, and Bruno Giacomelli reminded them all what he'd tried to coax into Life in 1990.

"Motorsport.com or it didn't happen":
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/obit ... /10597460/

[dr-baker]

Rest in peace.

[Har1MAS1415]

Rest in Peace Ted Toleman.

[Nessafox]

You must be joking right? The 1983 car was one of the coolest looking cars of all time! Well maybe not pretty, but defenitely cool!

But rest in peace, Ted.

[dinizintheoven]

You must be joking right? The 1983 car was one of the coolest looking cars of all time! Well maybe not pretty, but defenitely cool!

That thing with not one, but two of those tea-tray rear wings and the 1970-esque radiator in the nose? Yes, that one. I'm going to stop thinking of it now, because I'm about to have dinner and don't want it to bounce.

[dr-baker]

You must be joking right? The 1983 car was one of the coolest looking cars of all time! Well maybe not pretty, but defenitely cool!

That thing with not one, but two of those tea-tray rear wings and the 1970-esque radiator in the nose? Yes, that one. I'm going to stop thinking of it now, because I'm about to have dinner and don't want it to bounce.

The double rear wing I like, the front wing not so much.

[Har1MAS1415]

You must be joking right? The 1983 car was one of the coolest looking cars of all time! Well maybe not pretty, but defenitely cool!

That thing with not one, but two of those tea-tray rear wings and the 1970-esque radiator in the nose? Yes, that one. I'm going to stop thinking of it now, because I'm about to have dinner and don't want it to bounce.

The double rear wing I like, the front wing not so much.

Seen the TG183B for myself. Looks like the mouth of a vacuum cleaner.

[Nessafox]

I didn't say it's pretty. I said it looks super cool. It's an awesome thing that could easily work in a mecha anime series of the eighties.

[Har1MAS1415]

I didn't say it's pretty. I said it looks super cool. It's an awesome thing that could easily work in a mecha anime series of the eighties.

It's a cool design, that's for sure.